VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Mountain Music Project
Mountain Music MMJ
2614
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The challenge of all concepts is to translate vision into
accessibility. In 1983, The Chieftains proved that Western and Asian musicians could
make beautiful music together. The
Mountain Music Project seeks to expand the idea. Producer Danny Knicely operates
from the assumption that hills are hills, whether the mountains are the
Appalachians or the Himalayas; that it makes no difference if a wooden flute comes
from Ireland or the Himalayas (bansuri); and
that fiddles are fiddles, whether they are finely crafted, or roughly hewn from
a chunk of wood and finished with a sheath of goatskin stretched across the
chamber (sarangi). He then gathered American
bluegrass and Nepali musicians and told them to make mountain music together.
The results are mixed, though it’s no fault of the musicians
from Nepal’s musical Gandharba caste. On The
Mountain Project, the Nepali musicians (Buddhiman, Manoj, Jagat, and Ganesh
Gandharba) do a better job of upholding their traditions than some of the
Americans do with Appalachian songs. The instrumentals are so good on both
sides of the divide that one can instantly hear why Danny Knicely and Tara
Linhardt conceived the project. Buddhiman Gandharba’s raw sarangi notes and vocals on “Sita Rani Ma” are a perfect parallel
to Tim O’Brien’s yearnful “Going Across the Sea;” both sing and play their fiddles
as if they were the lost grandchildren of Tommy Jarrell. Put them together on a
song like “My Home is Across the Blue Ridge Mountains” and the synergy is even
more obvious. Bring in some more Yanks–Curtis Burch (dobro), Mark Schatz
(bass), Tony Trischka (banjo), and beautiful sounds meld. And the producers
were right about the flutes; either Jagat Gandharba’s bansuri or Aaron Olwell’s Irish flute fill the aural spaces nicely.
I wish the same could be said for all the singing. I don’t know the vocal work
Knicely or Ricky Baugus well enough to say whether the recording is badly
balanced or if they are weak singers, but I can say that what we hear on this
album gets overwhelmed by the mix. Bottom line: hills are hills, but not all
vocals are created equally. --Rob Weir
Check out the very crisp trailer from the related film project.
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