Karen Jonas, Lucky Revisited
Every now and then you run across a recording that's so
audacious that all you can do is applaud its chutzpa. Such a work is the 4th
release from Karen Jonas. This album is sass, poise, and one helluva voice.
Jonas gives us stripped down versions of songs from her back pages, some new
material, and an unapologetic turn-back-the-calendar approach to country music
before it became slick and safe. Her new version of "Lucky" is honed
to a dangerous edge. Jonas sings it as if it's part of the soundtrack of a
gritty film noir film set in a dusty Texas town filled with desperate people.
She positively eviscerates the Golden Fifties myth in "Butter." She
frames her video with an old-style TV screen and melts the song in suggestive
nastiness whose sugary sprinkles are like a diaphanous dress waiting to be
unzipped. Hers is a feminist country music, even when it evokes the past. It
doesn't get any more throwback stylistically than "Ophelia" but then
again, few past country stars could have gotten away with a lyric such as when a man calls you a whore, go on and the
find the closest door…walk out. Want an old-time weepy? "Country Songs" is about a girl who hated country music until she came of age and
had her heart broken: So thank you for
teaching me to sing country songs/For making me so sad I want to sing along.
She completes her stroll through yesteryear with two excellent covers–one of
Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," and Hank
Williams' "Lovesick Blues." ★★★★
John Westmoreland, Cast Fire
Some music grabs you with memorable melody lines, others
with lyrical grace or pulsing energy. John Westmoreland–known for his guitar
work with Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba–stirs your soul. That's exactly where
he's aiming with Cast Fire, an album
full of "grief singing," vocal stylizations borrowed from Karelia.
Don't think depressing; think honorific and contemplative. "The Sparrow" was
inspired by being part of a song/prayer circle attending to a dying man. A
small bird glided into the room, perched upon a lampshade, and just as
gracefully departed. Westmoreland's guitar is at once suggestive of a slow
flamenco and of feathery flight. He allows his bright notes to ring and frame
his expressive baritone voice. "Thomas" honors his departed
grandfather and is a meditation on life, death, and the soul. If the music
sounds Baroque, it's because Westmoreland synchs his nylon-stringed Guild with
a torban, a Ukrainian lute/psaltery
combination. "Open Your Eyes" also evokes an ancient music feel, this
time induced by guitar arpeggios, hand percussion, violin, and bansuri, a wooden flute from India.
Everything on this album is designed to induce inner thought. The gorgeous
notes and fretwork of "Land of the Living" takes you to one part of
the human experience, "All Saints Day" to another. You might notice
that Westmoreland's videos feature a lot of free-style interpretive dance. His
music encourages personal journeys. He takes one of how own on an innovative
cover of "All Along the Watchtower." Maybe you'll do your own dance
to the jazzy but moody instrumental "Waltz in A Minor." Don't flee
from lamentation; remember that laments come from the living. They express
sorrow and regret, but are also cathartic and cleansing. ★★★★
Makrú, Tu Mission
Makrú is a global kitchen sink band from California that
plays a mash of ska, regaae, flamenca, cumbia, rumba, and jazz. This befits a
group whose members were born in Colombia, El Salvador, Spain, Turkey, and the
United States. If you think of the Spanish-speaking world as branching south
and west from Spain into Latin America, you get an idea of the multiple
influences Makrú put into play. On "Cloud," we hear a soft
Caribbean-like melody filtered through a reggae pulse and faintly Middle
Eastern undertones. It, as much of the album, is anchored by the vocals and vihuela (Mexican guitar/timple blend) of
Colombia's Jenny Rodríquez, and the cájon (box drum) and vocals of El Salvador-born Raúl Vargas.
The instrumental "Where You Wanna Be" is a pastiche that moves from
jazzy to dance hall and back to jazz in a start/stop arrangement in which Haluk
Kecelioglu spins out oud (Turkish
lute) notes like a mandolin player. Vargas takes the lead vocals on the titletrack and it too takes twisty turns. It opens with the wistfulness of an island
ballad, but evolves into something akin to a Mexican corrido. I have no Spanish so I can't comment on the song lyrics,
but I do know that Makrú band members are associated with social
activism. I like the eclectic approach of the band, as well as its tendency to
blend traditional styles with the urgency of pop music and the
contemplativeness of jazz. ★★★★
Short Takes
The NoiseTrade sampler of Nicole Boggs and the Reel, Live
at Oceanway serves up soul fused with hard-edged rock. Boggs belts out the
self-descriptive “Life of the Party,” and laments looking for love in all the
wrong places on “Fool for a Fool” and “Sleeping with the Enemy.” If you think
Lake Street Dive’s Rachael Price has a big voice, listen to Boggs.
NoiseTrade recently paired with Paste Magazine and has begun to make past performances available
through the latter's Daytrotter Sessions.
British folk rockers Mumford and Sons now
play large venues. We hear them in a quieter, less glitzy mode on a seven-track
August 30, 2013 stopover in Troy, Ohio, where they jammed with a handful of
friends in an empty high school auditorium. One of the selections is a cover of
Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," but by far the stellar
track is a sensitive rendition of "Like a Hurricane."
Garrett Dutton goes by the handle of G. Love and generally fronts a trio called Special Sauce. Check out
a solo performance titled G. Love Live at Daytrotter. He's
from Philadelphia, but this four-song acoustic country blues set sounds more bayou
than Schuylkill Expressway. My favorite track was "Rainbow," in which
he gives an acoustic slide a fine workout. I also enjoyed the hard driving, good
summer fun "Soulbbq" and "Diggin Roots," which he recently
recorded with Keb' Mo'.
A final blast from the past comes from Daytrotter's sampler
of a Bon Iver concert from July 21,
2008. Back then they had just one album, For Emma, Forever Ago. (The band
would go on to win a Grammy in 2012.) For those who don't know, Bon Iver is the
brainchild of Justin Vernon, and the name a phonetic spelling of the French bon l'hiver, or "good winter."
Vernon hails from Wisconsin, where they know about winter. Bon Iver is often
billed as an indie rock band, though folk with some rock would be a better
description. Listen to "re: Stacks" [sic] to hear the band's soft
side, and "Creature Free" for its now-trademark combo of soft, pause,
speed up, flirt with havoc, and return to soft. Vernon's falsetto lead is
featured on all tracks, the other two being "Flume" and "Lamp Sum."
Rob Weir
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