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I DRAW SLOW
Turn Your Face to the Sun
Compass Records
Here's a recording in the tradition of Nickel Creek, Alison
Krauss, and Ryan Adams. Who knew that some of the very best purveyors of North
Carolinian bluegrass are Irish? I Draw Slow is built around the brother/sister
collaboration of Dubliners Dave (guitar/vocals) and Louise Holden (vocals), and is rounded out by Adrian Hart (fiddle), Colin Derham (clawhammer banjo), and
Konrad Liddy (double bass). The Holdens excel at close harmony singing, but
Louise is a treasure in her own right—she of the strong, clear voice tinged
with just the right amount of husk.
I do not exaggerate when I say that this is music that makes
you wonder if the Wicklow Mountains were magically transported to the suburbs
of Asheville. Like the best bluegrass/trad folk bands, I Draw Slow mixes
darkness and light, though they list a bit more to the former. What's really
cool is that they take you to dark places with a smile on your lips. The album's
title comes from a line in the opening track, "Maria," in which Dave
sings: Turn back Marie, don't follow
me/Maria, turn your face to the sun/Oh my Maria/Oh, if you knew what I had done.
This is your classic bluegrass bad man tale, complete with its Will I always be alone lamentation.
Generally, though, this band makes you think by sneaking up on you. There is,
for example, "Don't Wake the Children," a quiet song with a melody
more gorgeous than a week full of power ballads. It's so pretty you'd be excused
for thinking it a lullaby, though it's really about the gnawing worry that life
is slipping away without measure or reckoning: Is
this the midway or the end?/Hands over your heart, do you sleep or just
pretend?/I'd like to reach across the stone/Each wonderful day that we are
flesh as well as bone/So don't wake the children, don't wake the children just
yet. And there's "Apocalypso," a love song, but of the Devil take
the hind parts variety. Louise Holden is absolutely stunning on this one (and
every other track as well)—ethereal of voice, yet full of verve and energy at
the same time. Another stellar track is "My Portion," which is about
the journey of addicts of all varieties, so I guess that covers all of us. It
includes the wonderful line: Oh, love you
give what I need/You take like a one-armed bandit.
If you'd prefer lyrics a bit less cryptic, try "Twin Sisters," (at 4:40) another bluegrass staple: the love-me-or-I'll-die high-energy
song (What'' I do if I can't have you), framed
by deliberately raw scratch fiddle. Or perhaps the mountain wedding song
"Same Old Dress Will Do," or the more country-laced, flat-picked
"Garage Flowers," a duet-commit-or-leave song: Hey honey, I was wondering where you've been/Because if you don't ring
the bell then you won't get in/I'm not getting any younger waiting home alone
for you/If you're just gonna leave these garage flowers and push on through.
If you listen carefully you'll hear some Irish references,
but mainly you'll marvel over how well I Draw Slow has mastered American folk
and bluegrass. I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised; after all, scores
of Yanks play Irish music. A lot of them can but dream of mastering the songs
of Erin with the mastery in which these five sons and daughters of the Auld Sod
have carved out their own little piece of Appalachia.
Rob Weir
Postscript: Some might have heard of I Draw Slow from their song "Valentine," which appeared in a Game of Thrones episode.
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