Dan Crary, Thunderation.

I’ve written about flatpick superman Dan Crary before, and even managed to get something totally wrong to boot. Of the tune “Denouement“, I said:

It is perfectly titled, sublimely beautiful, and a great demonstration of a guitar-cello arrangement.

Ha! Except that weren’t no cello. Having since acquired the Thunderation album, I got schooled in timbre identification, as the liner notes make very clear that this was a viola instead. Well, I’m happy to don the dunce cap in the name of accuracy…

…and that then brings me back to Thunderation, itself. That was my “how about something I haven’t heard in a while?” choice on the commute today.

Oh my word, what a magnificent record that is. Crary may have established himself initially as a bluegrass wizard, but he took his own wizardry in a direction quite distinct from the newgrassers, or Dawg, from the bluegrass roots. For me, he seems to sit somewhere between newgrass and the more overtly Celtic artists like Robin Bullock, and between his wonderful compositions and his glorious showcase of the 12-string instrument, he’s got a voice all his own.

Thunderation has both magnificent originals and very Crary-esque covers, and there’s not a dud in the bunch. His expression and touch are on full display, and…

…and, well, it’s a reminder that I need to get myself a copy of The Renaissance of the Steel String Guitar, because:

See my point?

In the meantime…bookmarked.

Steve Tibbetts.

Another score for Pandora in connecting me with someone I may never have heard otherwise — guitarist Steve Tibbetts.  He seems to get mixed in most on my Dhafer Youssef station, and it’s always a pleasure to hear the sonic unusual-ness that Tibbetts puts together.  His magic, at least from what I’ve heard so far, is simply this:  he is always Interesting.  That’s a very deliberate capital-I;  this is not “interesting” in the dismissive sense, or the “I’ll-get-to-it-later” sense–rather it’s in the purely literal, “what’s he doing/where’s he going with this” sense.  The dude’s got a mojo that way, and I like it.

Today, “Mile 234” from Big Map Idea, inspired me to do a quick peek on YouTube, where I found what appears to be his channel.  The first thing I watched was him doing what appears to be a quick profile of his studio:

See my point?  Interesting.  This use of samples on an acoustic like that has got me thinking…

Just a couple of other teasers, for now.  “Test“:

and this is just the last volume in a series of clips I will have to look at more closely:

Again, those samples, used in a way I’d have not considered.

Bookmarked, and subscribed.  (The channel doesn’t exactly have a lot of volume, but I think I’d want to know when something new comes out here.  🙂

Ralph Towner, ‘Solitary Woman’.

The studio recording of this tune still gives me the chills every time I hear it.  Ralph Towner is usually described with words like “enigmatic” and “quirky”, and from the first time I heard him with the group Oregon I could hear that.  (I was drawn to Oregon for other reasons at the time;  Paul McCandless had just floored me with his musical persona while touring with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and I was mostly listening for reeds.)  It was the trio record with drummer Bill Bruford and bassist Eddie Gomez, If Summer Had Its Ghosts, where I first really heard Towner’s voice as the understated powerhouse it is.

Many years later, it was Pandora that introduced me to the haunting 12-string brood that is “Solitary Woman”.  From first listen I was hooked, and the more I hear it now, the more I like the piece.

Of course, I then wanted to see if I could find a clip of Towner playing it live.  And I have to say, I was surprised.  I have seen two, both relatively recent, and both of them left me asking, “What happened?”

It’s not that I’m expecting him to play it the same way he does on the record–in fact I rather like it when artists re-interpret their own work, and in the “jazz” idiom, it’s nearly expected anyway.  But something just doesn’t seem right.  At the risk of trivializing it, there are big, obvious clams–as in “lost his way” sort of clams.  (And not intentional ones, either;  those have a very different sound.)  The sort of mistakes you’d expect someone like me to make.  It doesn’t fit what (little, admittedly) I know of Towner.

But the biggest thing, for me, is that in the live recordings he seems so…rushed.  One of the giant hallmarks of the studio piece is its simmering patience, especially in the rising-dyad theme that so beautifully frames that giant leading tone.  Both the dynamics and the timing are deliciously infuriating, and I would say it all seems to rise out of a position of resigned, moody patience.  I’d go so far as to say it nearly defines the piece on its own, and I would naturally expect to see Towner go through all sorts of variations and improvisation within that framework.  That’s not in evidence for either of the two recent live clips I’ve seen, and I must conclude that something else may be at work here.

The piece itself, though…man, what a lovely, haunting brood.  Bookmarked!

Jack Rose, ‘Cross the North Fork’.

I found out about the late Jack Rose from Pandora–and I believe this was the first tune of his I heard.  Partway through the lovely moody brood, my brain realized it could not ignore any further.  “Who is this?”

Apparently, Rose was like that.  “Cross the North Fork” is still my favorite of his originals, but I find a lot to like in the listening I have done.

So, more then.  🙂

 

Dan Crary, ‘Lady’s Fancy’.

When I first got blown away by bluegrass music, I do recall running across Dan Crary’s name here and there, but somehow it all got lost after discovering Tony Rice’s astonishing work with the first David Grisman Quintet.  And so it took a number of years for me to circle back around to Crary as a composer.

Mistake.  Dan Crary is a monster and has been for a long time.  When I first started to set up a Pandora station for “work”, Crary was the first seed, and that has turned out to be an inspired choice.

I don’t remember finding a live clip of him playing “Lady’s Fancy” the first time I looked for one, but fortunately, there is at least one!

Duly bookmarked!

Chris Proctor, ‘War Games’.

I dig quite a bit of what Pandora has shown me of Chris Proctor.  “War Games” is quietly insistent, and representative of Proctor’s style.

Interestingly, when I found this clip of him playing it live,

I didn’t even notice the string-dampening gizmo he uses (immediately forward of the bridge, under the strings) until he rips it out mid-tune (1:42 on the timeline), which of course brightens everything up immediately.

Food for thought, indeed.  (And man, have I been craving a twelve-string lately.)