ILX Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday (new post-Fahey folk for ppl posting in Takoma/Tompkins Square threads Pt II)

hmm spam is pretty authentic Americana i guess

the Hormel strike in the 80s (the P9 Labor Union) inspired one of the last American folk songs! :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdH-F4PYqwc

wrote a little bit about that new dennis taylor reissue on grasstops -- seriously a very nice record. only the spanish-tinged tune doesn't really do it for me.
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2015/03/25/dennis-taylor-dayspring
also, a steve gunn band radio sesh to listen to: http://folkadelphia.bandcamp.com/album/steve-gunn-folkadelphia-session-10-17-2014

Reports that John Renbourne has died :(

Probably don't talk about him enough on this thread, but what an amazing player & Pentangle is one of my real inspirations

yeah RIP. one of the best. and obviously an amazing acoustic player, but the dude was great on electric too -- check out his playing on Pentangle's "Jack Orion," so killer.

Yeah, sad. RIP. Such a good player.

In less sad news, I just found out that I am getting to open for Daniel Higgs next week. I am a big Lungfish/Higgs fan, but my cohort in Grand Banks is like the BIGGEST Lungfish/Higgs fan, so this is a big deal. Higgs kind of a fringe member of the ILX Brigade musical universe, one which I personally really enjoy. Some wildy enjoyable banjo playing coming out of that man.

I don't hold it against him but one time when I was like 18 I saw his old old band Reptile House at a hardcore show (at the old Trax club, grandavis) and he punched some kid in the face! then maybe 5 years ago I saw him open for the Boredoms and he was very good.

Oh man, that sucks about punching a kid Sleeve. Perhaps a symptom of the times? He does not seem like the kind of guy that would do that, but it is not like I really know him. He seems like a benign weirdo these days.

Also, Trax had the grossest bathroom I have ever used at a show. That place sucked, though I saw a few good shows there. It closed down shortly after I moved into town though. The absolute weirdest show I saw there was Fugazi ('99 or 2000 or something?). There were a bunch of dudes there in a big pack who had obviously just shown up for something to do, and they walked around en masse trying to bait folks into fighting by calling them faggots etc. It was gross/depressing and I kept waiting for Ian to notice and take the dudes to task but instead they just got bored and left.

yeah, keep in mind this was literally almost 30 years ago, they were a weird band for the hardcore kids and maybe people were giving them shit? it's a very distinct memory though.

I spent the summer of 1985 seeing a bunch of hardcore shows there, I think the last thing I saw at the club was an exhausted Sonic Youth on the next-to-last show of the Daydream Nation tour, December 1988.

also I had a dream once that I saw Richard Bishop play there! long after it had closed...

Whoa yeah, way before my time. I missed the whole 80s hardcore boat basically, and never saw Trax in its early stages. Hard to even believe Sonic Youth played Charlottesville, wonder if there is a recording of it somewhere? Sometimes exhausted bands play good shows, sometimes not. How was that one?

Sir Richard is playing here in mid April, I am psyched. Small room too.

That's awesome! I've been LOVING Tangier Sessions.

i love lungfish a lot, and could totally see how their sort of weird hypnotic cyclical riffs and incantations thing would translate to a more folk context but never checked out higgs for some reason, partially because he seems to have such a scattered discography of small release stuff, where's a good place to start?

I really like "Ancestral Songs" and "Metempsychotic Melodies". Also, "Hymnprovisations" is all solo banjo I believe, maybe the closest thing to what this thread focuses on generally, but I haven't listened in a while (I get them confused a bit). Keep in mind, he doesn't ape Asa Osbourne's playing that frequently, i.e., the circular riffs don't always show up. A lot of his playing is wild, like Bill Orcutt/way out Metzger kind of stuff.

xps I have a very poor quality Walkman recording of the SY show, LOL. they were ragged but fun. BALL opened and Kramer was passing around a bag of wine (out of one of those boxes).

I gotta get Tangier Sessions!

Hah cool. Still haven't heard Tangier Sessions, just gonna go into that show cold and hear the songs live.

I have a very poor quality Walkman recording of the SY show, LOL
ysi?

I'd like to join the Nathan Bowles fan club after seeing him in Steve Gunn's band. That dude's got it.

No doubt

La Lechera, have you checked the Nathan Bowles and Scott Verrastro duo record on MIE? I think you would really like it. Nathan is definitely tackling a lot of approaches successfully, great musician.

I think Nathan's latest solo record is fantastic. The vocal sections on it kind of seemed veering on gimmicky to me but still it's super solid and enjoyable.

Eh, I know what you mean, but when you see Nathan live those songs are 100% effective "in the room" so to speak. He did some very cool non-lyrical vocalisations within the context of the songs last time I saw him and that took the effect, for me, was that it took those songs into the realm of a really cool and engaged "performance", if that makes sense. I mean, my town is lousy with old-time-oriented and "bluegrass" bands singing in all kinds of styles (many of them unnaturally "old timey" and gimmicky for sure), and on the surface Nathan is singing similarly, but when you compare them in practice (via seeing it live I guess) you really feel the difference. I am of course quite biased cause I really like what Nathan does (and of course you are into it to Evan), but I have gotten to a place with a lot of folk/singer-songwriter/bluegrass/old-timey stuff where is goes down to that age-old scenario: I know the stuff I like when I hear it, and dislike a whole lot of it, but can I truly explain why to someone? Not really.

middling review for Ryley Walker on Pitchfork

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20215-primrose-green/

Yeah, I'm sure it is much more effective live and I definitely strive to not think about it too hard and otherwise just enjoy it if I enjoy it, but in general that kind of thing is much more dangerous in a cartoony/roleplaying way in the vocal department than it ever is in the instrumentation/composition department. So when these artists are conjuring these themes and tones through instrumental pieces it's way less distracting to me than when they do so with vocals. Again though, in this case I really like the record!

xpost

What's funny about that Ryley Walker review is that it happens to touch on a very very similar point that I'm trying to describe regarding Nathan Bowles.

Well, it is certainly "safer" to eschew vocals altogether if you are a good instrumentalist/musician, as it eliminates one barrier to/critical barometer for whether or not the music is succeeding on some substantial level. I of course am a huge fan of instrumental music. Still, there is something inherently brave about singing (to me). Certainly it isn't a good idea for everyone, but these two cases seem to justify it pretty easily (though Ryler is a different case and I am not into all the vocals honestly). I mean, in Nathan's case, he is covering/interpreting songs from an era, and he and his cohorts in the Black Twigs are pretty invested in providing a platform for that material, so from my viewpoint there aren't to many other ways for those songs to really be played "convincingly" than in the ways he is playing them, unless you do a complete genre overhaul and do the songs in a modern way.

Yeah it really all comes down to how on the nose you're being with the era styling you're attempting to conjure and replicate. Also what's fashionable right now determines how much those stylings stick out and potentially feel gimmicky.

for me, the more trad stuff in the bowles/black twig/pelt universe really works because of the overall context of what these musicians do -- even if they're playing "john hardy" or something pretty straight one minute, you know there's a deep drone around the next corner. it's a nice blend they've got going.

Yeah, that blend is definitely nice. As far as era-styling goes, to me it is helpful to look at some of these songs/approaches similarly to hymns: I mean, you can take "Silent Night" out for a spin in various guises, but generally it doesn't work if you play it too far from "solemn/dignified".

lol now I am imagining a really upbeat, scat-style version of that, perhaps done by Cab Calloway or Bing Crosby

Hah me too! Well, for me it is a disco version ....

La Lechera, have you checked the Nathan Bowles and Scott Verrastro duo record on MIE? I think you would really like it. Nathan is definitely tackling a lot of approaches successfully, great musician.

― grandavis, Monday, March 30, 2015 8:09 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark

no but i will! i loved the drumming but also i thought his presence was amazing.

That Bowles/Verrastro record is a percussion duo record, but very very musical. I have a good live set too, but I don't have it posted anywhere right now I don't think.

I just realized in the same week:

April 21 - Sir Richard Bishop
April 25 - Marc Maron

Gonna be great, never seen Bishop, plus really interested in seeing Robert Millis opening - Sublime Frequencies and Dust-to-Digital compiler and cover designer.

Seeing Bishop tonight will report back!

Enjoy!

.....and i guess the show starts at 7, not 9 like most bar shows and i work until 9 so i can't go ;_;

bummer man! on the one hand i do like earlier start times because most bar shows go too late for my blood, but sucks that you have to miss it. i'll try and report back and maybe take a video or two.

yeah please do! no normally i would LOVE an early show, this just happens to be the one night i have to work late and i can't get out of it

Saw the Youtube interview of Bishop talking about the hundred plus year old acoustic he ended buying in Geneva and using in Tangiers to record his latest release. Tangiers Sessions has a few really straight-forward pretty songs and the rest are trad and nice too. That guitar sounds like an oud on one track.

He's coming to my location on the 11th with Mills and Kahoutek.

global report back!

i gotta get some stuff by kaki king, this is great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lfWhaxaHVkA

some of her stuff gets a bit guitar mag and/or gimmicky but her good shit is really good

yeah, i think i had that idea, just never really checked it out.
wasting time this morning looking around for info on this guitar soli holy grail...
http://cdn.discogs.com/6TtVh-jXKIj1JLTligpKh0aSy1s=/fit-in/320x240/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(96)/discogs-images/R-3366719-1327563722.jpeg.jpg
http://www.discogs.com/George-Cromarty-George-Keller-Garden-Street-More-Grassroots-Guitar-A-Thistle-Sampler/release/3366719

wait what is that??

some lost cromarty album? with some other guy on there too.

cromarty is one of those names that always makes me lol for some reason
marty cromarty

heh heh.
just saw someone left this comment on the little thing i wrote about him a while back - http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2012/11/15/george-cromarty-grassroots-guitar/
Thanks for this site. I first met George in 1972. Mrs. Larsen, the French teacher at Morro Bay High School, asked him to come in and sing French folk songs to one of her classes. I had a class in the same room the following period. By chance I arrived at class early to find a guy in overalls playing beautifully on a sweet little Washburn. He was done singing and just playing instrumentals. The first song I heard from start to finish was Harpsichord. When he was done, I approached him to see if he would give me lessons. He said “yes” and handed me a business card with a contact number. The card was yellow, hand drawn and had a picture of a smiling sun on it. It was for a group that he was part of called Pacific Buffalo Hawk. I kept that card among my keepsakes for many years.
The week I was to start lessons with him, I suddenly went out of state for an extended stay and had to postpone. When I came back to California, George said his life had taken turns that wouldn’t allow him to teach. Too bad!
In many ways that fall day in 11th grade was a defining moment in my life. I had a passion for solo acoustic guitar that had started with exposure to John Fahey and Sandy Bull. I had been playing guitar for about a year and immediately gravitated to fingerstyle. George’s tone on that vintage Washburn parlor (vintage in 1972) and his compositions clarified my dreams in ways that have shaped my life ever since.
Some people have compared him to Fahey but I think that’s really misleading. I’m a fan of Fahey’s brooding improvisations but George was an altogether different guitarist. Instrumental guitarists have been criticized for composing by building on a riff that often starts with finger technique and not melody. George was a composer who wrote solid, well-harmonized melodies that happened to be played on the guitar. Of all of the solo guitarists I’ve enjoyed over the years, I think George was truly the best composer of them all.
To Nannette and the rest of the family, be assured that you are not alone in your loss.
To George, rest in peace! I hope to hear you again one day in another place.