acoustic – Page 7

Leveret | Cotillion

Leveret is a collaboration among three of England’s most prominent traditional folk musicians. From the band’s site: “Andy Cutting, Sam Sweeney and Rob Harbron are each regarded as exceptional performers and masters of their instruments. Together their performances combine consummate musicianship, compelling delivery and captivating spontaneity. Leveret’s music is not arranged in the conventional sense and instead they rely on mutual trust, listening and responding. Their playing is relaxed and natural, drawing audiences in and inviting them to share in music making that is truly spontaneous and yet deeply timeless … Leveret’s music is firmly rooted in the English tradition but sounds fresh and new” … the trio’s “trademark groove, energy and intuitive playing” lands them in the territory of “finest tunesmiths in the folk field.”

The subtleties of which instrument is leading and which are following, the seasoned communication among the member of the trio, and the rock-solid time throughout are among the most noticeable features of this live performance of “Cotillion” (2022). The smooth and subtly shifting textures among the melodeon, concertina, and fiddle are quite hypnotic, making the modulation up a fourth (2:40) all the more impactful.

The Roches | Hammond Song

“The Roches were a magical musical act, influenced by barber-shop style tight harmonies, Irish melodies, bee-pop and the Brill Building writers,” (HotPress.com). “They wrote – either solo or in various combinations – songs about: their lives together and apart; sweaty train journeys; cheating husbands; dogs; waitressing; family secrets; trips to Ireland; and, sometimes, even an impossible and improbable relationship.

They didn’t fit in, but by not fitting in they presented the perfect template for all the rest of us who felt we didn’t fit in either. They eventually found a way to fit in by creating – stealing might even be a better word – a space for themselves in a music business distracted and preoccupied by rock, disco, and punk …they were not scared to show their horizons lay way beyond the perceived limits of folk, or any other contemporary music, for that matter.”

A track from the trio’s debut self-titled album (1979), “Hammond Song,” gives voice to the inevitable forks in life’s road and the consequences which follow. The Roche sisters’ keening vocal delivery is immediately recognizable after only a few notes. Their nearly vibrato-free vocal style would be quite unforgiving of any intonation issues, but the Roches’ excellent ears and unfettered originality turned into their force-of-nature delivery into their indelible signature. After a start in Eb major, 2:37 brings a shift to Bb major, and then there’s a reversion to the original key at 3:28. Both modulations slip by during relative lulls in the volume and texture of this otherwise rich vocal tapestry.

James Taylor | Letter in the Mail

An excerpt from TheGreatAlbums‘ review of 1988’s album Never Die Young: “Taylor’s final outing of the ‘80s doesn’t contain any surprises, although the absence of any cover song is a bit of a shock since most of his post-‘Fire and Rain’ hits had been covers and Taylor had seldom released an album without one. Never Die Young is almost equal parts comprised of Taylor’s trademark ballads and easygoing grooves tailor-made for adult-contemporary radio.”

So much for the singles. But “Letter in the Mail” is a gorgeous track buried in the middle of Never Die Young. Taylor’s tunesmithing was so refined by this point that the tune casually modulates between the intro and the first verse. But the subject matter couldn’t have been more serious: rock-ribbed rural America, hollowed out and depopulated, still proudly carrying on as best as possible even after the industrial or agricultural engine(s) of the community have long since departed.

When people used to talk about the country
That’s what they used to mean …

The intro starts in F major, followed by a verse in F# major. At 1:11, the pre-chorus shifts to A major; at 1:39, the chorus shifts back to F# major. At 2:14, another verse appears, this time in G major. 3:09’s pre-chorus is in Bb major. At 3:37, another chorus is back to G major — which is the key that finishes out the tune.

ALDA | Fen-Fire Polska

From the website of Finnish traditional acoustic trio Alda: “The story of ALDA started in January 2018 on a late night at a folk music festival somewhere outside Helsinki, Finland. We had all met and heard each other play before, but never really had the opportunity to play tunes together – until now. It turned into a five-hour wild mayhem of energy, grooves, improvisations, crazy harmonies, and lots and lots of tunes …

ALDA was born in the aftermath of that session. – ‘We have to do this again!’ we thought to ourselves. So, we started composing and working on new music for the combination of saxophone, violin, and piano. The music that we have created is, just as its musicians, deeply rooted in the rich musical traditions of Finland and Sweden, based on traditional types of tunes such as polskas, polkas, schottisches, and waltzes … The energy of that first session is ever-present in what we do. Even as a band we regularly get together for sessions to remind ourselves why we fell in love with playing together in the first place.”

After a start in Bb major, the 2021 tune “Fen-Fire Polska” morphs into G major at 2:59, then reverts to the original key at 3:51, never losing its strong 3/4 drive.

please click on the image to hear the tune!

Nickel Creek | Stumptown

“Mandolinist-singer Chris Thile, guitarist-singer Sean Watkins, and fiddler-singer Sara Watkins recorded their self-titled debut for Sugar Hill in 2000,” (AcousticMusic.com). “The band had a lot going for it. Its members were young, spunky, and nice to look at on CMT; they were good musicians and singers, and brought a youthful edge to a music that seldom reached a youthful market. Indeed, the most surprising thing about Nickel Creek was that three, young with-it teenagers would choose to play anything resembling bluegrass, and that they, as Alison Krauss had some years earlier, were able to make acoustic music seem kind of cool.

The band’s third album, Why Should the Fire Die? (2005), (is) an intense, innovative album … Detractors will argue that Nickel Creek has strayed far from the traditional bluegrass path, but even the group’s first and most conservative effort wasn’t traditional. The problem with traditional-progressive conflicts is that they don’t tell you much about the quality of the music itself. Quite possibly, Nickel Creek doesn’t even qualify—at this point—as traditional, progressive, or any other kind of bluegrass. They are, however, an exciting band because they’ve brought new elements into acoustic music, giving it a potent injection of youthful vigor.”

After a starting in E major, a shift to G major is in effect from 1:02 – 1:18, where the band hiccups back into the original key.

Liz Story | Things With Wings

Pianist Liz Story studied music at Hunter College and at Juilliard. “Although she was an accomplished pianist, (she) lost interest in a music career until she saw Bill Evans play one night at the Bottom Line in New York,” (MusicianGuide). “That concert opened up performance possibilities that she had never considered. ‘What hit me was the improvisation. I had the impression that improvising music had died in the 18th century, that it was a musical feat people knew about in some other time,’ she told DownBeat. ‘All these lights went on. I had, for the first time, a clear idea of what I would do in music.’

The timing of Story’s entrance onto the music scene was fortuitous. She arrived when a new form of music, popularly dubbed New Age, was gaining wide acceptance. William Ackerman helped pioneer New Age music through his Windham Hill label, which he formed in 1976 to release his first album of guitar music … Story recorded her first solo album, Solid Colors, for Windham Hill in 1983. High Fidelity reviewed the album: ‘ … a virtually flawless technical capacity, a fine gift for melody, a great sense of creative passion … a performer-composer with the melodic power to move an audience.’ Story claims that she desires simplicity in her compositions. ‘When I sit at the piano, complexity dissolves. I want music to somehow move me, simple and stripped down as it may be. I wonder at the possibility that a melody of three notes can turn the heart.'”

Story’s 1983 track “Things With Wings” begins in F major; at 1:03, there’s a modulation to F# major, then a reversion to the original key at 1:46.

Gabriel Kahane | Sit Shiva

Composer/songwriter/pianist/vocalist Gabriel Kahane occupies a very specific part of the musical firmament. His work has ranged from pop-inflected solo voice and piano to orchestral and chamber works. “I’m sort of trying to reconcile the very direct songwriter in me with the guy who’s interested in architecture and formal rigor and harmonic and rhythmic expansiveness or complexity,” (WBUR).

Kahane’s label, Nonesuch, describes his upcoming 2022 release Magnificent Bird: “The album … chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet … (It) revels in the tension between quiet, domestic concerns, and the roiling chaos of a nation and planet in crisis. ‘Sit Shiva,’ the album’s first single … finds Kahane skirting the rules of his digital hiatus in order to mourn, online, the death of his maternal grandmother; in typical fashion, he mines not just pathos, but humor and grace amidst his family’s grief.

In October 2020, the final month of his tech sabbatical, Kahane set out to write a song every day. ‘I wanted to create an aural brain scan at the end of this experiment,’ he explains, ‘and to give myself permission to write about small things, rather than trying to distill the enormity of the moment into grand statements. … My internet hiatus grew out of a belief that at root, our digital devices reinforce the fiction that convenience and efficiency have intrinsic value. That has implications with respect to climate crisis, to inequality, to our (in)ability to see ourselves in each other, to build the kinds of coalitions necessary to make a more just world. I wanted to leave it all behind not as a further expression of techno-pessimism, but rather in search of a positive alternative.'”

“Sit Shiva” is named after the Jewish tradition of the early part of mourning after a death of a loved one. In the case of the passing of Kahane’s grandmother, the video suggests an acutely modern version of the ritual. The tune, in C# major overall, is punctuated by a bridge in E major (2:25 – 2:43).

Nickel Creek | Love of Mine

Acoustic trio Nickel Creek‘s first self-released recordings appeared in the 1990s; its platinum-selling eponymous major label debut was in 2000. 2014’s A Dotted Line appeared after a break of nearly a decade. “There’s a fluid confidence that takes (Nickel Creek’s) precocious virtuosity into a musicianship that is as supple as it is kinetic,” (Paste). “…the progressive bluegrass they embraced as teenagers is a mere starting point—integrating the places the trio explored during the seven years since they released a studio project.

(Mandolinist/vocalist) Chris Thile emerges as perhaps the unrepentant romantic. ‘Love of Mine,’ with his voice tenderly tentative, weightlessly caresses what might be (then later might not). The see-saw of emotions is so well-reflected in how the instruments tangle, merge and fall out—paralleling what’s being sung … Not merely a product of maturity, Nickel Creek has grown without losing its palpable joy or wondrous ability to make musicianship as accessible as the engaging way their voices draw listeners to them.”

After a start in F# minor, a brief foray into F minor appears at 0:44 before reverting to the original key at 0:51. The two keys then proceed to quarrel it out to a draw, the intensity of the upward key changes only magnified by the common melody note on either side of the modulation.

Pat Metheny | In Her Family

“Pat Metheny’s love of Brazilian music comes into full bloom on 1987’s Still Life (Talking); it’s not the only stylistic element at play here, but it’s the most striking one,” (Apple Music). “The band is highly polished and coupled with Metheny’s crystalline production, the sound of the title track — and the rest of the album — sparkles.” Sierra Music describes “In Her Family,” the album-closing track, “one of Pat’s most haunting, pensive, and beautiful ballads.”

After a start in Ab minor, a simple, largely stepwise melody is greatly magnified by a bridge which takes flight over sweeping multi-key terrain (1:22-2:12). At 2:12, we’ve reverted to the original key, with short melodic phrases once again allowing the harmonies to take center stage.

TinWhistler | Down By The Sally Gardens

“Down By The Sally Gardens” is a traditional Irish folk song based on a poem by W.B Yeats, performed here by the duo TinWhistler. “We’re PJ and JJ, two brothers from the Mediterranean island of Mallorca,” they say in the description of their group on YouTube. “We mostly play traditional Irish music but also other kinds of “Celtic music”: Scottish, Breton, Galician, Asturian… Mostly on Irish tin whistles/low whistles (PJ) and guitar (JJ).” You can learn more and order their album on their Bandcamp page. Key change at 2:12.