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

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.

aw

that's really nice

cromarty's stuff really should be more widely available, hope kyle gets that project done

yeah guess he's hitting some hurdles?

yeah got that sense, i think it's just hard to track down the legal info probably

more info on that cromarty/keller from numero site
https://numerogroup.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/george-cromarty-new-discoveries/

also i logged in to discogs and sent a message to the owner, just to see if he had any info, i doubt he's selling but still any insight would be cool

yeah someone on waxidermy (maybe the same dude on discogs) has the "more grassroots guitar" LP, a test pressing... would (obviously) love to hear it!

hell if he gets back to me i might even feel him out to see how attached he is to it, try to see if i could broker a deal w/him and kyle or something

needle drops aren't ideal & test pressing tend to wear worse than regular records but you can do a decent amount of cleanup digitally now

awesome photo
https://numerogroup.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/george-george-2.jpg?w=840&h=828

That's peak hippie

Okay, I've done my best keeping up with this thread for a spotify list but y'all are healthy chroniclers and are running circles around me. Sure have heard a lot of good music though, so thanks!

That said, I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to keep on keeping on with this and nobody asked me to anyway, so I'm going to make the Spotify playlist for this thread collaborative and am encouraging folks to post items of interest from this thread on that playlist for group listening... I know there are other playlists in progress so if this ends up being a vestigial limb so be it.

But if not, here's the list to share and add to. Keep em coming!

Rolling Post Fahey Folk Thread II 2015

saw SRB last night, his playing on that tiny guitar was O_O amazing and he also sang a stupid song about a porno shop that combined old mcdonald and ding dong the witch is dead melodies. then i had a dream that he played a show in my basement and i was nervous about it because i hadn't taken a shower.

"he also sang a stupid song about a porno shop that combined old mcdonald and ding dong the witch is dead melodies"

I'm finding this more ridiculous than your dream.

that is an old Sun City Girls song fwiw

"Edwin Meese, Edwin Meese
him and his flock of Canadian geese
they're coming to take my store
because they can't get it up anymore"

that's what i figured
he played it after he said he was going to play "the hit" and "needed to fill up some time"
the song was pretty funny

coincidentally, when i saw him a few years ago bill orcutt also commented about filling up time. that felt like a bit of a bummer to me, as an appreciative audience member. i'd recommend keeping that to yourselves, guys!

global report back!
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, April 3, 2015 10:34 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha! just finally checking in. show was awesome- his mastery of different modes and styles is pretty astounding and as fluid and clean as his playing is it's still raw in some way. got sorta engrossed and forgot to take a video tho. show made me wanna listen to tangier sessions which just didn't sound interesting to me for some reason before. sorta chatty crowd and short-ish set tho if that's any consloation

Okay, I've done my best keeping up with this thread for a spotify list but y'all are healthy chroniclers and are running circles around me. Sure have heard a lot of good music though, so thanks!

That said, I'm not sure I have the wherewithal to keep on keeping on with this and nobody asked me to anyway, so I'm going to make the Spotify playlist for this thread collaborative and am encouraging folks to post items of interest from this thread on that playlist for group listening... I know there are other playlists in progress so if this ends up being a vestigial limb so be it.

But if not, here's the list to share and add to. Keep em coming!

Rolling Post Fahey Folk Thread II 2015

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Saturday, April 4, 2015 12:46 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Definitely not intending to start a whole thing here but it seems to me that the artists on this thread are probably some of the most (negatively) affected by things like Spotify. I understand it's just a playlist and that most of the people posting here are most likely the types to go out and buy vinyl / see touring bands / etc, but is there really no better way to give exposure to these artists and share this music? Maybe via links to live performances or to the artist's own websites / label websites / Bandcamp pages / etc? Or, if you wanna make a real 'mix,' maybe make one and post it to Soundcloud or something?

I don't disagree on any of those points; the purpose of a playlist is (among other things) intended to allow dilettantes to listen along with the thread and learn a bit about a genre that may be outside of their purview.

I got into some detail about why i got this bee in my bonnet and why i'm using spotify instead of another service here:
Listening to ILX Listen - 2015 Spotify Genre Playlists

SRB being very polite on NPR station this morning!

global - couple other ppl have mentioned the chatty crowd at SRB as being annoying...Icehouse is a pretty noisy room, chatter really carries there :/\

ooh, one other tidbit, bishop mentioned at the beginning that a 'friend in the audience' (i.e. paul metzger) had made him a special pick made out of yak horn to play for the show

Ha yeah remember Metzger talking about his bone picks and how plastic "bums him out" st the show we played with him?

Well now, I just heard an alluring behind-the-waterfall dispatch from the following album (KMUW's Global Village, weeknights at 7 Central---shows are posted 'round about midnight usually)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71JazoULEHL._SL1500_.jpg

cool not familiar

also want to defend the Ryley Walker album a bit from the pitchfork hataz! I mean listen yeah he's a bit much vocally, but you know in the wild and wolly world of folk weirdos I'm pretty used to the vocalisms of Incredible String Band or Robbie Basho or Pearls Before Swine, and god believe me Bert Jansch was a god on Earth IMO but he wasn't exactly Van Morrison or Joni Mitchell when it came to singing either (we'll not discuss Mr. Kottke forays into singing)

and yeah on a certain level Walker plays "dress up" a little bit, but the playing on the album, the production, and especially the band he assembled is really just beautiful playing....even compared to Gunn or Cian Nugent there's a really great Pentangle jazz element to the album that I love and when they jam out, really fluid and dynamic group ensemble playing.

I know 2 folky music liking people who are not folk weirdos fans or Pitchfork readers and who like Walker now because he has vocals and they are good enough for them.

I registered for ILX primarily because this thread is so great! Keep it up!

I blindly bought the Ryley Walker LP because there's been such a fuss about it. I don't see what the big deal is. It's a very enjoyable record. Tim Buckley's voice is much more "odd." I thought it seemed tame, actually. Maybe some of this growls are "affected," but it's never deterring (to me, at least). Maybe any affectations are a reference point rather than blatant plagiarism...? How's that? It's definitely better than Pitchfork's Carly Rae Jepsen BNM nod. Pitchfork's always wrong.

The record isn't a game changer or earth shattering, just very nice to listen to on a sunny afternoon. Vinyl sounds great.

welcome!

welcome!

The record isn't a game changer or earth shattering, just very nice to listen to on a sunny afternoon.
^yeah i would say that sums it up

i mean also i would encourage people who say "oh all he's doing is ripping off pentangle" to get a group of your best band buddiees together and give it a shot

I don't think Grayson's review is really that harsh. He is actually being specifically critical (to me), and I think states his aim as trying to hold Ryley to a high standard based on what he thinks he is capable of in the future (cause yeah dude is really young still), which I guess is refreshing in a way. I mean, vocals are super-specific hang-ups for any listener too (I cannot listen to Hiss Golden Messenger cause basically I don't like the guys voice, unfair but there you go). I do think it is funny to accuse Ryley of lugging around his influences as a "sign of good taste". If you follow him on Twitter, I am not sure that convincing people he has good taste is high on his list of things to accomplish.

Haha yeah if anything his joy at taking shots at American Primitive icons is borderline trolling

Also, the radio show The Avant Ghetto that I am always banging on about has a heavily ILX Brigade-ed show that just got archived:

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/60248

New Meg Baird (upcoming album on Drag City!), Daniel Bachman, Richard Youngs, Kyle Fosburgh, and a live in-studio set from Steve Gunn, plus tons of other good shit.

And yeah UMS, he does not seem overly concerned with cozying up to any particular legacy too much, though he has toned things down a bit.

like a month ago he was saying "Vaseline Machine Gun" by Leo Kottke was like the worst song ever made or something lol

Man, Rick Bishop was ridiculously good in Charlottesville last night. The crowd was completely silent throughout, and the room is pretty small as-is so kind of an ideal venue for him. He was really into it partially for that reason, seemed to be having a damn good time just ripping through the tunes. The opening raga-guitar piece was just so damn great that I would have taken 45 minutes of just that, but everything was superb. While I like Bishop on record fine, seeing him live is just way better for me. Something about seeing it happen makes it much much heavier.

Also, I am pretty into this Tashi Dorji live set. An all electric one, with lots of looping, but so well done, and so percussive/distinct that it avoids almost all dude-with-guitar-and-looping-pedal comparisons. Some really cool transitions etc.

http://www.never-nervous.com/2015/04/because-you-missed-it-tashi-dorji-live.html?spref=fb

Full disclosure: that Dorji set is not "mellow", it rips pretty hard for a lot of it, so only dive in if you are looking for that kinda action.

as usual, very jealous of these SRB gig reports. said it several times already here, but holy shit, his new album is next level.
thx for the dorji tip!

Sure man! Hopefully SRB swings your way at some point. He is always traveling somewhere, I guess it is only a matter of time, unless he hates Colorado for some reason.

Man, I can't wait for the Bishop gig here in town next week. Has anyone approached him to say hey? Trying to psych myself up to do so, as he is such an interesting guy... he's lived off and on in Egypt and whether he had to temporarily leave the states or not for nefarious reasons is a favorite story of mine that I've heard. My wife is forever modest when it comes to this subject, but I really wanna introduce her to Rick because her grandmother, Nagat, is one of the singers from Egypt's golden era of the 60s and 70s. Both Nagat and her sister Soad, who was an actress, were good friends with Omar Khorshid throughout that time period. Bishop being a huge Khorshid fan and all. Hopefully I don't come across as too much of an ass, but he seems down to earth though... oof.

Happy Tax day everyone

Oh, on the subject of Ryley, there's a pretty great interview, 20 whole minutes, on youtube. Took place this past March in Holland. He slightly addresses his approach to vocals towards the end, talking about how he probably 'tried too hard... to be a folk singer' on his first record. Ryley is defiantly a self-effacing kind of guy though, never seems to boast himself. I've always been drawn to him because of that.

I remember there was this point in the evening, prior to a house show I put together for him and Daniel at my apt, where he randomly started singing a song. And at that point in 2011, he only had that instrumental tape out on Plus tapes. It was such a great song, Ryley introduced it as an idea he wasn't really sure about, but everyone encouraged him to go for it. It defiantly took me by surprise. It seemed like to me that the vocals just naturally fell into his daily life, the guitar routine. It would've been a shame if he had continually brushed it off as something to not take advantage of, to not make a full record of vocals.

Interview Pt 1
youtube.com/watch?v=xVvkz0mSBcI

Pt 2
youtube.com/watch?v=1TSLSFqlVt8