I feel like I should clarify a few things right away here...
1. I haven't heard American Primitive Vol. I
2. I am far from an expert or even really a fan of Americana / roots / blues / folk / bluegrass / old-timey jazz / etc.
3. There are many things I'd rather do than listen to a bunch of digitally remastered scratchy old 78rpm records
4. I love this album...
Billed as "John Fahey's final curated work for Revenant," American Primitive Vol. II: Pre-War Revenants (1897-1939) inspires a very rare and exciting sense of wonder and discovery in each of its 50 tracks. You feel as if you've been granted exclusive access to a secret, forgotten, and neglected library of old recordings that have been buried in dusty attics and rickety storage sheds for decades. Of course, Revenant Records seems to specialize in sonic revelation, previously lavishing upon us two of the greatest CD box sets of all time — Charlie Patton: Screamin' and Hollerin the Blues and Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost.
It would be pointless to attempt a track-by-track description of this two disc set — just dive in head first and enjoy the ride... You'll hear spooky gospel dirges... manic hillbilly jam sessions... yelping blues-men... drunken ragtime jamborees... freewheeling Appalachian shape note singing... back-country kazoo virtuosos... droning banjo ragas... barely coherent harmonica solos... barroom jazz-folk-blues ballads... scary sung/spoken fire-and-brimstone sermons... For a few precious minutes, each track transports you to some kind of strange yet very vivid alternative early American universe.
The sound quality is surprisingly clear and clean throughout, especially considering the age (and likely condition) of some of the source recordings... in fact, some of this music sounds so "modern" (or "post-modern?") that you almost wonder if it's all some kind of elaborate Fahey-esque prank (some of the liner notes make you wonder too...) Perhaps my jaded ears can hardly believe that there was once a time when a recording could be so raw, sincere, unpretentious, unproduced, and defiantly "unmarketable." While these records were all apparently "professionally" recorded and produced in one way or another, they have more of the unaffected sound and spirit of "amateur" home recordings.
Article comments
1 - John Owen
I am so completely buying this!
Great review, in that I am a person easily swayed by wild-eyed invocations of high American wierdness on tape, and therefore am highly predisposed to smell what you're cooking right here.
If you are curious about other ways to blow your mind with recordings of stunning bizarreness, Tradition Records (now an imprint of Rykodisc) has a couple budget-price "Music of Ireland" compilations that rival any American field recording I've heard. Imagine an elderly woman standing in her front yard, hands clasped behind her back and her eyes closed, tilting her head back and signing the song she first learned as a little girl. Her voice is cracked and ancient; the tune is too, a nearly non-Western palimpsest of a half dozen musical traditions from Celtic to Yorkish to English. She sings in English but the words are nearly unintelligible behind her thick County Kildare accent, but the woe and pathos of the dying-child ballad she learned as a schoolgirl is undimmed nonetheless.
Which kicks total ass.
2 - Mark Saleski
nice review stephen. i have volume one and it too is a fantastic listen.
i've gotta get this one too...and the Charlie Patton box...and...
3 - Elvira Black
Stephen:
I don't know if this is funny or just illustrates the fact that I do, sometimes, have a literacy problem (lol), but when I first saw your intro I thought you actually said that you hadn't heard the album you were reviewing!
I thought--wow--what a pomo trip that is! Now that's the kind of arch cleverness I can really get behind!
But I'm glad you did indeed listen to Vol. II--it sounds totally awesome. The roots of American music--the truest, most original performances that have so radically influenced all that has come after--are so often completely unheralded. What an awesome coup to produce and make available such a treasure trove of authenitic musical Americana. And kudos to you for giving your readers the opportunity to discover it too. Great going, Stephen!
4 - Stephen V Funk
ah! I can definitely see how someone would read that first sentence and think that I haven't even heard the album being reviewed...! How funny!
Well, not this time around... but I might try that approach with "The Emancipation of Mimi."
Thanks for your kind comments!