Sam Gleaves and Tyler Hughes
Sam Gleaves and Tyler Hughes
Community Music
The unpretentious title of
this album is also its dominant mood. This is Appalachian music featuring warm,
inviting vocals and fancy pickin’ that never sounds like showing off. Sam
Gleaves made a splash a while back with his admission that he’s gay and proud.
That wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in much of the urban Northeast, but it was an
act of courage in the backwoods part of Virginia from which he hails. Here’s
the deal, though. A confessional such as his will get huzzahs from the LGBTQ
community and its allies, but you still need to be good if you want applause
from music fans. So get this in your head: he’s not just good, he makes
mountain music the way it ought to be made. This record, a collaboration with a
fellow Virginian, Tyler Hughes, is the sort you’ll dust off any time you feel
like you need to get back in touch with things fundamental and time-honored. One listen to “Living with Memories” will remind you you’re hearing the real
deal, not a bunch of studio enhancements. It’s an elemental sort of country weepy, but there's not a false note to be heard. It made me think back to the days in which music was supposed to connect on the personal level, not make you stare at the musicians like they were gods. Is it a bit corny? Sure, but it also invokes walking by a neighbor's house when he looks up and says, "Hey--want to hear an old song my grandfather used to play?"
Gleaves and Hughes are
equally sublime on the delicate harmonies of the wholesome “When We Love,” the
breakout solos and forays into the minor key of “Georgia Row,” and “Mister Rabbit,” an Appalachian children’s song popularized by Burl Ives that is
rendered here in a more folkloristic style. Gleaves and Hughes also give us a
pastoral remake of “I Can’t Sit Down” to make Sister Rosetta Tharpe smile from the
Beyond. (I caint sit down/I caint sit
down/Just got to heaven and I’ve got to walk around.] They give a spiritual
twist to “I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew” and make “Lonesome Homesick
Blues” sound like we tuned in the Wheeling Jamboree on Sunday afternoon. Two
soothing high tenor voices and enough instruments to fill a music shop: guitar,
fiddle, autoharp, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer…. These are songs and tunes that
scurry and circle, slow down and crawl, give a swift kick and lift your soul to
the clouds. It such fun that it’s easy to overlook just how accomplished it is.
Call it honest, earnest music that will melt the stony heart of a flinty cynic.
Rob Weir
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