Soulsha, Carry It On
Score one for boldness. Soulsha is a band that blends
Scottish grooves with funk and uses melody to serve rhythm. It is the
brainchild of Elias Alexander (vocals, fiddle, Highland pipes) and Neil
Pearlman (keys, accordion), both of whom are American but are well versed in Scottish
and world music. As Alexander tells it, they had their minds blown during a
trip to New Orleans and decided to form a Scottish funk fusion band. Their 8-
sometimes 9-piece band includes Senegalese percussion artist Lamine Touré, a
kit drummer, a saxophonist, a trumpet player, guitars, and electric bass. The
sometimes-9th member is none other than Galen Fraser, the son of Alasdair
Fraser. Don't be fooled by track titles such as "Isle of Skye Reel"
or "A'Ghirian," though. In each case you'll get blasts of brass,
chunky bass lines, and talking drums to go with the bagpipes and fiddle. The
band's normal MO is to lay down an accented funk groove and use it as the
springboard for launching into energetic reels. As you'll quickly surmise, the
reel is usually the Celtic club of choice for high energy stimuli; this is a
jump-up-and-down-and-sweat kind of band. Check out the live performance of the
aptly named "Rhythm's in the Melody." You'd not be wrong to think
that Soulsha's also a rave band. Another in this spirit is "Fetchal (Let'sDance)." Listen to the inflections in Alexander's vocals on the title track and you'll think Paul Simon's Graceland
album. It's not all gyration and jive. The most "Scottish" track is
"Standing in the Water," with its grand and sweeping melody.
"Beautiful Line" uses echo vocal effects, but it too ratchets down
the pace. For the most part, though, Touré, kit drummer Chris Southiere, and
the rhythm section (Jake Galloway and Dylan Sherry) place their beats and
pulses front and center, a flip of the usual Western pattern of melody first.
Soulsha isn't the first band to fuse Celtic and African music–Baka Beyond has
been around since 1992 and the Afro Celt Sound System since 1995–but they are certainly
a ray of light on the musical horizon. If you speak no Scots Gaelic, Soulsha is
a play on the Gaelic soillse, which
means, well, ray of light. ★★★★
The Tall Pines, Love is the Reason
With a name like The Tall Pines, you're probably thinking
Appalachian bluegrass. If so, you are not even in the same ballpark. This power
duo of Connie Lynn Petruk and Christmas Davies–yeah, that's his name–like to
get down in the mud. Petruk's voice is sometimes compared to that of Bobbie
Gentry and when they describe their own music as "shack-shakin,'
foot-stompin' folk rock," they are not engaging in PR hyperbole. They have recently dropped a new album
titled Skeletons of Soul and have
released a short NoiseTrade sampler of back material as an appetizer. "Boogie Pt. 1" is swamp rock with Davies putting on his best Dr. John
growl. Petruk is a real force of nature. "Give It All You Got" is
more than a song title. It's full of grit and soul and Petruka doesn't believe
in letting any air linger in her lungs. She goes badass country rock in
"Dirty Cousin," and gets retro in "Howl Me Your Heartache."
The latter begins introspective, builds the pain, and takes you lower than low
down. And, yeah, she howls! ★★★★
Lucy Isabel, Rambling Stranger
Lucy Isabel's 3rd release, Rambling Stranger, is aptly named. She's a Nashville artist by way
of New Jersey and Yale–not your usual career arc. Her new songs often express
dislocation. It opens with "How It Goes," a song so good I sort of
wish she had saved it for mid-release as it's hard to get back to the energy
and dynamism of this track. John Prentice kicks it off with booming, bold
electric guitar (with a touch of slide). Then come the percussion, the bass
groove, and Isabel's voice. When she croons, You want to be free/To be lonely with me you almost think that that
the cur slipped out as the guitar wailed. Isabel changes the mood with the
Appalachian influenced "Something New," but it too has a there/not
there theme. In this case, she films herself against the off-season Jersey
shore to enhance the mood of feeling split between homes past and the present.
She gives us more desolation in "Lucky Stars." This stripped down
song lets us hear the lovely ornaments in Isabel's voice. We also hear its
expressiveness when she sings: I slept
with my guitar/In my arms last night/ 'Cause I didn't to think/I was alone….
"Little Bird" is another (semi) sad song done in a quasi-bluegrass
style. In this case, it's a tale of needing to leave the cage and spread her
wings. Another one to explore is "False Prophet." No, it's not political,
rather another song about disconnection: The
way you look at me/It's clear to me/You don't understand. This one has a
don't-piss-off-a-songwriter feel to it. Ms. Isabel is the real deal, so check
her out. ★★★★
Moken, Missing Chapters
Moken Nunga is a Cameroonian immigrant now based in Atlanta
after a stint in Detroit. Missing
Chapters is a natural sequel to his 2016 release Chapters of My Life. He is hard to classify–the sort of artist to
whom you're likely to gravitate instantly or not at all. His is the
Africa-meets-the-West style that defines highlife music, but he crosses many
other stylistic borders as well. His musical influences include African lions
such as Francis Beby and Miriam Makeba, but also Western legends such as James
Brown, Nat King Cole, and Van Morrison. The biggest influence of all is Nina
Simone and this is evident in Moken's vocal technique of switching between his
resonant baritone and falsetto tones. "Yen nin" translates as
"look for life," and it's a dance tempo blend of highlife and Afropop
whose melody lines are backed by saxophone, groove guitar, and thick bass
lines. It contrasts with "Your Son is Rising," which has the sleepy
feel of a Bayou ballad crossed with a gospel shout, and a crooner's
sentimentality. We get a splash of Borderlands corrido in "Tequila Song
" and the fiddle parts of "Mi Amor" work off the persistent
percussion foundation to create something akin to an Afropop Roma mash. The
song that will probably grab the most is "Machine Man." I am one of
many who likes to quote one it's lines: I became a machine, but with a human
heart. In the video Moken sets the song in the broken streets of Detroit
and lets that backdrop provide its own social commentary as Moken assumes the
persona of a shaman singing the blues. The open question is whether Moken will
be your cup of tea. In my view, he overdoes the deep-to-falsetto effect. I
could also do with less melodrama. It raises the question of whether he crosses
the line between musician and performance artist. But you should decide for
yourself. Moken Nunga intrigues me, but to reiterate my first point, he is
acquired taste. ★★★
Short Takes
Let's hear it for World
Peace, a new collection from the
good folks at Putumayo World Music.
It is exactly as advertised. Keb' Mo' gets
the ball rolling with "Wake Up Everybody," and ain't it the truth? Jackson Browne weighs in with his
Caribbean-flavored "It Is One," and Nina Simone (1933-2003) never let anyone off the hook. Her "IWish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" is a reminder of what an
enormous talent she was and how sad it is that this song could have been
written yesterday. Other artists include: India Arie, Richard Bona, and David
Broza and Wycleaf Jean.
I love living where I do, though it must be said that most
of my town's street buskers are pretty terrible. When I was in Ontario recently
I heard Luke Prosser singing on the street. He and a traveling buddy caught my ear
and Luke sent me this link to his Mercy and Forgiveness CD. In my
view, Prosser is more dynamic live, but for those looking for some for some
good Christian music, this one is an honest telling of fall and redemption. https://lukeprosser.bandcamp.com/releases
Speaking of
Christian music, I know a lot of people who won't go anywhere near it but think
nothing of listening to Buddhist chants, Indian ragas, or Sufi praise music. If
you've not heard Christian music lately, your POV is frozen in time. Jacob Everett Wallace is a Texas-based
pastor, small business owner, and singer songwriter and the man has a great
voice and writes meaningful songs. Sample his new EP Arrows and you'll see
what I mean. No matter what you think, a song like "Human Condition" makes
you think when he sings, We know what we
want, but we don't know who we are. Jimmy Carter once (sort of) said the
same thing. Wallace calls his style acoustic indie-rock. It sounds like folk to
me, but no matter the label, material such as "Cold War" and
"Skelton Army" unsettle complacency (in a good way).
Rob Weir
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