Tag: acoustic

Graham Rorie | Babiche

“Orcadian fiddle and mandolin player Graham Rorie is an award-winning folk musician based in Glasgow,” his site reports. “A finalist in the 2021 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year and graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Traditional Music Degree, Graham has been making a name for himself as a performer, composer, session musician and producer.”

The bio continues: “While still in the early stages of his career, Graham has gained a wealth of performance experience appearing at festivals including Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours (Canada), Festival Interceltique de Lorient (France) and Celtica Valle D’Aosta (Italy).” The piece “Babiche” is part of “a new suite of music composed by Rorie to tell the story of Orcadians who traveled to Northern Canada between 1600 and 1900 to work for The Hudson’s Bay Company. Orcadians, according to the history website Orkneyjar, are “the indigenous inhabitants of the Orkney islands of Scotland. Historically, they are descended from the Picts, Norse, and Scots.”

Starting in E major, a middle section in an inversion-heavy C# major (2:14) returns triumphantly to the main melody and original key at 2:54. Many thanks to our champion contributor JB for submitting this tune!

Fourth Moon feat. Ainsley Hamill | The Vale

According to its website, Fourth Moon “were born in 2014 from the meeting between two French musicians (Jean-Christophe Morel, violin; Jean Damei on guitar), an Austrian (Geza Frank, bagpipes and flutes) and a Scot (Mohsen Amini, concertina) … In 2016 the line up changed, introducing David Lombardi from Italy on violin and more recently Andrew Waite from Scotland on accordion.”

The Edinburgh TradFest noted: “The result feels fresh and often exhilarating … showing how traditional musicianship and instruments can be used to produce a truly original sound, Fourth Moon take a mixture of tunes, many of them self penned, and put together sets that play around with styles and tempos and deliver the unexpected.” 

The Herald of Scotland reviewed the Glasgow-based band as giving “thought to texture, tone and tempo that can call to mind a chamber music group in terms of sound quality and tonal range.” The ensemble’s seamless handling of tempo changes is clear on 2018’s “The Vale,” where the band is joined by vocalist Ainsley Hamill, a Scottish singer and songwriter who performs in English, Scots, and Gaelic. There are key changes at 0:54, 1:12, 1:30, 1:49, and 3:17.

Many thanks to our regular contributor JB for this tune!

Shoshana Bean | I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Written and originally recorded by Whitney Houston, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards, and was Houston’s first platinum single in the US with over a million copies sold. This cover, performed by singer/songwriter and Broadway actress Shoshana Bean with Troy Laureta on keys, features some subtle reharmonization and a key change at 2:52.

Jonatha Brooke | Back in the Circus

A singer/songwriter since the early 90s, Jonatha Brooke has a sound which the San Francisco Chronicle describes as “catchy original melodies and thorny lyrics.” She rode the tectonic shifts of that era’s music business: “I was in the middle of a national tour when (the record label) MCA dropped me. One second you’re a princess on the throne, and the next week no one will return your phone calls.”

AllMusic reviews Brooke’s 2004 release, Back in the Circus: “(Brooke’s) perseverance has paid off. Like Aimee Mann, she’s maneuvered a broken staircase of fluctuating acceptance, band breakups, and record label shakeups with nimble feet and a consistent songwriting vision. Now, she’s arrived on the top floor landing with Back in the Circus, a typically audacious effort that showcases her singing and writing even as it flirts with new musical directions … The title track is an unbalanced and dizzying cocktail, with accordion, keys, guitar, and laptops all joining in the fray. ‘Back in the circus / But at least I know the routine / Got back-to-back matinees / Me and the drag queens.’ Is the roller coaster ride a reference to her career, or life in general?”

The tune’s spare accompaniment could indeed be mistaken for a circus pit band, keeping the lyric front and center. The Bb minor verse gives way to Ab minor on the chorus (initially at 1:03).

Bob Kelly | I Was Young

“I Was Young” is the opening track on composer/pianist Bob Kelly‘s debut EP Open Road, released earlier this month. Kelly’s website notes that he is ” … a NYC-based pianist, composer, and music director. His work as a music director, pianist, and orchestrator/arranger for musical theatre includes productions and educational programs throughout NYC and across the country.”

Featuring vocalists Andrew Way and Daniel Youngelman, the song modulates at 2:23.

Dar Williams | Write This Number Down

Acoustic/folk singer/songwriter Dar Williams “fits short stories into song,” reports Seattle’s The Stranger, “assesses the moral magnetic compass of the Xer generation, at least, and stays so catchy that you barely realize you’re being tested. Until you get the CD home and check out the lyrics.”

A review in The New Yorker praised Williams: ” … her songs are beautiful. Some are like finely crafted short stories. They are, variously, devastatingly moving, tenderly funny, subtle without being in any way inaccessible, and utterly fresh—not a cliché or a clunker in her entire songbook, which now numbers around a hundred recorded original compositions.”

Williams’ 2012 release “Write This Number Down,” submitted by frequent contributor JB, begins in Eb major. After several short and deliberate verses, the tune finds a more open vista during a brighter, fuller bridge (1:45) as it climbs up to F major. A step back down to Eb accompanies another verse at 2:10. But the musicality of the tune aside, JB calls particular attention to the civics-centered lyrics, a commonplace in Williams’ work:

A vote for one, a vote for all
A right to silence, one free call
You’ll need a warrant for that
No, she won’t sit in the back,
And yes, we’re still abolishing all slavery
Every kind of slavery

Celso Fonseca | Sem Resposta

Time Out Sao Paolo defines Música Popular Brasileira (Popular Brazilian Music or MPB), as “a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music in Brazil that revisits typical Brazilian styles such as Samba … and other Brazilian regional music, combining them with foreign influences, such as jazz and rock … The term is often also used to describe any kind of music with Brazilian origins and ‘voice and guitar style’ that arose in the late 1960s.”

Celso Fonseca, a Brazilian composer, producer, guitarist and singer, has been active within MPB since the 1980s. Starting as an accompanist, composer, and producer, he added solo artist to his resume in the 1990s. The BBC praises Fonseca: “although (he) has played a significant part in producing much of what is good in contemporary Brazilian music, he is hardly a household name abroad.”

“Sem Resposta” (1999), which roughly translates to “No Response,” features an intro (through 0:20) in D major; a verse in D minor (heard for the first time 0:20); and a chorus in D major (0:40). The pattern continues from there.

Tommy Emmanuel | I Have Always Thought of You

Australian solo acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Tommy Emmanuel has made a global career for himself over the years, covering melody, bassline, and accompaniment alike. The readers of Guitar Player magazine have twice voted him “Best Acoustic Guitarist” (2008 and 2010).

The Las Vegas Review/Journal quotes Emmanuel as saying “Chet Atkins actually said something in an interview about me that struck a chord with me. He said, ‘This guy’s the most fearless musician I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen another player who can go jam with a jazz band and then play Django (Reinhardt) tunes and then play Spanish music and then play all of my stuff.’ I don’t know whether it’s my ignorance or my innocence, but I’ve always felt that if I understood anything at all (about a certain style of music), I’d be ready to jump in and you can throw me a solo and I’ll have a go at it.”

According to Emmanuel’s website, the respect was mutual from the moment Emmanuel, at age six, heard Atkins playing on the radio. “…Like Dylan, who made a pilgrimage from the Midwest to New York to meet his idol, Woody Guthrie, Tommy always knew he had to get to Chet. To let Chet hear his music, which had been so shaped by his years listening, and absorbing, Chet’s genius. When he finally made that trek around the globe to meet the man himself, in Nashville, their bond was immediate, and like their music, existed beyond words. Chet picked up his guitar, and the two men jammed joyously for hours. It started a lifelong friendship which shaped Tommy’s music forever.”

2000’s “I Have Always Thought of You” starts in D major but modulates to C# minor from 1:22 – 1:44 and again from 2:17 – 2:38.

Tom Lehrer | We Will All Go Together When We Go

Today we feature a guest post from frequent MotD contributor Jonathan Jharms Harms — Tom Lehrer’s “We Will All Go Together When We Go” (1967).

“Lots of unprepared modulations to communicate the unhinged nature of the song, while still keeping the ‘high propriety’ style intact to mask the insanity. Guess I’m specifically referencing verses 3 and 6. Those two have unnatural unprepared modulations that both evoke military marches and unstable harmonic shifts, but they’re mixed in with more natural 1/2 step increases from verse to verse, a much more normal form of modulation.”

Jacob Collier | Hallelujah

I have posted Jacob Collier singing a different arrangement of this same song here before, but I came across this rendition today, filmed a few days ago, and it is so transcendent that I have to share it again. As Collier says before he begins, “It starts in C Major, but we’ll see where it ends up,” making it particularly fitting for this page.