what i've been listening to

By Robbie on September 22, 2009

1.  Banjonique by Walt Koken. The title brag is dead on: nobody but nobody plays the banjo like this dude. You might call it clawhammer, but that doesn't quite describe either the technique or the low-key, funky groove. All of us can use reminding, sometimes, that a single country guy with an acoustic instrument can dig a groove as wide as, say, the Motown or Muscle Shoals guys.

2. Latin Playboys. There's too much out there to keep up with. I'm only now getting involved with this terrific music. 

3. For All I Care by the Bad Plus. This is one group whose albums never let me down. They're always full of great, clear composition; group playing I can't dissect or figure out how it was achieved; surprising repertoire choices that pay off...and they f*cking rock! Many thoughtful musicians who work within what are sure to be heard as genres are at pains, it seems to me, to take on frontally the diminishing stereotypes that attach to their field. So there's any number of hillbilly singers working to project smarts and urbanity, or metal/rock bands offering tender acoustic ballads, a la Guns & Roses. In jazz (among other genres), "fey" would be the operative stigma. The Bad Plus are not fey. Their latest record features mostly vocal numbers (impressively done by one Wendy Lewis) and continues their "post-stylistic" peregrinations, through Wilco, Milton Babbitt, the Bee Gees, Heart, Stravinsky, Roger Miller, and the Flaming Lips (whose music I will promptly look into). This anti-hierarchical cosmopolitanism mightn't prove to be the truest way to consume or produce music -- so much that's impressive and lasting has been achieved by people utterly shut off from the civilized order -- but it's the way that's truest to our place and time. Special country music note: this version of "Lock, Stock and Teardrops" is a must-hear. Concepts like the one I hear as having fathered this ("let's superimpose an Alice, Sweet Alice chill over the harmonic form, and set a time feel that injects a pulse into most of the song while floating free of time signatures") are easy to dream up as they are difficult to pull off. (Having tried not-too-dissimilar concepts on my Michael Jackson tribute, I should know!)

4.  Electric Dirt by Levon Helm. More ambitiously orchestrated and tonally varying than his last record, and pure idiot fun to listen to.

5.  Luckyday by Rachelle Garniez. To repeat what I said about Kasey Chambers's last CD: if you use them right, you can say a lot more with friends and neighbors as your accompanists than paunchy, quadruple-scale hotshots. This record amplifies the proposition. You can sense such collegiality and comfort in these wacky, self-assured, just-right performances that you steal a look at the notes to see, What renowned genius is behind this? Answer: None!

6. Blood on the Tracks by Mary Lee's Corvette and Red-headed Stranger by Carla Bozulich. About all these have in common is that they are covers of 1970s albums, and are sung and helmed by women. Otherwise it's a face-off of concept versus no-concept. The latter, on Mary Lee's live recording, makes a surprisingly strong case for itself. There's no prodigious showing-off or creative restructuring on her record (made from a cassette board tape), so how can it be worth listening to over and over? That's a tough one, but I think all involved are sharing an attitude of good humor, relaxed concentration, and respect for the songs that doesn't stiffen into self-consciousness or idolatry. Once again showing how crucial is the attitude that motivates the performance. Carla's record is a brainier, thornier piece of work, and it dulls for me after the first 40 or so minutes; still, as a deep dive into the dark waters of Lake Willie, it's a bracing reminder of the artistry and complexity created by this arena entertainer, dope smoker, IRS nemesis, and all-purpose celebrity. Nels Cline's lap steel playing and Willie Himself's guitar picking are no-kidding beautiful.

7.  Fiddle Tunes I Recall by Lyman Enloe. Sparky, joyous takes on little-known fiddle tunes ("Shaeffer's Lumber Wagon," "Ten Nights in A Bar Room," "Birdie"), with variations in instrumentation and arrangement that are modest yet gratefully received. (Twenty-three unadorned minute-and-a-half songs in a row is potentially too close for comfort to Saddam's military strategy in the Iran-Iraq conflict.) Score another one for social and attitudinal solidarity.

8.  Beautiful World by Eliza Gilkyson. I think Eliza is just fabulous, and thank her for all her natural-sounding, exquisitely sung records.