Bluegrass Photos
Bluegrass Photos
Here’s a very nice collection of bluegrass photos from the 1960s with Bill Monroe, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Mike Seeger and others.
Tim Eriksen
Tim Eriksen
I saw an announcement recently that Tim Eriksen will be at Celtic Connections in Glasgow to talk about and demonstrate shape note singing. This is a fascinating musical style with exotic-sounding harmonies built on open fourths and fifths; I’ve heard some examples, but don’t have any recordings in my collection. If any readers have suggestions for recordings, videos, or other shape note singing resources, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave those ideas in the comments section below.
I really liked Tim Eriksen’s contributions to Omar Sosa’s Across the Divide: A Tale of Rhythm & Ancestry, particularly his singing of “Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah” which Sosa rearranged in a fascinating way to emphasize the African influences on the American song tradition.
Here’s a video of Eriksen appearing solo, playing banjo and singing “Wayfaring Stranger.”
Looking Back: 2009
Looking Back: 2009
I don’t limit my listening to only the newest records that have come out in the last few months. I’m always digging back through my collection listening to music I love. I also like to explore the back catalogs of artists who are new to me. I want to write an occasional blog post that looks back to a previous year, and I’ll start with 2009 (which I recognize wasn’t all that long ago). Here’s a list of albums from 2009 that I’m listening to often these days.
Anouar Brahem: The Astounding Eyes of Rita — Last December, I called this my favorite recording of 2009. I love Brahem’s compositions and arrangements as well as his oud playing. The bass clarinet of Klaus Gesing is outstanding. Here’s a video of the quartet playing “Dance With Waves.”
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba: I Speak Fula — Great music from this master of ngoni with a band created for not just one but four ngoni players. The ngoni is a traditional West African stringed instrument that is in some ways an ancestor of the modern banjo. Guest musicians include Toumani Diabaté on kora and guitarist Vieux Farka Touré. Kouyaté’s wife, Amy Sacko, contributes some great vocals. Here’s a great video of Ngoni Ba.
Salif Keita: La Différence — I’ve been late to the Salif Keita party, but I’ve made up for it in the past few months. A singer from Mali who comes from royal lineage and is also albino, he sings about political and environmental issues among other topics. I’ve also been enjoying his back catalog, especially Moffou.
Tom Russell: Blood and Candle Smoke — An incredible set of songs from America’s greatest songwriter. I fell in love with Tom Russell’s songs when I heard him sing “Gallo del Cielo” over 20 years ago. Very few songwriters tell stories as well as Tom Russell. And very few songwriters capture contemporary culture as well as Tom Russell. Put those two forces together and add Calexico as the backing band and you get one of the best records of the past decade. Here’s a video of my favorite song on the record, “East of Woodstock, West of Vietnam.”
Annbjørg Lien & Bjørn Ole Rasch: Come Home — Two members of Norwegian folk ensemble Bukkene Bruse put together a great duo record. Lien plays Hardanger fiddle and nyckelharpa while Rasch plays harmonium. The songs include re-imaginings of older Lien compositions “The Old Car” and “January.” I couldn’t find any good videos of the duo, but here’s a nice one of Bukkene Bruse performing ”Maria, Hun Er En Jomfru Reen“ with Lien on nyckelharpa and Rasch on keyboards. This duo recording is worth seeking out.
More Liner Notes
Liner Notes – The Present
In a recent blog post I talked about my fondness for liner notes looking back nostalgically at the way things used to be. But liner notes with digital downloads today aren’t in quite as bad shape as some would paint them.
The recent release by Afrocubism is a good example of what can be done. On iTunes, the full liner notes are available as a PDF digital booklet that comes with the purchase of the album. The download also includes a bonus audio track and a video, “The Making of AfroCubism. Another recent release, Ali & Toumani, the last recording made by Ali Farka Touré with Toumani Diabaté, has an iTunes album download that also includes the digital booklet in PDF. Both of these releases are from the World Circuit label, which leads me to suspect that it’s not purely the fault of iTunes that digital releases are not always outfitted with full liner notes.
Razia, who records on Cumbancha, takes a different approach with Zebu Nation. The digital booklet is not part of the iTunes download. But on the Cumbancha website, the digital liner notes are available free and are used as promotional material. Gregg Allman is doing something very similar with his new “Low Country Blues.”
It seems like there’s a great opportunity here for these ideas to be combined. Make the liner notes available for anyone, and then also bind them with the download. That way listeners who care can read them both before the purchase decision is made as well as after when the music that goes with the notes can be heard. It seems likely that if more people have access to liner notes and see the quality of that piece, they’d be more likely to purchase the music that goes along with the notes. Any chance the retailers and labels are paying attention?
King Sunny Adé
King Sunny Adé: Baba mo Tunde (2010)
King Sunny Adé has been recording great juju music for a long time; the earliest recordings in my collection were released in 1967. Online discographies list some 200 releases over the last forty-plus years, most of them available only in or near Adé’s home in Nigeria. Baba mo Tunde is his first release available to a wider audience since Seven Degrees North came out in 2000.
The record kicks off with off-the-charts good talking drums. These tuned percussion instruments have been used by Yoruba musicians for centuries, and they are at the center of the juju musical style. Then the complex layering begins. Drums are joined by Hammond organ, then by Adé’s guitar, and then by call and response vocals. Various percussion instruments keep the groove going, with other layers moving in and out of the mix. Vocal harmonies give way to polyphonic drum solos, electric and pedal-steel guitars trade melodies, and organ stab chords are accented by ringing cymbals, all coming to the forefront, moving into the background, and fading away with impressive choreography.
These compositions are especially long by today’s standards. The shortest track on this two-CD set logs in at 8:53; the longest 31:00. Many are medleys tightly intertwined, with musicians moving effortlessly from one tune to another. Some of the songs will be familiar to long-time listeners such as the new take on “365 Is My Number,” part of the medley on the track “Oro Yi Bale.”
For listeners unfamiliar with Adé, this is a great place to start. Follow up by digging into the back catalog with Seven Degrees North and then Juju Music, his debut for Island records from 1982. As King Sunny says when he kicks off “Emi Wo N’ile yi O”: Let’s Go!
Here’s a video from a 2009 performance in Seattle of “Me Le Se.”
Liner Notes
Liner Notes – The Past
Back in December, Don Was wrote a column about digital music’s lack of liner notes. For his example of how great liner notes used to be, he referred to Freak Out by The Mothers on Invention. I remember that list put together by Frank Zappa and The Mothers: “People Who Have Contributed Materially in Many Ways to Make Our Music What it Is – Please Do Not Hold it Against Them.” I was in college when I found that record, and I got it from either the public library or the college library. By that point the record was already a “classic,” and I remember finding a number of artists on the list that whose music I went on to explore.
So, yup, I’m a fan of liner notes. Always have been as far back as I can remember. I am definitely a member of what Tom Moon called “music obsessives of a certain age” who “lament about the demise of liner notes in the digital realm.” But I’m not convinced it’s generational, and although digital distribution has taken a toll on liner notes, it’s not the first assault.
Especially in my high school and college days, people I knew were dubbing cassettes, both full albums and mix tapes. I was always shocked when someone would dub a cassette and not write down anything more than the artist and album title. Most people added song titles, but I was one of the anomalies who added personnel, composers and songwriters, release year, and more – the things I felt were basic necessities to understanding and appreciating the music. My peers were not with me.
From my own experience it seems those of us who love liner notes have always been in the minority, even when those notes were more common and accessible than they are today.
That said, today isn’t as bleak as some think it is. In the next few days I’ll write about digital download sites that are doing things well.
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Dr. Billy Taylor passed away in December. I came up listening to and playing jazz, so I knew about him as a piano player and about his work on tv and radio. My first college major was music education — reasons why I don’t have a degree in that particular field is a story for another day — so I also knew about Taylor’s work as a jazz educator.
The obituaries that came out recently reminded me again of his great song, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.” Here’s a video of Billy Taylor playing that song. No vocals here, just a really nice upbeat jazz trio version.
Great songs draw great performers, and in 2009 Levon Helm recorded that same song on his record, Electric Dirt. Helm played it in a New Orleans style with some amazing horn arrangements by Allen Toussaint. (I couldn’t find a video of Levon singing this song, but brief audio samples are available from the regular suspects; it’s worth seeking out the whole track on CD.)
But for me, the definitive singer of this great song is Nina Simone, featured in this video recorded at Montreux in 1976.
In honor of Dr. Billy Taylor, I hope you dig out and really listen to one or more of these recordings. Thank you, Dr. Taylor.
Music Millennium
Music Millennium
Here’s an article about one of my favorite record stores, Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon: The Growth and Near-Death of a Portland Icon. It’s a great story of how this particular record store has stayed relevant and important to its community, and how owner Terry Currier has led the charge. A few of the juicier quotes:
He fired up his barbecue. He gathered up every last Garth Brooks CD, album and tape on his shelves, lugged them to his flaming grill and declared his stores Garth-free zones.
His interview came in the form of a 200-question quiz about music, musicians and records. When Currier could name the entire lineup, past and present, of the obscure British folk band Fairport Convention, McLeod was satisfied.
Currier pins his faith on … the warmth and wide-ranging expertise of his staff. And more importantly, the way music compels listeners to join together to sing, to listen, to feel the rhythm in their chests at the same time. iTunes can do a lot of things. But that ain’t one of them.
Aside from the reporter referring to Fairport Convention as obscure, it’s a fun read.
Please do support your local record store. And if you’re ever ever in Portland, take some time to stop by Music Millennium.
P.S. I bought my first records from D.J.’s Sound City, the regional chain mentioned in this article, at their Nampa, Idaho store.
Kirsten Bråten Berg
Happy Birthday to Kirsten Bråten Berg!
Today is the birthday of Norwegian singer Kirsten Bråten Berg. She is, in so many ways, the go-to folk singer for collaborators from Norway and elsewhere. She’s worked with many folk musicians and is helping keep traditions alive while forging some new directions.
She comes from Setesdal in southern Norway, and one of her more well-know recordings is a collaboration with African musicians called From Senegal to Setesdal. I first heard her singing on the compilation Nordisk Sang which I highly recommend, especially for those who are just beginning to explore the folk music of Norway.
Berg also appeared on Annbjørg Lien’s recording Waltz With Me where she sang some beautiful duets with American folk singer Bruce Molsky. I wrote a longer review of Waltz With Me for RootsWorld.
Here’s a wonderful video of her singing the Richard Thompson song “Dimming of the Day.” Happy Birthday Kirsten!
January 2011
January 2011
On my old website I made a list like this one quarterly. With this new website comes a new practice: I’ll post a list monthly. Here are the recordings I’m listening to most often in January 2011. All of these were featured on my Favorites of 2010 list.
Lobi Traoré: Rainy Season Blues (2010) – An accidental recording of sorts. This was supposed to be a recording of Traoré and his band, but circumstances prevented that so Lobi picked up an acoustic guitar and sang this great set of songs. He passed away shortly after this record was made. Here’s a video collage of music and interviews with Lobi Traoré.
Razia: Zebu Nation (2010) – Based on roots music from Madagascar with Afrobeat influences with some incredible accordion work from Regis Givazo all built on a foundation of a strong environmental conscience. Here’s the video for her song “Mifohaza” (“Wake Up”).
AfroCubism: AfroCubism (2010) – African and Cuban musicians get together to implement the original idea behind the Buena Vista Social Club. Here’s video of the AfroCubism players from their first day in the studio.
Yvette Landry: Should Have Known (2010) – Of all the US-based roots music that I heard this year, this record of Cajun honky-tonk was my favorite. Here’s a video of Landry playing her song “Friday Night Special.”
My Photos
