The latest releases by Peter Gabriel - I/O. Brittany Howard - What Now, Beyonce - Cowboy Carter, and Gary Clark Jr - JPEG RAW, have songs that are connected by ambient music, spoken word interludes, and in the case of Brittany Howard, the musical drone of crystal bowls. The production on these albums is layered and complex, and maybe even over-produced, though in glorious ways. They make a statement that technical studio wizardry is every bit as legitimate as organic music. Though the songs are fine as stand-alone singles, listeners can set a mood by playing the entire collections from start to finish. I was prepared to write this piece about the return of the long play artform that began decades ago and helped to launch FM radio formats. The return still may be true, but I鈥檓 struck by a couple of newer albums with stripped down production and instruments created before the year 2000, that showcase masterful songwriting and tight arrangements.
The Wood Brothers have been favorites of Open Air hosts for well over a decade. Frontman Oliver Wood just released his second solo album Fat Cat Silhouette. The core band toured as a trio including Wood, Jano Rix (multi-instrumentalist and producer and part of the Wood Brothers) and bassist Ted Pecchio. Like the Wood Brothers catalog, Fat Cat Silhouette features Oliver Wood鈥檚 distinctive vocals and gritty guitar tone, and the highly coordinated work of Jano Rix playing drums and keyboards simultaneously while providing great harmonies with a groove held together by Ted Pecchio鈥檚 tasty bass lines. Wood and Pecchio have been friends and musical partners going back to Col Bruce Hampton鈥檚 Codetalkers. Along with Rix, these musicians seem to be able to finish each other's musical sentences so to speak and that familiarity makes for tight tracks that range from subtle folky tunes to funk grooves that find the sweet spot between rock, folk and blues - with a splash of gospel. In the era of high gloss production, this album was recorded live in the studio before being finished in the booth. The live sound gives it a satisfying raw feel made all the more warm by the contrast of overdriven guitar keyboard and guitar sounds, under perfect harmonies.
On a similar note, the supergroup Bonny Light Horseman released the epic-length 20-track double album Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free in late Spring. The band consists of singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Tony award winning creator of the Broadway sensation Hadestown - Anais Mitchell, with Eric D Johnson (Fruit Bats, The Shins) and Josh Kaufman (The National, Hiss Golden Messenger, Josh Ritter). With a rich background in different genres of music both performing and producing, Bonny Light Horseman has a diverse folk rock sound that is simultaneously fresh and original but so familiar it鈥檚 as if you鈥檝e heard these songs before but can鈥檛 figure out where. The new release was recorded live in Levis Corner House (pronounced 鈥渓eh-viss鈥�), an Irish pub in Ballydehob, County Cork; the tracks include occasional background chatter and pub noise coming through the mix. Like the new Oliver Wood album, Bonny Light Horseman plays generally organic instruments, or at least those with analog tech, including the house piano in Levis that they lubricated with olive oil to decrease the squeaks. The album was finished in New York, but Anais Mitchell says that 95% of it was recorded in Levis. The warm, rich sounds practically put the listener at a table in the pub swaying along with the catchy tunes.
There is no better or worse, between digital and analog technology in music. I often hear people complaining about electronic instruments saying things like 鈥渁nyone can push a button.鈥� At the same time, anyone can strike a drum with a stick and make a sound. Anyone can hit a piano key or pluck a stringed instrument. It takes creativity to turn that sound into music. The lush, wall of sound produced by layer upon layer of multi-tracking and digital instruments is the 21st century version of what the Beach Boys of the Beatles were doing 60 years ago. They took advantage of the technology they had before them and stretched it to its full potential. It was the creativity of the artists and the producers at the time that made it worthwhile. The digital sound has come of age this century where musicians have embraced artificial sound to create entirely new styles of music, using the technology to add dimension to their sound rather than mimic something else.
Even though the more produced sound is the current wave, thankfully, there is still no lack of singer/songwriters and folk artists who continue to add to a tradition of playing 鈥渢hree chords and the truth.鈥� Artists like Bonny Light Horseman, Oliver Wood, Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, continue to blaze trails and seek new sounds in forms of music that have been around for centuries. They too are picking up where others left off to make music their own.
In the end, it鈥檚 art - specifically, music, and whether it鈥檚 a big studio album with a multi-million-dollar budget creating a huge sound suitable for The Sphere or a Superbowl Halftime Show, or a couple of people harmonizing with acoustic guitar accompaniment, it鈥檚 still rock and roll to me.
