Customer Reviews

Be Ready Boys

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This project showcases a nicely chosen selection of old favorites. Some are well-worn (Flop Eared Mule, Under the Double Eagle), others are rather obscure Gospel gems (Heavenly Sunlight, with a preamble by Norman), and still others are variations on classical themes (Going Home, based on a Dvorak composition). No fret-burning guitar or mandolin, just good music played with feeling.

This engaging, low-key effort is about as informal as a picking session between two masters of the old-time tradition can get. Mostly, Norman Blake and Rich O'Brien take on well-worn tunes, among them familiar songs ("When It's Lamplighting Time in the Valley") and often-played instrumentals ("Under the Double Eagle," "Flop Eared Mule") which hark back to an earlier America -- a country that clearly has first claim on their spiritual as well as their musical loyalties. Their love of the old shines forth endearingly here. The result is a front-porch kind of record, full of the pleasant, modest charms of an age that seems, at least in retrospective glow, a much simpler, more appealing one.

In recent reviews of "Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Songcatcher" in this space I mentioned some of the high points of the mountain music revival of the early part of the 2000's (weird to write that, right?) I noted the name Norman Blake as a premier example of the modern continuation of that tradition. If Hazel Dickens (and Alice Gerrard) represented a strong female voice for the revival of this music then Norman Blake represents the male counterpart.

I also noted in a documentary, "Down The Tracks: The Music That Influenced Bob Dylan", tracing the roots that influenced his development that one commentator noted that when various ballads (mainly listed in the "Child Ballad" inventory) came over from the old country (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland) and landed in the Appalachian Mountains they never got out and remained (with many local variations) essentially unchanged for generations. And the musical instruments didn't change much either-fiddle, guitar and, occasionally a mandolin. But, come Saturday night the competition was fierce to be "king (or, less often, queen) of the hill". Those points remain true today and it is this tradition that Norman Blake can call his own.

His virtuoso guitar playing has always attracted me since I first heard him long along a local radio program called "Hillbilly At Harvard" (Weird, right? But it had great stuff on it.). He continues that here with some nice instrumentals and a few vocals. Blake's Appalachia(and hence the title of my headline) centers on Georgia and the need to either get out or to find his way back to it. An eternal dilemma. A nice addition here is that he is joined by famed bluegrass guitarist (and mandolin player) Rich O'Brien. Tops here are an incredible instrumental duo "Mexico", "Going Home" and the sweetly sentimental " A Maiden's Prayer". This is pure mountain at its best.