Del McCoury
Happy Birthday to Del McCoury!
Tomorrow is the birthday of the great bluegrass singer, songwriter, and guitarist Del McCoury.
I’d heard of Del McCoury but hadn’t looked for his records until I saw him on David Letterman’s show in 1999. His band appeared with Steve Earle supporting Earle’s record The Mountain. They did a Steve Earle song first, I think it was “Carrie Brown,” then Earle backed away from the mic and the Del McCoury Band sang “Nashville Cats,” the old John Sebastian Lovin’ Spoonful song. I went out and bought The Family the next day and listened to “Nashville Cats” on repeat I don’t know how many times.
As “Nashville Cats” demonstrates, Del McCoury has figured out how to turn great songs into great bluegrass songs, including many tunes I would never have imagined could work in a bluegrass setting. Robert Cray’s “Smoking Gun” gets an eery reading on The Cold Hard Facts. It seems Del has a way of getting downright spooky. Songs like “City of Stone” from The Family and the title track from It’s Just The Night can send chills up my spine even when the music is just in my head. And while I really liked Richard Thompson’s recording of his own “1952 Vincent Black Lightning,” I flipped when I heard the version on Del and the Boys. Sometimes referred to simply as that song about the motorcycle, it’s approaching bluegrass standard status.
Not only is Del McCoury a great interpreter, but he is also a strong songwriter. A few of my favorites are “A Far Cry,” “A Good Man Like Me,” and “50/50 Chance” which includes one of my favorite lines ever: “She flattened my wallet and my ego.”
I’ve had a chance to see him live a couple of times. He puts on a great show and is always accessible to the fans.
Here’s a video of Nashville Cats performed on Austin City Limits. Del’s son Ronnie is the mandolin player and his son Rob is on banjo. And here’s their version of 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.
Happy Birthday, Del!
Randy Weston
Randy Weston and His African Rhythms Sextet: The Storyteller (2010)
Now in his 80s and with some 40 records under his name, Randy Weston shows no sign of backing down in his quest for African rhythm. His African Rhythms Sextet features TK Blue on reeds and Lewis Nash on drums. My full review of The Storyteller is on RootsWorld.
Here’s a video of the sextet with special guests Obo Addy and Kwaku Martin Obeng.
Life on the Road
Frøy Aagre’s Life on the Road
A recent post on A Blog Supreme about jazz in New York City led me to an older post on Mostly Music about American jazz economics which led to this 2008 tour journal from Norwegian jazz saxophonist Frøy Aagre. Her record Cycle of Silence was one of my favorites from last year, so my interest was piqued. In her journal she wrote:
I’m also curious to see how my Nordic, lyrical jazz style will go down with American audiences. In addition to my jazz influences, my music draws inspiration from classical music, and one of my aims is to bring improvisation and composition closer together by soloing within the “language” of the tunes. In other words, I like to blur the distinction between the written and the improvised.
and
It seemed like the audience liked it, but they didn’t really give that much away. It was difficult to read them. Usually I get some kind of communication with the audience when I talk between the songs – maybe didn’t like my jokes! But everyone stayed through the set, so I guess that was a good sign. Got some great feedback from the musicians in the audience afterwards.
Here’s a video of Frøy Aagre and her band playing “Long Distance” which she recorded on Cycle of Silence.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
The lineup for this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has been announced. There’s a lot to sort through at the main website which frustratingly begins with great big photos of Arcade Fire and Bon Jovi, neither of which I associate with New Orleans jazz or heritage. So it’s great to see that the Cajun, Louisiana Creole and Zydeco Music blog has posted a summary of traditional Louisiana musicians who will be performing. Favorite musicians of mine who will be there include Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Joel Savoy, Yvette Landry, BeauSoleil, and Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie.
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering
Next week the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering kicks off in Elko, Nevada. Poetry is just one facet of this festival; there are also opportunities to explore the culture of the American West (and beyond) through lectures and discussions, films, craft demonstrations, food and cooking, and especially through music.
This year the gathering has expanded their online presence. Those who are not fortunate enough to be in Elko can read the Western Folklife Center blog and watch the YouTube channel. There will also be a number of cybercasts of the Gathering with both poets and musicians including Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans, Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie, Wylie and the Wild West, Dave Stamey, Don Edwards, and more.
Here’s a video of Corb Lund from the 2010 Gathering.
Bukkene Bruse
Bukkene Bruse: The Stone Chair (1999)
Last year I wrote a longer piece for RootsWorld on Annbjørg Lien that consisted of reviews and a brief interview. In that piece I wrote about Bjørn Ole Rasch and mentioned the Norwegian band Bukkene Bruse of which Lien and Rasch are both members. Today I’m digging into my record collection to review one of Bukkene Bruse’s records, The Stone Chair, that came out in 1999.
The name Bukkene Bruse translates in English translates to Billy Goats Gruff, after the Norwegian folktale collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe. Bukkene Bruse were the Official Musicians of the 1994 Winter Olympics which were held in Lillehammer. The group is made up of Lien on fiddles and nyckelharpa, Rasch on organ, Arve Moen Bergset on vocals and fiddle, and Steinar Ofsdal on sjøfløyte, pipe, whistle, and munnharpe.
Much of this record consists of traditional Norwegian tunes played straight. There are quite a few dance tunes, primarily hallings and springars. I especially love “Ein Annan Halling.”
On occasion they move away from traditional sounds and bring out the synthesizers. This is especially effective on “Løvehjerte” where the synths set the mood alone at first, and then as underpinning for the Hardanger fiddle.
Another favorite of mine is the organ-driven solemnity of “Bruremarsj Fra Østerdalen”
The group very effectively divides into solos, duos, trio, and the full quartet. The textures change subtly from song to song, from chorus to chorus, as players move in and out, back and forth.
This is a very enjoyable record, one that I come back to again and again.
Here’s a video of Bukkene Bruse performing ”Maria, Hun Er En Jomfru Reen.”
Trouble in Tribeca
Trouble in Tribeca
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a showcase in New York City presented by Trouble Worldwide and Barbès Records called Here Comes Trouble. That event took place on January 7th, and here’s a great review of the show from Lucid Culture. The review covers Romani singer Sandra Weigl, the Columbian cumbia group Very Be Careful, and Razia whom I seem to be writing about every week or so.
Anne-Marie Giørtz
Anne-Marie Giørtz: På Egne Vegne (2009)
Shakespearean sonnets, angular melodies, soft lullabies, off-kilter waltzes, and a percussive champagne cooler. These are mixed together in a fascinating way on this release from Norwegian singer Anne-Marie Giørtz. My full review is on RootsWorld.
Cheikh Lô
Cheikh Lô
I came across an announcement that the singer and guitarist from Senegal, Cheikh Lô, performed at Celtic Connections in Glasgow. I’ve heard a few tracks off his new album, Jamm, and I also recently found a copy of Lamp Fall from 2006. I’m really enjoying this music.
He works with an interesting amalgam of styles and instruments, switching from song to song, crafting the sound he wants. There’s influence from many musical styles of Africa and the Caribbean including reggae, rumba, and highlife, along with R&B, funk, New Orleans-style horn lines, and a bit of desert blues. Lô is quoted in the article, describing his musical approach:
It’s like a big basket, with some cheese here, some bread there, some chocolate and a cocktail on the side.
Here’s a short film of Cheikh Lô talking about Jamm with excerpts from a few of the songs on the new album.
Delayed Discoveries
Delayed Discoveries
Over at NRP, Lars Gotrich wrote about his late discovery of Metallica. I have no opinions about Metallica. The closest I get in my record collection is a cover of “Damage, Inc” by the Norwegian jazz-rock-noise band Bushman’s Revenge who play the song as a Happy Go Lucky Karaoke Version.
Lars used his delayed discovery of Metallica to make a number of points that I found interesting, including this:
I firmly believe that you hear an album or a song when you’re supposed to. Music tends to align as it should, connecting the a-ha! moments of your sound world through personal discovery and research.
I like that. It certainly rings true in my own listening experience. And as someone who really likes to explore the back catalog of my favorite new-to-me artists, I thought this was spot on:
Marathon discography-listening sessions are tiresome, and honestly, don’t portray the panorama of an artist the way you might think it would. The story becomes blurred, and in this time of gotta-download-them-all, there’s no attention to detail.
One of the habits I’m working to re-cultivate is to listen to new records more thoroughly before moving on to the next one. I’m trying to spend more time with new music that comes my way, working to understand its place in an artist’s catalog and where it stands in relation to other music from that genre, country, and time.
Well, that’s my plan for music that I like after a listen or two. If it doesn’t strike me fairly quickly, I move on. I can decide later if I want to try again, if it’s a better time to align myself with this music. (Of course it might just be that it’s not very good music and I don’t need more bad music stuck in my head.)
There is so much great recorded music available today, and there’s no way any one person can listen to everything that could or should be appealing. Whether it’s brand new music or a delayed discovery, here’s hoping that we all take more time to absorb great music and resist the urge to blur it all.
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