Another incredible installment in Numero Group's Wayfaring Strangers series, Lonesome Heroes is the male singer-songwriter counterpart to the series' first installment, Ladies of The Canyon. But instead of one artist serving as the thematic touchstone (Joni Mitchell and John Fahey were the key influences of the first two installments), there are several influences present, but the artists are unified by a moody tone of loneliness and introspection. You can hear traces of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Tim Hardin and Tom Rapp in this collection of private press wonder (one artist, Kieran White, the only singer from the UK and a member of Steamhammer, actually sounds a lot like Sam Beam from Iron and Wine!), but the songs that span the late sixties to the early eighties are neither love songs or protest songs. Nor do they connect in any real way to a folk music scene or its traditions. These 17 artists, mostly from America, were rambling individuals who more often than not wrote music for recording more than for performing, penning quiet songs about time spent and lost, regrets and joys, and nature as the mystical reminder of this ever present balance of life. The home studio has a big presence in the recordings casting a warm tape aura around the songs and making subtle studio effects (reverb, multi-tracking, panning) add interesting details to the compositions. It's not all just an acoustic guitar and a voice (though some of it is), but aural flourishes of flutes, pianos, and female backing vocals can also be heard throughout. Perfect for Sunday Morning listening! As usual, Numero Group do a great job with the packaging with an added booklet featuring photos of the original private press lps and mini-bios of all the artists here. Astonishing!
We've long been fans of '60s acoustic folk / raga / Appalachian / exotic / new age guitar hero Robbie Basho, a contemporary of Leo Kottke and John Fahey, a sonic compatriot of Peter Walker and Sandy Bull. His incredible playing, and his unique vocalizing, definitely made him stand out. This collection offers up some mostly reverent homages to the master, from his pupils, a handful of modern day freak folkers, who are obviously heavily influenced by Basho's legacy, none more than Steffen Basho-Junghans, as well as Glenn Jones, Meg Baird, Arborea, Helena Espvall, Fern Knight, and a few new to us names: Cian Nugent, Rahim Alhaj....
Basho-Jughans begins and ends the record with gorgeous steel string workouts, both originals inspired by specific Basho tracks, Espvall creates a gorgeous brooding murky dronescape, Meg Baird does a fairly straight cover of Basho's "Moving Up A Ways", her voice angelic, and guitar playing lush and intricate, Glenn Jones creates a shimmering waterfall of glistening melodies, Arborea also cover classic Basho, transforming it into some witchy dream folk, Fern Knight add some effects, their version of "Song For The Queen" being a string laced woozy washed out drift through a field of soft focus haze, and Nugent and Alhaj do their own variations of Basho's unique take on Appalachia.
It's a comp, but like the best comps it plays like a proper album, dark and mysterious and so so lovely, and a worthy offering to the spirit of Robbie Basho. Very cool.
Compilations of long-lost '60s and '70s psych/pop/rock gems dug up from the far corners of the world by dedicated crate-digging record collectors are always considered a good thing here at AQ. We can just point to the Hava Narghile, Cambodian Rocks, Love Peace & Poetry and Thai Beat comps for some easy examples. But while we've been stoked on all sorts of stuff from Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, and elsewhere, there's always room for more, and for new unexplored territories to freak out about. For instance, what about Welsh psych/prog/folk??? Aha, that's what Welsh Rare Beat is devoted to, as you've already surmised. The 25 tracks here, all of 'em pretty fantastic, were selected from the vaults of the home-grown Welsh indie record label Sain, which could easily be (as this comp argues) the coolest record label you've never heard of before. As the liner notes put it: "You like prog-rock with blueprint trip-hop beats? So did Sain. You like ethereal girl groups with mystical acid folk overtones? So did Sain. You like psychedelic rock operas based on druidism and witchcraft? So did Sain..." And they're not kidding. Psyche-Celtic hoe-downs, dreamy folk singing, Cymru pride protest rock, and incredible grooves abound. These songs are all sung in Welsh (a pleasing tongue we trust you'll find), and due to the language barrier (and doubtless related cultural/political issues) these artists are pretty much unknown outside their own land, despite being just as good as a lot of better known folks from elsewhere in the UK. Really, looking at the names here, we'd only ever heard of Meic Stevens before. Never Bran, Heather Jones, Endaf Emlyn, Y Tebot Piws, or Yr Atgyfodiad, let alone Y Dyniadon Ynfyd Hirfelyn Tesog! But that's what's so great about discs like this, getting turned on to the denizens of a whole new realm of record-collector fantasy. The cd booklet helps mightily in that department, featuring a great deal of text -- there's very detailed track-by-track info plus a lengthy essay that treats this music scene in a political/historical context. VERY thorough indeed. And it even includes an annotated map of Wales. This really well put-together labor of love was compiled by Andy Votel (so recently responsible for the fab Vertigo Mixed comp), Dom Thomas, and Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals who of course hail from Wales, and is released on the same label, Finders Keepers, that also brought us those equally obscure and awesome Jean Claude Vannier and Yamasuki discs.
Back in stock, and just in time!
Seems like most Christmas records are, justifiably, albums you want to run screaming from. Very few have weighed anchor at our port, Low's Christmas album being a notable exception, and I think we're probably one of the only stores that doesn't drag out the hideous Christmas/Holiday section every year. So it was interesting to see this new collection come in from the same label that brought us the wonderful (and gorgeous) Goodbye, Babylon box set. You'd think they've got a theme going here -- though the collection's producer Dick Spottswood states in the accompanying booklet: "in the spirit of fairness, we've tried to designate equal time for sacred and secular, for Christ and Santa Claus, and for respectable and rowdy". It don't matter though really. We're convinced these Dust To Digital fellas could come up with any theme and put out a kick ass collection, as this is just that -- x-mas or no x-mas. Some of the greats we all know and love are here: banjo player / singer Buell Kazee, Lead Belly, Lightnin' Hopkins, Maddox Bros. & Rose, and Bessie Smith. Along with all the great blues, country, gospel, and early jazz tracks you can expect, DTD has expanded their library beyond American roots music and have included some great tracks from Puerto Rico (a great guitar trio), Trinidad (a couple calypsos from Lord Executor and Lord Beginner), Italy (a bizarre instrumental belted out on a pair of strange bagpipe like instruments, the zampogna and the ciaramella), and The Ukraine (a hauntingly sultry violin, cymbaly, bass and sleigh bell tune). One of the highlights though, is a tune by the ever wonderful Alabama Sacred Harp Singers that'll stand your hair on end. I don't think there's another religious choir that sounds more possessed. Singing, nay practically yelling, in a sort of round fashion, this tune will have you shouting "Fuck Yeah!" The disc comes packaged in a fold out wallet and comes with a "Christmas In Jail" postcard (that you can actually use) and a cute little booklet.
The original Wicker Man movie has got to be one of our all time favorite films as well as pretty much one of our all time favorite soundtracks. The movie falls into an elusive subgenre of psych-folk films like The Ballad of Tam-Lin, or Herzog's Heart of Glass, that mix pre-Christian folkloric musical elements and themes with a modern or counter-cultural revivalism often with darkly beautiful and sometimes terrifying results. There is no doubt that the Wicker Man as both a film and soundtrack was a key touchstone in the recent freak-folk movement. That the songs featured on that soundtrack with all their barely concealed bawdyness and lyrical waxing of the cycles of nature, sexuality and death were actually based on traditional British folk music is at this point no surprise either. Finder's Keepers does a lovely job here collecting much of the traditional material that formed the basis for the songs performed in the Wicker Man movie. Although the most remembered song from that movie, "Willow's Song" was not traditionally based, it's the song that let us into the perverse mysticism of the movie's characters and made us pay attention to the duplicitous meanings found in the traditional material. Here, that song is represented by a beautiful instrumental version taken from the original soundtrack recordings but not featured on the actual soundtrack release. The cd also features traditional versions of "Corn Rigs", based on a Robert Burns poem, "Gently, Johnny", the Maypole song "Rattlin' Bog", and "Highland Lament", as well as children's songs and instrumental jigs.
When seeing this record, most people will assume it's a killer new comp from Mississippi. In fact, it is a killer new comp, only from the Sutro Park label, which gave us those amazing Sandy Bull lp reissues a while back. Wolf's At The Door features 12 field recordings from the late '60s and early '70s, when a 19 year old Swede named Bengt Olsson decided to travel through the depths of the American South in search of the authentic sounds presented here. All of the artists on this record are unknown to us, and as the liner notes point out, Olsson's odyssey was marked by his introduction to many of Memphis' older, more obscure bluesmen, and many of the performers' stories remain unknown. As far as we can tell these recordings were unreleased before this, and the material offers a stark, powerful glimpse into the lives of these performers. The edges are rough and raw, but the fidelity is surprisingly clear. The songs here are even more interesting when you take into account the time in which they were recorded, as they seem completely oblivious to the innovations that had been rapidly shaping the music industry for better and/or worse. What you have here are some real sounds representative of a culture that managed to avoid all that, and the results are quite powerful. Recommended stuff which will no doubt appeal to fans of labels like the aforementioned Mississippi, Monk, and the like.
This is a nice one. The Locust label has gathered together a quartet of today's notable, underground guitar experimentalists, all of whom are quite fond of the classic Takoma label solo guitar sound -- the "deltadelica" (their word) explored thirty years or more ago by guys like John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke. Paying tribute to that Eastern-tinged, American-folky tradition, there's Virginia's Jack Rose, whom you might know from drone-psych outfit Pelt and Appalachian folk twangers the Black Twig Pickers; obvious choice Steffen Basho-Junghans of Germany; Japanese "onkyo" guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama; and Sun City Girl Rick Bishop, excuse me, Sir Richard Bishop. During the 70 minutes of "Wooden Guitar" each one of 'em provides a lengthy, hypnotic acoustic guitar performance, totally unaccompanied. Actually Basho-Junghans appears twice, everyone else just once. Let's take a look-see... Rose's "Red Horse II" is a sad and lovely 14+ minutes of vaguely raga-like 12 string strumming n' picking, densely textured yet light and exactingly pretty. That's followed by the first of Mr. Basho-Junghan's two contributions to this compilation, which continues in much the same vein as Rose's -- it's even called "A North Thuringian Raga". The Berliner is a virtuoso and this is a fantastic, meditative track indeed. Next up, Tetuzi Akiyama's piece is a lot sparser and more "abstract" sounding than what's come before, less in the Takoma style (yet still in its spirit, and latter-day Fahey would certainly approve). Appropriately, it's called "Time Between" and is the longest cut on here, at over twenty minutes. It slowly, stumblingly, somberly unfolds. Haunting, raw, and quite beautiful, it's a masterful centerpiece to this collection. Basho-Junghans checks in again with a shorter piece, the five-minute "Smiling Penguins". Repetitive and bright, it sounds like some sort of thumb-piano minimalism. Then, we're into the home stretch with the final piece on "Wooden Guitar" -- Sir Richard Bishop's quarter-hour "Corpuscle" which encompasses dusty spagetti western Morricone, acoustic Jimmy Page, and flamenco flourishes. It's a grand finale for this disc for sure, and this disc itself is grand. Essential to anyone into sheer impassioned, inventive, gosh-darn gorgeous solo acoustic guitar playin'. And it's packaged with an eye to the old Takoma LPs -- this cd comes in a embossed, silkscreened cardboard sleeve, very nicely done.
Another fantastic collection of old timey music from local label Tompkins Square, this one chronicling the life cycle of rural America, in the twenties and thirties, split up over three disc, the first, songs of labor, "John Henry, The Steel Drivin' Man", "The Farmer Is The Man Who Feeds Them All", "When The Roses Bloom Again For The Bootlegger", the second songs of leisure, "Work Don't Bother Me", "The Beer Party", "Corn Shucking Party In Georgia", "Home Brew Rag", an finally, the ultimate reckoning in the form of songs of prayer and worship, "Climbing The Golden Stairs", "I'm S-A-V-E-D", "The Gambler's Dying Words", "When The Moon Drips Away Into The Blood" (!).
Almost as fantastic as the music is the provenance of the records themselves, most of which belonged to a single hillbilly 78 collector named Don Whale, from Louisville Kentucky, who died leaving a hoarder's haul worth of trash and junk and receipts and everything else you'd expect to find, but in addition to the usual detritus of life, was an INCREDIBLE collection of rare 78's most of which had been tossed in the dumpster, and were rescued mere hours before being hauled away to the dump and destroyed!
Most of the tracks here are previously un-reissued, and while a few of the names will be familiar to old timey / blues / bluegrass aficionados, many won't, and the songs themselves are gorgeous, the aforementioned "When The Moon Drips Away Into The Blood", is a surprising jaunty jam, considering the title, while the two part "Flat Wheel Train Blues", is beautifully melodic, with some fantastically melancholic fiddle, intricate finger picking, sans the sung/spoken vocals, it's a stunning slab of dreamy Appalachia, the song replete with simulated trains sounds which only make it that much more evocative. "The Beer Party" begins with a playful conversation/intro before the song launches into a stomping fiddle driven hoedown, "The Preacher Got Drunk And Laid Down His Bible" almost sounds like proto Mountain Goats, urgently strummed guitar, and keening rapid fire vox, and "Beyond The Starry Plane" is a wistful lament, wreathed in tons of hiss and crackle, which only makes it seem that much more ethereal and ephemeral. We could probably go though the whole collection song by song, but you get the drift, all of this stuff is amazing, and as with all Tompkins Square releases, beautifully packaged, here each of the three discs is housed in its own full color sleeve, there's a huge perfect bound booklet, with liner notes and essays, rare photos and more, all housed in a nice heavy box, with full color paste on artwork.
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Okay Mississippi Records obsessives, get ready to blow your tops. Besides the amazing Been Here All My Days comp reviewed on the last list (grab one if you haven't yet, it's fantastic!), there are five, count 'em FIVE other new Mississippi titles this time around: I'll Meet You On That Other Shore, I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, I'll Be So Glad When The Sun Goes Down, Worried Now, Won't Be Worried Long and Wave The Ocean, Wave The Sea, all culled from a legendary set of Alan Lomax field recordings, collected during his "Southern Journey, a trip he took through the American South, between the years 1959 and 1960, accompanied by British folk singer Shirley Collins, during which he made the first ever stereo recordings of American Traditional music in the field, capturing in stereo for the first time, music from Southern prison farms, the traditional gospel choral folksong of the Sacred Harp, the Southern Fife And Drum Corps, the debut recordings of blues legend Fred McDowell, not to mention an incredibly varied selection of musics from blues to bluegrass to country to gospel, captured on porches, at dairy farms, in churches, at picnics, state fairs, in prisons, in living rooms and in bars, many of the musicians, many of the folks Lomax had recorded before, and was visiting again, years later, while many were new discoveries.
According to the extensive liner notes, Lomax upon returning to the US, after a decade long recording trip in Europe and the UK, was hailed as a hero, responsible for the revival of interest in American folk music, but was quite disappointed by all the young people playing the folk music and traditional American music he helped discover, record and expose to this new audience, an audience that seemed to believe not only were they preserving the music, but also in some strange way "improving" on the originals, which horrified Lomax and spurred him to make the trip that would be later known as his "Southern Journey", not only to capture stereo recordings of all this amazing, still thriving American music, but to also prove those young folks wrong.
The results speak for themselves, 5 lps of gorgeous, unique, heartfelt American music, instrumental and vocal, celebratory and sorrowful, ballads and bluegrass hoedowns, gospel spirituals and military marches, call and response prison songs and back porch blues, and so much more. This is classic, timeless music, sounds imbued with the sweat and blood, the lives and deaths, the loves and losses of the American people, past and present, moving and emotional, and totally fantastic...
As for which one of the five to buy, it's a tough call, they're all fantastic, and the music is varied on each, they're not divided by theme or style, instead, it's more like a sprawling 5 part compilation, each as good as the next, so yeah, obviously if you can, you should buy all 5, but if that's too much, heck, just pick one, maybe with a title that appeals to you, and dig in. Odds are you'll be back for more.
Packed in super heavy jackets, with printed liner notes on the back, each volume containing a big booklet, with photos and more notes on each of the different tracks and all of the various performers.
From the same label that released the three volumes (so far) of the wonderful "Love, Peace, & Poetry" international '60s psych compilation series, comes this new collection focusing on, uh, abnormal country music of the psychedelic era? Or as the label
Wow! Of all the various releases for today's 'Black Friday Record Store Day', this one might have been the one we were most excited about. A super swank, ultra deluxe, eleven 7" boxset from Lee Hazlewood, or more specifically, as it says on the box, from Lee Hazlewood Industries. Culled from the years 1967-1970, and from Hazlewood's LHI imprint, much like The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides release from earlier this year, which was released on Record Store Day proper. But unlike that collection, the tracks here are mostly Lee Hazlewood -productions- instead of performances, featuring Hazlewood produced tracks from Suzi Jane Hokom, Honey LTD., Kitchen Cinq, Ann-Margaret, The Woodchucks and of course Mr. Lee himself, solo on one single, and dueting with Suzi Jane Hokom! We haven't cracked one open yet, and will give this a more extensive review if we can get more of 'em post Black Friday. But figured we might as well list it today so folks who don't want to wait can grab one now.
The packaging is incredible, a custom made, full color, magnetic flip-top box, housing all eleven singles, each with original labels and sleeve art, an ultra rare reproduction of the Woodchucks 45 picture sleeve, a Lee Hazlewood puzzle (!), for, as the sticker on the box suggests, "those lonely nights", a custom LHI 45 adapter, and a download card for all the tracks. LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES!
Finally, a remastered vinyl reissue (in Mono no less) of this undersung sixties bummer-folk masterpiece becomes available for the first time since its initial 1968 release. Dino Valenti (note the spelling, more on that below) is one of the more storied figures of sixties counterculture and the folk-rock movement. An early innovator and influential songwriter (he wrote one of our favorite songs, "Something's On Your Mind", for Karen Dalton) whose ego and largesse kept him from capitalizing on his enormous talent. Born into a family of carnies and gypsies, Valenti was an early key figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene along with Dylan, playing the 12 string acoustic with machine-gun agility. He wrote "Get Together", the proto-typical sixties hippie anthem, but due to legal entanglements from drug busts never saw much fame or money from it until later in his life. A stint in Folsom prison prevented him from joining Quicksilver Messenger Service for their debut, instead joining them later in the early seventies, when they were much less heralded.
His 1968 solo album recorded for Epic Records remains the quintessential document of a talented songwriter who disliked the recording process, and tended to unnerve many a recording engineer. The story goes that a full record was recorded by Jack Nitzsche using many of The Wrecking Crew as session players, but Valenti didn't play well with others (his performances tended to veer wildly in tempo and mood making it difficult for musicians to follow along), so the record was scrapped and re-recorded. He cost the studio so much money and bad blood that they didn't bother to fix a misspelling of his last name on the record release, and failed to promote it, so it sank like a stone. No one basically heard it until the nineties when it was issued on cd.
Despite statements from friends that Valenti was best heard live in person, his solo album in retrospect is undeniably moving. His twelve string guitar and nasally voice, which may be an acquired taste for some, are beautifully sheathed in warm reverb. Some of the tracks like "Tomorrow" may have been salvaged from the Nitzsche sessions as they have full orchestral treatments, and there's even some studio experimentation with the spacious "Test", but largely it's just guitar and voice in long meandering ballads that showcase Valenti's world-weary outlook with incredible songwriting.
For fans of Jim Sullivan, Karen Dalton, Tim Hardin, Townes Van Zandt, Skip Spence, Dave Bixby, Fred Neil and MIJ. Highest Recommendation!
Another vinyl only release from the Tower Recordings' Matt Valentine and it's a doozy. Two massive sides of druggy, psychedelic drone folk clatter. Side A starts with a dreamy smear of reverbed banjo, very gorgeous and thick. Quickly gives way to an extended spaced out clattery free form jam, definitely informed by No Neck Blues Band and the like. Side B is a hazy, shimmery raga of sonic swirls and buzzing melodies, very reminiscent of Vibracathedral Orchestra or Sunroof!.
Pressed on gorgeous swirled green vinyl and of course limited.
From John Fahey to Jack Rose, we've reviewed loads of amazing modern Appalachia, from straight folk / bluegrass to buzzing droning acoustic ragas. But this just might be the perfect mix of the two, and thus may be the nicest chunk of acoustic / Appalachia / Raga / drone / avantfolk EVER. Really. Tower Recordings' Matt Valentine and Erika Elder give us nine tracks that slip smoothly back and forth between delicate, fingerpicked acoustic bluegrass and almost straight folk workouts, to snarling swirls of dense acoustic drones, with thick buzzing melodies, that wrap you in thick layers of shifting overtones and prickly hum. The vast (and unlikely) instrumentation: guitar, cumbus, oscillator, harmoniaca, big muff, carhorn, dogs, tamboura, kecapi, wood flute, Indian flute, pennywhistle, kazoo, percussion, sruti box, and siren help make the sound super dense and super rich and totally all enveloping. Limited, sorry.
We always knew that famed indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch had good taste in music, judging by the soundtracks to his movies, but we were only vaguely aware of his extracurricular musical activities. In fact it was with some surprise that we recently encountered him on record, as a guest guitarist in a cameo appearance on the latest 12" by avant-punks Fucked Up! Meanwhile, AQ fave experimental Renaissance lutist, Jozef Van Wissem (who, yes, is also the ONLY experimental lutist we know, though if there were others he'd probably still be our favorite, after his rocked out performance at a memorable aQ instore awhile back) has collaborated in the past with a variety of interesting personages - Gary Lucas, Smegma, James Blackshaw. And now, Jim Jarmusch! Who actually played on a track on Van Wissem's previous album, The Joy That Never Ends, one we stocked and listed on our website but somehow never managed to get around to reviewing, which we should have 'cause really everything we've heard by Van Wissem has been excellent and that one is no exception... Anyway, we'll try to make up for that lapse by reviewing this new one, his full-on duo disc with Jarmusch. And it's a beaut.
Slowly and steadily, Van Wissem plucks prettily at the strings of his instrument, while Jarmusch's electric guitar hovers gently in the background, an ambient wash. As the disc goes on, though, Jarmusch becomes more assertive, accompanying Van Wissem like a ghostly, twanging echo, until eventually the cyclical note patterns chiming from Van Wissem's lute are almost fully enveloped by Jarmusch's doleful dense guitar distortion, approaching Ulaan Khol or Urthona levels of softly droning bliss. His past association with Neil Young (Dead Man) definitely makes sense...
The disc as a whole, at all points in the Van Wissem/Jarmusch duet, is meandering, melancholic, mesmeric... The final track, "He Is Hanging By His Shiny Arms, His Heart An Open Wound With Love", is perhaps the loveliest, and happiest, all-acoustic, brought to a close with a brief spoken supplication from Jarmusch, reciting words by St. John of the Cross.
So, another Van Wissem winner - and we'd definitely be happy to hear more electric guitar emanations from Jarmusch, how 'bout a solo album?
By the way... is it possible that Jarmusch and Van Wissem got together because both men are members of a secret society called The Sons Of Lee Marvin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sons_of_Lee_Marvin)? Jarmusch is known to be a founding member, and Van Wissem looks like he might qualify...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We're pretty sure there's never been a singer or songwriter more able to capture the abject desolation of the human soul better than Townes Van Zandt. A true master of the sad sad song. The ultimate broken hearted country troubadour. No strings or huge arrangements needed, just his achingly beautiful voice, a fingerpicked guitar and a heart full of hurt. Just listen to "Waitin' Around To Die" and try to tell us there could possibly be a sadder song.
And his life most definitely plays out like one of his songs. A rambling journey full of loneliness and confusion, drugs and alcohol, always torn between his music and his family, his need to perform and his longing for home. A gorgeously shot portrait of a tortured soul, cobbled together from rare interviews and home movies, live performances and interviews with friends and families. It's certainly not a new story, musician loves his family, but also loves music and the road, is tortured by drug and drink, and dies way too early. But it seems to resonate so much more when the subject is Van Zandt. Could be because we love his music so much, could also be that his music seemed to be about death, almost a longing for that sweet release, but complicated by his love for his family and friends, and a desire, nay a physical need to make music. Some of the anecdotes are so brutal. Committed to a mental hospital and forced to undergo shock therapy, suffering a fall and trying to record, while in a wheelchair, only later finding out he actually had a broken hip the whole time. Performing while strung out, and bombing so badly that a friend had to come on stage and force him to stop. So sad. Especially when you hear his beautiful fragile music.
Amazingly shot, and so perfectly edited, moving and emotional, so much so that at least two folks here who watched it were brought to tears. Includes interviews with Willie Nelson (who partnered up with Merle Haggard and had a huge hit with Van Zandt's "Pancho And Lefty"), Emmylou Harris (who had a hit with it first!), Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth as well as heartbreaking interviews with his kids and all three of his wives.
Bonus features include rare performances from Townes Van Zandt, his son JT Van Zandt, Devendra Banhart, extra interview footage, commentary, the theatrical trailer and more.
Posthumous release of humble and down to earth folkster Townes Van Zandt recorded live at McCabe's, a musical instrument store in Santa Monica, in 1995. The performance is as intimate as the location would seem to dictate -- the small shop only held about a
Solo effort from Deanna Varagona of Lambchop. Country songs with bluesy vocal lines with throaty vocal growls - a lot like a No Depression version of Cat Power.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Meh. Didn't like so much. Lo-fi hillbilly rock, sort of a softer version of Henry Flynt and the Insurrections.
The whole field of neo folkies and folk foresters and modern Appalachians is getting more and more crowded every day. For every Rose and Blackshaw there are about a hundred other wandering troubadours with acoustic guitars, whipping up their own take on modern psychedelic Appalachian folk. And as much as we love that sound, and we do, it takes something super special to prick up our ears and get us all excited again.�
A few months back, a customer passed on a cd-r by some band called Voice Of The Seven Woods, aka guitarist�Rick Tomlinson, and we were floored. Echoes of the usual suspects sure, Rose, Blackshaw, Bishop, but there we something distinctly unique about Tomlinson's approach. The songs long and raga like, with as much space as there are notes, the melodies, dark and twisted, but warm and effulgent, usually nested on a warm bed of hum and whir. And this latest cassette only release is no different. A backdrop of muted whirs and slow swirling ambient rumble, layered and rich, almost pretty and trancelike enough to listen to on its own, but over the top are draped long loops of guitar, electric, steel string, melodies and melodic fragments, gorgeous melodies,�dark and drone-y, lyrical and druggy, super emotional and intense, not really even melancholy so much as mysterious and thoughtful, the various strands of notes and chords suspended in a landscape of low end shimmer. The guitars eventually drift off, replaced by simple hand drums, beating out a primitive tattoo, a mesmerizing primal rhythm, as hypnotic and simple as the drones beneath, until the guitars come back in again, and it becomes some gorgeous Comus-y summer folk jam, melodic strum and that strange off kilter beat beneath. So great. We've been trying like crazy to get more releases from VOTSW but they're all so limited that this is the first one we've gotten enough to list, and these will be gone crazy quick too so you know what that means...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Already SOLD OUT and OUT OF PRINT at the label. The tapes are all psychedelic and hand painted, with tripped out full color covers.�
Finally! A full length proper cd release from this UK troubadour. After going on a bit in our review of VOTSW's most recent cassette release (the only release we'd ever been able to get in sufficient number to list) we were pretty thrilled to have this cd show up last week, and we've been playing it non-stop ever since. There were a couple surprises in store for us though...
The first being that it was released on Finders Keepers / B-Music, a label more well known for its strange reissues of lost classics, and who in the past have brought us records from Selda, Mustafa Ozkent, Susan Christie as well as all time AQ faves like Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, the Welsh Rare Beat comp and of course Jean Claude Vannnier's L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches... It all makes a bit more sense when you realize VOTSW, aka Rick Tomlinson, had in the past recorded for Twisted Nerve in the UK, which happens to be part of the same family of labels. The other big surprise, is that where as past VOTSW releases have been mostly guitar, dark Appalachia, drawn out drone-y ragas, steel string guitar plucked and strummed, buzzing gorgeously over distant drones, falling sonically between Jack Rose and James Blackshaw, this disc is all over the map, expansive and epic. VOTSW is now expanded to a three piece, incorporating electric bass, violin, piano, drums, along with the usual guitar, sitar, oud, and it sounds like it. This is lush and produced, a gorgeous rich tapestry of sound.
The root is still that buzzing guitar, but here it's surrounded by all sorts of different sonic filigree. The first track begins much like past Voice Of The Seven Woods recordings, a steel string guitar, strummed and picked, a buzzing tangle of notes, a dreamy disembodied twang, but a few minutes in, the band joins in, propulsive percussion, a throbbing pulsing second guitar/bass, the whole thing sounding like some strange krautrock folk, perfectly seguing into the next number, an intense buzzing wild gypsy folk jam, brief but so exhilarating. Then there's the funky effected Bollywood psychrock buzz of "The Fire In My Head", totally freaked out and acid drenched, lots of buzz and strange affected melodies, and a definite sixties funk groove. A few songs later, the super blown out, backwards guitar drenched, acid rock psych jam of "Second Transition", then a song or two after that, a super muddy murky hippy jam, all loping distorted drums, distant strum and wailing crumbling blown speaker leads sprawling all over the place, and near the end of the record, the propulsive acoustic kraut rock soundtracky jam of "Return From Byzantium", gorgeously epic, the drums wild and relentless, the guitars buzzing and droning and locked together as if they could go on forever, all of these sonic excursions separated and peppered with long luxurious stretches of gorgeous languid Appalachian buzz and minor key finger picking, delicate folk flutter, and that oh so warm and familiar buzz and twang.
Not at all what we were expecting, but all the better for it! Definitely stuff that if it was on some vintage vinyl, would have the B-music DJs drooling. Essential listening for adventurous lovers of classic folk, sixties psych and obviously for all you far out freak folks...
Another fantastic batch of broody, moody instrumental guitarscapes from the man who used to swing his axe in Northwestern garage rock outfit Federation X, but who has since transformed into a bit of a wandering troubadour, a veritable one man band whose twisted take on guitar soli, sounds more like some impossible John Fahey / Ennio Morricone / Sir Richard Bishop / Joe Meek hybrid, slipping easily from haunting hushed strum, to groovy, smokey, jazziness, to twisted cinematic ambience, and it's not just guitar BVW wields, there are drums, and organs, bass, all woven into some super striking darkly psychedelic mood music. The A side sets the mood with a slow burn sprawl of twang flecked, post Appalachia mesmer, before disappearing into a black cloud of pulsing, almost John Carpenter-ish soundtracky malevolence, could be synths, could be processed guitars, either way, dark and creepy, and trippy and psychedelic, but then effortlessly, the sound slips right back into some skittery, almost bop-sounding jazziness, replete with crowd sounds, shuffling feet and a smattering of applause. From there on out, anything goes, a quick burst of super distorted angular crunch, some Waitsian / Ribot style spidery atonal guitarscapery, a bit of swoonsome tango, albeit wreathed in feedback, cool murky dream folk, lo-fi and laced with tape hiss and strange samples, some experimental ambience that sounds almost like Tim Hecker or Philip Jeck, all warbly and woozy and washed out. And that's just the A side.
The flipside is another dizzying sonic journey through BVW's twisted soundworld, opening with some darkly contemplative, drone swaddled, twang, before the drums come in, and we're suddenly in post rock territory, the sound like early Tortoise, a sort of jazzy slowcore. The side continues its meandering trajectory, some gristly, glitchy, distorted back porch blues, a bit of hushed folky shimmer, some FX drenched kosmiche folk, some almost straight up Appalachia, a short stretch of haunting, dusky piano laced balladry, and finally finishing off with some spare, abstract steel string wrangling. And if that wasn't cool enough, one of the aforementioned jams, is in fact a cover of the theme song from Cannibal Holocaust!
Cool packaging too, the tape housed in one of those plastic bags, sealed at the top with a paper label, the kind you see hanging from hooks in the drugstore! Probably limited, so don't dawdle... Includes a download code as well!
Ahhh, the lonely ballad of the singer songwriter. A lone troubadour, pouring out their heart and soul, naked and alone, with no band to hide behind, no crashing guitars and pounding drums to shield their delicate psyche.
There was a time when being called a singer songwriter was a badge of honor. But now, we might just as well turn tail and run. Sure the legacy of singer songwriters is a mighty one, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Gordon Lightfoot, Janis Ian, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Bruce Springsteen, but you'll notice a serious dearth of more -modern- musicians in that league. That's not because there aren't singer songwriters anymore, it's just that now, we typically equate singer songwriters with commercial radio, faceless pap, bad top 40, coffee houses, guys who couldn't start a band so decided to just 'do it themselves'. We're definitely generalizing, sure. There have definitely been some notable exceptions, Iron And Wine's Sam Beam, Damien Jurado, Edith Frost, Elliott Smith, Joel Phelps, Devendra Banhart, Cat Power's Chan Marshall, Simon Joyner, Fiona Apple, Jeff Mangum, Sufjan Stevens, Will Oldham, and now you can add Rocky Votoloto to the list. Now the funny thing is, as we mention again and again and again, if Votoloto had chosen to release this record under the name Waxwing (the name of his previous band) it probably wouldn't get lumped in with the singer songwriters at all, and might eeven get a bit more attention, even if it sounded exactly the same. That's why it's always better to make up a band name even if it's just you. We've said it before, we'll say it again. No matter how cool you think your name is, unless it's Van Halen or something like that, think again! Try this out: "I'm going to see John Smith". Or "I'm going to see Black Dungeon Firefly". Or "Strangle Flanger". Or whatever. You get the idea.
Anyway, before this review loses any more of its momentum, let's just say this is one of the most beautiful records we have heard in ages and mere months into the year has most definitely secured a spot on some of out 2006 top ten lists!
Votoloto has a gorgeously husky, whiskey soaked voice, and has an amazingly deft touch with melody and harmony. The first track is a dead ringer for Iron And Wine, delicate steel string guitar, hushed breathy vocals and sweet sweet harmonies, but the rest of the record is not nearly as restrained. Votolato's vocals are too rough and raw and powerful to be tiptoe-ing and shuffling sad boy style. No, the rest of the record sounds more like that Nirvana Unplugged record, Votolato's vocals the centerpoint, raw and ragged, but thick and warm and completely intense and emotional, more raspy and sandpapery like Cobain or Spoon's Britt Daniel or even Pete Searcy from Squirrel Bait. Not to say that he can't get all smooth, cuz there are plenty of dark and delicate tracks, where the vocals glide smoothly over sweet mournful melodies and hushed melancholy moments. But as with all "singer songwriters" (sigh) it's all about the songs, and this record is so chock full of amazing songs. Dark and dreary, warm and weary, folky and twangy, hushed and indie, a perfect mix of Iron And Wine, Ryan Adams, Elliott Smith, Uncle Tupelo, Spoon, and all that stuff we love. Acoustic guitars, harmonica, lapsteel, organ all woven into perfect chunks of dark and dreamy pop and twang.
One customer thought this was Jeff Tweedy, while another could have sworn it was Ryan Adams, but no, it's Rocky Votolato! He might be a bit lesser known, but in addition to the vocal resemblance we'd also venture to say that his songwriting chops are pretty on par with those two fellows' too.
Hell, as far as we can tell Rocky's not prone to sonic experimentation nor alternate identities, which makes him generally more even-keeled temperamentally and stylistically speaking than both of them.
As you may well know, we absolutely loved his last album Makers -- it was our record of the week back in January 2006 -- and we recently got in the reissue of his debut ep A Brief History. So we were primed and ready to hear some new Rocky tunes. We'd heard there were a few changes brewing with his new album, but despite its title, don't be expecting The Brag And Cuss to fill your ears with expletives and exclamations. No, it's nothing but hushed earthy twang pop... an ol' reliable! Whereas Makers was considerably barebones and intimate, this album was recorded with a full band featuring James McAllister (who also plays with Sufjan Stevens), Bill Herzog (who is also in Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter), Pedro The Lion's Casey Foubert and Rick Steff (who also accompanies Cat Power and Hank Williams Jr.). They play together beautifully, complementing each other with nuanced performances. There's definitely more heft to the production, but it doesn't crowd his songs. If anything the company adds to the emotional gravity of his lonesome words. Real good!
Accurately described as "Cash meets Clash", Chicago's Waco Brothers bestow their fifth release on the world. A twangin' country party of a band featuring Mekons leader Jon Langford along with members of Pine Valley Cosmonauts, KMFDM and Jesus Jones(!), Waco Brothers actually sound a lot like a more focused Mekons -- which is a very good thing, especially if, like me, you think the Mekons started to suck right after their amazing early albums "Honky Tonkin'" and "Rock 'n Roll". Lots of sublime pedal steel and mandolin augment the bright electric guitars. Full of whiskey-soaked energy!
Although this band is made up of Jon Langford, Steve Goulding, Alan Doughty, Deano, Tracey Dear, and Marc Durnate... aka members of Mekons, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Graham Parker & The Rumour, Jesus Jones, Dollar Store, Wreck and KMFDM (!), more that a few folks around here have commented about just how much this actually sounds like ol' AQ faves Uncle Tupelo. It really does!! The contrasting male lead vocals even resemble those of U.T.'s Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar. Midway through the proceedings though they veer towards Social Distortion goes honky tonk (about which we're not quite sure how feel). Either way, we're sure some stiff shots of whisky, a string of broken hearts and many pairs of well-worn cowboy boots were involved.
Country music is all about drinking. Even songs about heartbreak or cheating spouses or the one that got away, somehow end up in a bar, or an alley or the bottom of a bottle. And no one did drinking songs better than Porter Wagoner. We've raved about this country legend on past lists, besides being an incredible musician with a clutch of amazing songs, he was also a total nut, who whipped up some of the weirdest country songs ever. He's the man responsible for "the Rubber Room" after all, a little ditty about mental illness, and as we mentioned in other reviews, almost every record, no matter how seemingly mainstream, always featured a track or two with seriously unseemly subject matter, murder, revenge, arson, suicide, prison and of course DRINKING.
So here we have two more classic PW albums, reissued by the fine folks at Omni, the first of which is an ode to country music's favorite past time, getting drunk, and of course, searching desperately for that next drink. Just a quick look through the song titles says it all: "Wino", "Daddy And The Wine", "The Bottom Of The Bottle", "In The Shadows Of The Wine", "The Bottle Let Me Down", "One Dime For Wine", "Bottle, Bottle", you get the idea, drinking, drinking and more drinking. Oh and a jaunty little ditty about a spurned woman who burns down her lover's favorite roadside tavern, which is also sort of about drinking...
But the sound is of course fantastic, lots of amazing guitar playing, wild slippery slide guitar, Wagoner's distinctive voice, the songs crazy catchy, and pretty dang weird in places. "Wino" begins with the sound of footsteps, then trash cans being dug through, the yowl of an alley cat, before unfurling as a Ken Nordine style bit of beatnik jazziness, which is soon augmented by some moody piano and swirly slide guitar. That's the weirdest track, but there are moments throughout, and of course, even when the music sounds like classic country, Wagoner will deliver some insane lyrics like it weren't nothing.
The second record here, Confessions Of A Broken Man, of course features some drinking songs, but for the most part focuses on the dark side of life, somber songs about folks down on their luck, the misunderstood, the forgotten, the dying and despondent, and the broken hearted. Gorgeous stuff, and a good companion to the more over the top drinking record that precedes it. As always, totally fantastic. And like every Omni release, gorgeously packaged, with tons of rare photos, and extensive liner notes in a big booklet.
"Who taught who the cold hard facts of life?" is the chilling question at the heart of this bitter tale of betrayal and revenge between husband and wife. It's also the title track of this Porter Wagoner two-fer which combines two early seventies concept records, The Cold Hard Facts of Life and The Soul of The Convict, providing a narrative arc of love, sin, murder, redemption and salvation. We absolutely loved The Rubber Room (also put out by The Omni Recording Corporation), an anthology of Wagoner's less known Southern Gothic sides that painted a much darker picture of the kind of singer we thought he was. Now that the man is gone at the height of a career revival, we get a chance to hear some of his best full lengths, recorded at a time of deep personal anguish. On this two-fer (which shares only five tracks with The Rubber Room anthology), he sings plenty, first about the consequences of cheating and then sings plenty more about the consequences of killing. Includes a cover of "Folsom Prison Blues" and six extra single tracks. Porter shows us once again he's a man to be reckoned with in this life or the next. As he queries at the end of "The First Mrs. Jones", "Did my little song scare you?"
Yes, yes it did.
Rest in Peace, Porter!
Well Dang! Why it seems we're in the midst of a full-on Porter Wagoner revival. Not only has the man just released one of the best country albums of the year (Wagonmaster, which we reviewed last list), but at the ripe old age of 80, just played to a sell-out audience at Madison Square Garden opening for The White Stripes. While for a time, he seemed to epitomize everything that was old-fashioned about Nashville, from his vintage glittering suits to his often overtly pained and sentimental delivery on many a song about love and The Lord. No truer did that image seem to be when Dolly Parton, who first debuted on Wagoner's TV show before becoming his most popular singing and song-writing partner for nearly ten years, decided to part ways for a solo career in the mid-seventies. Surely a low point in his career, but the man never went away, quietly releasing records and remaining an ambassadorial presence on the Grand Ole Opry circuit ever since.
Yet, it also looks like all that flash and kitsch so present in Wagoner's performances and recordings have inspired a hip cult following through the years after all. But not because of his more popular hits. We mentioned in the Wagonmaster review about an early seventies song that was a bit of a novelty hit, called "The Rubber Room", a dark, wrenching, reverb-soaked ode to mental illness. Well, most of his records from the mid-sixties onward had a track or two that delved similarly into the darkest of themes: revenge, murder, murder-suicide, insanity, prison, parental abuse, neglect, drinking, punishment, and redemption. The album covers similarly shared his fondness for theatricality, sometimes dressing up as a hobo, wino, prisoner, or shown walking in on his unfaithful wife. These songs weren't always his biggest hits but they had the highest Nashville production values with strings, choirs and dramatic special effects, and put together they create a bizarrely surreal patchwork of the Southern Gothic. So what better way to celebrate Porter Wagoner's big career revival with this mighty anthology put out by the awesome folks at Omni (who also brought us the Bruce Haack Electric Lucifer reissue we made record of the week, a couple lists back). Instead of focusing on charted singles and successes, this anthology compiles together 29 left-field tracks recorded between 1966 and 1977 (with the exception of only one charted single, "The Carroll County Accident") that cover all the dark themes mentioned above, many in poetical song-story form and loosely sequenced in themes.
So let's give a brief summary here of the main themes, after "The Rubber Room", there are some country-crossover songs, reminiscent in style to Lee Hazlewood and Jimmy Webb, that deal with the savage life of Native Americans outlaws ("George Leroy Chickashea", "Indian Creek"). Then, there are the achingly lonely tear-in-your-beer songs ("Lonely Comin' Down", "Lonelyville"), which then segue into the cheating songs, ("My Many Hurried Southern Trips", "Woman Hungry") then the wife-killing and wife/other man-killing songs ("First Mrs. Jones", "The Cold Hard Facts of Life" "Julie"). After that there are some tear-in-your-BOTTLE songs ("Wino", "Bottom of The Bottle") then the hobo songs ("Life Rides The Train", "My Last Two Tens"), then a prison song sung from the point of view of the prisoner's only son ("Let Me In"). Then the devastating Dolly Parton duet, "The Party" about a couple's children who die tragically while the parents were out partying. And finally a couple of songs about prayer and redemption ("Little Boy's Prayer" and "Moments of Meditation") just to give a slight semblence of hope to things. Phew! and there's so much more!
Surely not the happiest of records, but one that will still undoubtedly put a smile on your face. It's definitely one of the most well curated, intriguing and exciting country collections to be put to disc from a man who is finally getting his due. Absolutely Essential!!!!!!!!!!!
Please note: The first pressing is currently out of print. We've got a bunch of these, but it may take a while to get the next batch, so please be patient if and when we run out.
For his eightieth birthday and fifty-fifth year as one of Nashville's most striking country music ambassadors, Porter Wagoner delivers an amazingly solid new recording that shows him still at the top of his game. Simply and starkly produced by the legendary Marty Stuart, there are no hipster cameos or attempts to contemporaneously connect to a modern sound or scene, just lots of pedal steel and an aged baritone tinged with loss and redemption. Most people who aren't avid country music fans, probably know Porter Wagoner for two things: he made Dolly Parton famous (though, he did try to hold her career back), and "The Rubber Room", one of the eerily strangest but coolest country songs ever recorded. That song was on a classic album from 1972 called What Ain't To Be, Just Might Happen and it's full of low-life characters losing their grips on reality, and recorded with lots of tape echo and other studio effects amongst the standard twang which really made it stand apart. On Wagonmaster, Wagoner revisits those themes on "Committed To Parkview", a song written for him by Johnny Cash but was never recorded until now. For those who like a little Nick Cave in their country music but have exhausted the Johnny Cash catalog, you should take a listen here to a country master who can delve fearlessly into the dark side while wearing the most sparkling of Nashville finery.
Finally, these two legendary records from the late, great Porter Wagoner get a well deserved 2-on-1 cd reissue courtesy of the amazing Omni Recording Corporation, who've done some other Wagoner releases, including the Rubber Room compilation.
By the early 1970s, Wagoner's career had stumbled a bit as the charts shifted their focus to the hairier, more socially irredeemable characters within the outlaw movement. Wagoner, however, maintained the regal image he always presented with sparkly nudie suits and his giant golden pompadour. With his skills still fully intact, his personal struggles helped to create an amazing and dark album with What Ain't To Be..., which includes the timeless and depressive ode to losing your mind in "The Rubber Room". Released in 1972, the album also features the amazing "Waldo The Weirdo", which some of you may remember from the recent Troubled Troubadours comp (also on Omni) and a slew of tunes that somehow manage to incorporate a mild but undeniable element of psychedelic weirdness to the affair.
Originally released in 1971, Porter Wagoner Sings His Own is more traditional in its execution but no less enjoyable, with tunes like "Albert Erving", "The Agony Of Waiting", and "Be A Little Quieter" all focusing on the personal torment explored later on What Ain't To Be...
This massive 30 song collection also features 10 bonus tracks, including "I Haven't Learned A Thing" with Merle Haggard and an ill-advised but still enjoyable foray into clavinet/synth driven funkiness with "I'm Gonna Feed 'Em Now". All in all, another great reissue from one of country music's greatest and most respected ambassadors.
Oh how the mighty have fallen. We were secretly psyched for this, a country solo record from ex-Carcass guitarist Jeff Walker. How cool would that be, Carcass country!! But the actual end product is not quite what we had hoped. In fact it's sort of embarrassing. The arrangements are pretty cool, a bunch of countrified covers of badass classic tunes, rock, country, whatever, but Walker is just not a very good vocalist. In fact we might go so far as to say he is really really bad. And since it's the vocals that are front and center, a lot of this is a bit tough to stomach. We almost wish he had sung these Carcass-style, a harsh raspy shriek over acoustic guitars and fiddle would have been pretty dang weird. But alas... Carcass freaks might just need to own this cuz it's Walker, but not sure who else we could recommend this to.
Killer Cherry Poptart cover art though, if you're into that...
After an amazing tribute album and a recent statewide tour with Jack Rose, here is the first official cd release of new material in over 40 years from one of the more underated masters of acoustic guitar, Peter Walker. Best known for a couple of mid-'60s records on the Vanguard label, Walker was best known for a fusion of Eastern and Western, mixing raga with classical and jazz- inflected styles. On Echo Of My Soul, Walker explores his love of Flamenco as the original bridge of Eastern and Western music. A connector of Spanish and Arabic music developed from Kinartic Indian music which is arguably the world's oldest system of music, Walker handles the style well with a lot of inspired passion blowing the dust off the typical traditionalist notions of Flamenco music. This is no Carlos Montoya or Charo, so no puffy sleeves or rose in teeth. Instead Walker steers closer to the intuitive earthiness of the music's multifarious cultural origins, similar in spirit to how Sir Richard Bishop handles the genre. We'd still very much love to see Rainy Day Ragas reissued, but until then, this is a pretty nice listen.
You may or may not have noticed that everytime we review anything by Peter Walker, it's always sort of in the tone of yeah, we like the new stuff, but come on, really, please reissue the old stuff!!! And while his two amazing records on Vanguard in the sixties remain bafflingly un-reissued, we can finally give you a taste of what we've been jonesing for. These recently unearthed recordings from 1970 were Walker's last recorded effort before facing "years of obscurity". Gathering a group of session players in Woodstock, NY at the home of Levon Helm (while Helm was away), Walker recorded these loose raga jams with tablas, flute, clarinet, bells, bass, and trap drums. These long-form meditative grooves are probably the best recorded insight into the sounds of Timothy Leary's Celebration gatherings at Harvard of which Walker was the musical director. Spiraling and trance-inducing, built on Eastern modal progressions, with flute and clarinet weaving throughout. Really beautiful! We're very thankful that the label head of Tompkins Square, Josh Rosenthal, managed to convince Walker to dig through his storage vaults and unearth this lost session. We want more!
Finally reissued and on vinyl, is one of our all time favorite solo guitar records, Rainy Day Raga by Peter Walker!!! Released on Vanguard in 1966, it sits perfectly between John Fahey's Requia and Sandy Bull's Inventions. Like Bull, Walker was fascinated and influenced by Middle Eastern, raga and modal forms (as well as Spanish and Baltic Romantic motifs) and found the perfect venue to explore the raga's hypnotic trance-like properties in Cambridge, Massachusetts as musical director of Timothy Leary's Celebration festivals. Offering up a mostly original record, save for a beautiful rendition of The Beatles "Norwegian Wood", the lysergic qualities of Walker's performance here are augmented by accompanying musicians Bruce Langhorne (!!) on percussion and Jeremy Steig on flute displaying a gentle pastoralism to the sometimes intense raga workouts. But even the quieter solo parts like "River" and "April In Cambridge" showcase Walker's astute knack for dynamic technique in his performances, and composition. While he only recorded two albums for Vanguard in the sixties, before his recent resurgence, they aptly showcase what a visionary he was to the current generation of solo guitar excursionists, and we are so grateful that this record is available once again to prove it! Highest Recommendation!!!!!
Light In The Attic continues its deep search into the Vanguard vaults and unearths this long-awaited gem, the second Vanguard album by hippie gypsy guitarist Peter Walker. His first album, Rainy Day Ragas is one of our favorite solo guitar records ever, and we never imagined it would take so long to reissue this excellent 1968 follow-up. The Second Poem of Karmela Or Gypsies Are Important sees the Cambridge guitarist who orchestrated musical events for Timothy Leary's Celebration Festivals expand his instrumental range into all kind of exotic instrumentation of sitars, tambouras, sarods, violins, flutes, and tablas. Ranging from raga jams to gypsy reveries, there is an open-ended beatnik quality to the music that seems to lend itself to all kinds of imagined visual accompaniment such as trippy projections or interpretive dancing, the romantic raga forms circling around an undefined center of plaintive guitar explorations. Resonant and devotional, the swirling freeform chaos of sound gives way to some incredibly beautiful guitar excursions. The amazing final track, "Mixture", with its backward phasing and organ drones is like hearing Terry Riley and Henry Flynt playing on some unearthly psychedelic jam. Highly Recommended!
Damn expensive import! But, really, these songs are maybe worth it!
Some releases go in and out of print with remarkable and frustrating frequency. Such was the case with the early M. Ward album Duet For Guitars #2. It was first released in 1999 by Co-Dependent Records. Then Howe Gelb took a shine to it and re-released it on his own Ow Om label in 2000. 'Twas quite the perfect place for it to be! Seems Mr. Gelb was absolutely overcome by Ward's music, and chose Duets For Guitars #2 to be the first non-Giant Sand release on his label. Perhaps, it'll have the same effect on you!
Now pretty much a decade since it was originally recorded, Mr. Ward has settled into the comfy label home of Merge Records. This early album is getting its re-re-release into a stable environment to an eager, adoring and ever-growing legion of fans.
To get y'all caught up... yes, this wonderful album actually predated M. Ward's 2001 'debut' full length End Of Amnesia which we loved so much. Duet For Guitars #2 was a set of instrumentals and vocal numbers which he recorded back in 1997. If you like the somber, gruff deep voiced Americana beauty of Gelb's band Giant Sand or that of Tom Waits, Neil Young or Bob Dylan even, well then, M. Ward is definitely not to be missed.
