"Wagon Wheel" is one of Americana music's more enjoyable sing-along songs, particularly with the layered harmonies, and Old Crow Medicine Show does fine job with this recording. Alison Brown supplies the only instrumental in the collection, "Deep Gap," and rather than playing the banjo as one might expect, she trades acoustic guitar licks with David Grier. Finally, Texan singer/songwriter Ruthie Foster concludes the compilation with a song written by Terri Hendrix, who appears on the album playing a song written by Jeff Barbra and Sarah Pirkle called "Prayer for My Friends." Foster adds an element of gospel to "Hole In My Pocket," leaving the listener with a sense of being blessed and baptized to go out and spread the good news about Americana music.
Interestingly enough, the New Grove Dictionary of Music does not include an article about Americana music, and as far as I can tell, does not use the term at all. Perhaps it is another sign of the fluid and difficult to define nature of the term. In listening to the Putumayo compilation, it is easy to hear that one common aspect that Americana music has is that the focus is equally on music and lyrics, but the lyrics must tell a story about human nature in some fashion. These are not lyrically abstract art pieces — first and foremost, Americana music is music by and for the people. Critics and musicologists sometimes miss that point in their analysis.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.