Jake Xerxes Fussell — Out of Sight (June 7, 2019)
⇒ Než se toto vydání dostalo do regálů, vznášelo se éterem několik singlů, ale nemohl jsem je přivést ke chvále. Již 17. května vyšel singl „Oh Captain / Three Ravens“. Teď je na stole opět songbook, stejně jako u všech jeho tří celovečeráků... // Na „Out of Sight“ Fussell spojil nějakým podivuhodným způsobem písně do podoby nadčasové sbírky malých tragédií a hořkých povzdechů, potřel je zrezivělým povrchem, továrním tukem, náručí květů a regenerovaným dřevem. Písně jsou kaskádovány jako domácí posezení na verandě malého horského města, jak jen tak šeptají ze sluchátek při ranním dojíždění do práce. Fussell nám všem dává sílu čelit tomuto dni, protože věděl, že náš smutek je univerzální a že se časem všechny naše rány ošetří a uzdraví. Je těžké nespadnout pod jeho kouzlo, navíc říkám: proč vůbec s tím bojovat?
⇒ Jižní, ta kratší polovina hranice Georgie~Alabama, kopíruje řeku Chattahoochee#, odštěpující Columbus (The Fountain City) v Georgii od svého rozhodně méně renomovaného souseda — města Phenix City, Alabama. Druhé město Georgie je rodným městem „Matky Blues“ Ma Rainey (Apr. 26, 1886 ~ Dec. 22, 1939) a spisovatelky Carson McCullers (Feb. 19, 1917 ~ Sep. 29, 1967). Vzpomenete si na místní hit „Columbus Stockade Blues“ z roku 1927 od hillbilly dua Darby a Tarlton, který zvěčnil město Columbus v populární kultuře?°° Pokud jdeme proti času do jejich doby, skončili jsme zablokováni v Columbus (teď 194,160 ob.). Pokud ne a vykročili jsme na západ, je pravděpodobné, že jsme udělali svůj nejšpinavější akt přes řeku. Historicky se prolínáme všemi představitelnými odrůdami — organizovaným zločinem, hazardními hrami, prostitucí, moonshiningem (podomácku pálením alkoholu), endemickou korupcí a násilím páchaným gangy i policií — notoricky známé anarchické město Phenix (36,435 ob.) bylo kdysi známé jako „nejhorší město v Americe“ („Sin City, USA“). Hraniční čtvrť byla předmětem uznávaného filmu The Phenix City Story, který byl natočen v roce 1955.
⇒ Podobná hraniční liminalita a zkosený smysl pro místo charakterizují hudbu singer~songwritera a kytaristy Jake Xerxese Fussella, jehož eponymní debutové album, produkované a uváděné Williamem Tylerem, proměnilo deset tajemných folk~bluesových melodií do podoby vibračních kosmických nářků a ohebných říčních toulek. Jake Xerxes (ano, to je jeho skutečné prostřední jméno, po potterovi D.X. Gordyovi) vyrostl v Columbusu, je synem Freda C. Fussella, folkloristy, kurátora a fotografa, který pochází z amerického Wickedest City. Fredova práce v terénu ho často s mladým Jakeem v závěsu, přes dokumentaci hráčijihovýchodní tradiční lidové kultury, zahrnující nahrávání blues a starých hudebníků s kolegy folkloristy a hráči George Mitchellem a Art Rosenbaumem (což vedlo Jakea k hudbě a k některým z písně na tomto albu) a spolupracují s americkými nezávislými umělci (což Jakea nakonec vedlo k jeho postgraduálnímu výzkumu na Choctaw fiddlers.)
⇒ Jako teenager začal Jake hrát a studovat se staršími hudebníky v údolí Chattahoochee. Učil se s legendou Piedmont blues Precious Bryant ((née Bussey; leden 4, 1942 ~ leden 12, 2013); „Georgia Buck“), se kterou cestoval, nahrával, a divoce jezdil s bluesmanem, černým rodeo jezdcem, majitelem lihovaru na žitnou whisky George Danielem (“Rabbit on a Log”). Připojil se ke country skupině Phenix City, která studovala u Jimmieho Tarltona z Darby & Tarlton; doprovázel Ettu Baker v Severní Karolíně; přestěhoval se do Berkeley, kde působil s geniálním dokumentárním režisérem Lesem Blankem. Učil se od Haight písničkářů jako jsou Will Scarlett (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Brownie McGhee) a fingerstyle kytaristy Steve Manna („Push Boat“); Nathana Bowlese•¬ / Cherry Blossoms / The Limitations. Také se objevil na „A Prairie Home Companion“ ( https://www.prairiehome.org/ ). Hodně poslouchal, postupně zlepšoval své úžasné kytarové dovednosti, zpíval a doplňoval repertoár. V roce 2005 se přestěhoval do Oxfordu v Mississippi, kde se zapsal na oddělení Southern Studies v Ole Miss, nahrával a cestoval s Rev. Johnem Wilkinsem. Loni se pak setkal s uznávaným umělcem Williamem Tylerem, aby začal nahrávat své první sólové album.
⇒ Ve spolupráci s Tylerem a technikem Markem Neversem v Nashvillu měl cílevědomé rozhodnutí odchýlit se od klášterních tradic a sonics pro širší a křivolaké obzory. Tyler, kytarový virtuos známý díky svým vlastním skladbám, rozepínající a měnící tradiční šestistrunné formy a techniky, přivedl loď do nenapodobitelného módu a získal veterány Nashvillu Chrise Scruggse (steel guitar, bass, housle: Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marty Stuart), Briana Kotzura (bicí: Silver Jews), a Hoota Hestera (housle: Bill Monroe, Ray Charles) do posádky. To bylo složení na prvním albu.
⇒ Takže není náhodou, že Jake přistupuje ke zde zastoupeným písním a stylům s interpretační a nezasvěcenou úctou, která jim dodává stejný piedestal, průchodnost, ryzostí prosáklou atmosféru a akademickou přísnost. Ctí folkové prameny zdůrazněním jejich proměnlivosti, mimozemské podivnosti a vychytralého humoru. Ovšem..., bez předpojaté představy o statické autentičnosti. Fussell uznává, že folková oživující vzácnost se často absurdně ctí ve falešné hranici žánru. Ruku v ruce s nespravedlivostí a pseudo~vynalézavými praktikami nositelů tradic — když hudba žije, dýchá a vnáší energii do boků a kolen, není nutné žádné oživení nebo rekonstrukci zařízení. Ona je živá pořád. Podobně, když zkoumáte jejich lyrický obsah, zdánlivě lineární příběhy o řekách a práci (práce rukou, jako v „Boat’s up the River“ a „Man at the Mill“ a práce srdce, jako v „Star Girl” a „Pork and Beans“ z debutového eponymního alba „Jake Xerxes Fussell“) se odkrývají jako zlomené, prodchnuté narativními mezerami, uvádějícími texty do pozice veverkových hádanek nebo jemných metafyzických vtipů. Podobně vyznívají všechny současné písně: „Jubilee“ (duet s Libby Rodenbough). „Jubilee“ pochází z rodinné tradice Jean Ritchie ⊕. Její otec to pravděpodobně zpíval jako spíš kus play~party, nebo alespoň to je to, co mi Art Rosenbaum říká, ale od té doby se to děje v různých podobách. Nejsem si jistý, kde jsem to poprvé slyšel, ale roundy se ve starých hudebních kruzích dělají už celá desetiletí a vždy jsem ocenil jeho základní vhled: „Houpejte se, otáčejte se, žijte a učte se.“
⇒ RIYL: Michael Hurley, John Prine, Dave Van Ronk, Jim Dickinson, Raccoon Records, and associated realms of critterdom.
⇒ Peppy, sensual, murderous visions of folk.
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Album release: June 7, 2019
Record Label: Paradise of Bachelors
Duration: 40:59
Tracks:
01 The River St. Johns 3:38
02 Michael Was Hearty 5:28
03 Oh Captain 4:47
04 Three Ravens 2:43
05 Jubilee 3:58
06 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues 4:18
07 The Rainbow Willow 7:13
08 16~20 4:10
09 Drinking of the Wine 4:44
Full band featuring:
• Nathan Bowles (drums),
• Casey Toll (bass),
• Nathan Golub (pedal steel),
• Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and
• James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ).
Press:
⇒ “As long as Jake Fussell is making records and playing shows, there is ample cause for optimism in this world.” — Bonnie “Prince” Billy
⇒ “Jake Xerxes Fussell is a national treasure.” — Aquarium Drunkard
⇒ “His burly, winking voice is made for storytelling.” — NPR Music
⇒ “Achingly beautiful.” — UncutReview
Ben Beaumont~Thomas, Fri 7 Jun 2019 09.00 BST. Score: ★★★★★
⇒ Fussell’s exceptional covers show how folk songs seep into funk, rock and soul, while making them decidedly his own.
This splendidly named songwriter from Durham, North Carolina has had an itinerant life, previously living in Georgia and Mississippi, as well as joining his historian father on research trips across the American south as a child. He has toured with Wilco and plays for gospel group the Como Mamas, and this album came out of informal sessions with other local musicians, covering Curtis Mayfield, doo~wop groups and fiddle tunes. The sense of someone soaked in music and place comes through strongly as Fussell arranges and performs his own versions of traditional folk songs — partly culled via YouTube — that hail from North America, Ireland, the UK and, in the case of the deckhand’s song Oh Captain, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
⇒ It’s fascinating to consider how they might have seeped into our respective cultures, even subliminally, through an ever~spreading word~of~mouth network: the hollers of a fish vendor that Fussell turns into The River St Johns are more than a little reminiscent of the opening lines of Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come; the languid waltz of The Rainbow Willow evokes Van Morrison’s Sweet Thing while not actually resembling it.
⇒ Anyhow, Fussell makes them all his own. The informative salesman’s pitch on The River St Johns is slowed into something sensual, while The Rainbow Willow turns out to be an ultra~violent adaptation of the sometimes less murderous folk song Locks and Bolts, about a man who kills the disapproving family of the woman he loves. For Michael Is Hearty, the wryly funny tale of a man who regrets picking a rich wife instead of a beautiful one, he adapts the free~flowing a capella of Traveller singer Thomas McCarthy into a sturdy bluegrass waltz while retaining something tangibly Irish in its chord changes. Jubilee is also slowed down, from Jean Ritchie’s peppy original, to better lay out its mantra for letting go: “Swing and turn, jubilee, live and learn, jubilee.” Fussell makes the good~natured workplace bitching on Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues feel both particular and timeless. These are exceptional songs, performed exceptionally well. ⇒ https://www.theguardian.com/
Bandcamp: https://jakexerxesfussell.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-sight
Label: http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/jakexerxesfussell/
Website: http://www.jakexerxesfussell.com/
About:
⇒ Durham, North Carolina singer and guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell (yes, that’s his real middle name, after Georgia potter D.X. Gordy) grew up in Columbus, Georgia, son of Fred C. Fussell, a folklorist, curator, and photographer who hails from across the river in Phenix City, Alabama (once known as “The Wickedest City in America” for its rampant vice, corruption, and crime.) Fred’s fieldwork took him, often with young Jake in tow, across the Southeast documenting traditional vernacular culture, which included recording blues and old~time musicians with fellow folklorists and recordists George Mitchell and Art Rosenbaum (which led Jake to music) and collaborating with American Indian artists (which led Jake eventually to his graduate research on Choctaw fiddlers.)
⇒ As a teenager Jake began playing and studying with elder musicians in the Chattahoochee Valley, apprenticing with Piedmont blues legend Precious Bryant, with whom he toured and recorded, and riding wild with Alabama bluesman, black rodeo rider, rye whiskey distiller, and master dowser George Daniel. He joined a Phenix City country band who were students of Jimmie Tarlton of Darby and Tarlton; he accompanied Etta Baker in North Carolina; he moved to Berkeley, where he hung with genius documentary filmmaker Les Blank and learned from Haight folkies like Will Scarlett (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Brownie McGhee) and cult fingerstyle guitarist Steve Mann; he appeared on A Prairie Home Companion. He did a whole lot of listening, gradually honing his prodigious guitar skills, singing, and repertoire. In 2005 he moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where he enrolled in the Southern Studies department at Ole Miss, recorded and toured with Rev. John Wilkins, and in 2014, began recording his first solo album.
⇒ Jake’s 2015 self~titled debut record, produced by and featuring William Tyler, transmutes ten arcane folk and blues tunes into vibey cosmic laments and crooked riverine rambles. Collaborating with Tyler and engineer Mark Nevers in Nashville was a conscious decision to depart cloistered trad scenes and sonics for broader, more oblique horizons. Tyler, a guitar virtuoso known for his own compositions that untether and reframe traditional six~string forms and techniques, helmed the push boat in inimitable fashion, enlisting crack(ed) Nashville session vets Chris Scruggs (lap steel, bass, mandolin: Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marty Stuart), Brian Kotzur (drums: Silver Jews), and Hoot Hester (fiddle; Bill Monroe, Ray Charles) to crew.
⇒ In 2017 Fussell followed his celebrated self~titled debut with a moving new album of Natural Questions in the form of transmogrified folk/blues koans. This time these radiant ancient tunes tone several shades darker while amplifying their absurdist humor, illuminating our national, and psychic, predicaments. What in the Natural World features art by iconic painter Roger Brown and contributions from three notable Nathans — Nathan Bowles (Steve Gunn), Nathan Salsburg (Alan Lomax Archive), and Nathan Golub (Mountain Goats) — as well as Joan Shelley and Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah).
⇒ On Out of Sight, his third and most finely wrought album yet, guitarist, singer, and master interpreter Fussell is joined for the first time by a full band featuring Nathan Bowles (drums), Casey Toll (bass), Nathan Golub (pedal steel), Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ). An utterly transporting selection of traditional narrative folksongs addressing the troubles and delights of love, work, and wine (i.e., the things that matter), collected from a myriad of obscure sources and deftly metamorphosed, Out of Sight contains, among other moving curiosities, a fishmonger’s cry that sounds like an astral lament (“The River St. Johns”); a cotton mill tune that humorously explores the unknown terrain of death and memory (“Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues”); and a fishermen’s shanty/gospel song equally concerned with terrestrial boozing and heavenly transcendence (“Drinking of the Wine”).
ALBUM NARRATIVE:
⇒ On his third and most finely wrought album yet, guitarist, singer, and master interpreter Fussell is joined for the first time by a full band featuring Nathan Bowles (drums), Casey Toll (bass), Nathan Golub (pedal steel), Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ). An utterly transporting selection of traditional narrative folksongs addressing the troubles and delights of love, work, and wine (i.e., the things that matter), collected from a myriad of obscure sources and deftly metamorphosed, Out of Sight contains, among other moving curiosities, a fishmonger’s cry that sounds like an astral lament (“The River St. Johns”); a cotton mill tune that humorously explores the unknown terrain of death and memory (“Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues”); and a fishermen’s shanty/gospel song equally concerned with terrestrial boozing and heavenly transcendence (“Drinking of the Wine”).
⇒ Jake has written a fascinating essay — below, followed by some words by Will Oldham aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy — about the nine songs he chose and his journey to them (longer version available upon request).
*
⇒ Like all things having to do with traditional music, there are multiple sources for these songs, many layers of transmission and interpretation. “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues” I heard from my friend Art Rosenbaum, who learned it from a Pete Seeger recording from the late ’40s. Seeger had picked it up from an older source, an unattributed singer at an industrial school for women in western North Carolina. I like thinking of the song as a sort of resistance piece sung created by overworked and underpaid textile workers, which it is, but I also love the sardonic humor and imagery: an inscrutable floor manager who’d “take the nickels off a dead man’s eyes / To buy Coca~Colas and Eskimo Pies.”
⇒ I first heard the Irish tragicomedy “Michael Was Hearty” via my pal Nathan Salsburg, guitar wizard and curator of the Alan Lomax Archive, who played me a YouTube video of an Irish Traveller and ballad singer named Thomas McCarthy, whose a cappella delivery of the song is striking and singular. I immediately wanted to commit the words to memory, but I had to come up with another way to perform it that worked for my way of singing, so I worked out a waltz arrangement on my guitar and taught it to my band. Some great imagery in there too: “High was the step in the jig that he sprung / He had good looks and soothering tongue” — don’t we all know somebody like that? This one dates to probably sometime around the end of the 1800s.
⇒ “Oh Captain” is my bastardized reinterpretation of a beautiful deckhand’s song recorded by the singer, composer, and musicologist Willis Laurence James for Paramount Records in the early 1920s, with piano accompaniment. It’s a very unusual recording. James spent much of his life collecting and interpreting and writing about African American worksongs, yet few have recognized his short, obscure stint as a recording artist. Turns out he was a trained singer who taught in the music department for years at Spelman College, whose library still holds his archive. I became fascinated with him and his work, so this song is my little homage to Dr. James.
⇒ In the mid~2000s when I was living in Oxford, Mississippi, I went to an estate sale at an antebellum house in town and found a first edition of Carl Sandburg’s famous 1927 book The American Songbag, which contains “Three Ravens.” Inside was an index card with a charming calligraphed “If found, please return to,” written by the banjo player and singer John Hartford, along with his Tennessee address. I’d been listening a lot to the music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, a member of the Seeger family of folk music fame, but also an important and influential avant~garde composer. Her music resides in that interesting place where modern abstract forms and traditional abstract forms collide. Her collection 19 American Folk Songs for Piano includes a wonderful minute~long version of “Three Ravens.” I couldn’t get enough of it, so I went back to my Hartford copy of the Sandburg book (from whom Seeger herself got the tune) and learned it.
⇒ The great ballad singer and collector Bobby McMillon, of western North Carolina, has recorded a fine version of “The Rainbow Willow” under the title “Locks and Bolts,” the more common title. My friends Sally Anne Morgan and Sarah Louise (aka House and Land) have also recorded a beautiful rendering. I combined various versions from the Ozarks into the one that I sing, but the story is pretty much the same. Murder is so commonplace in old songs that I don’t know if the term “murder ballad” is very useful. Maybe we should be breaking it down to which type of murder, and what was the motive, and what sort of weapon was used, things like that. I’d say this is more of a love song than a death song, anyway.
⇒ “The River St. Johns” comes straight from one of Stetson Kennedy’s Florida WPA recordings of a gentleman named Harden Stuckey doing his interpretation of a fishmonger’s cry, which he recalls from a childhood memory. What compelling imagery there: “I’ve got fresh fish this morning, ladies / They are gilded with gold, and you may find a diamond in their mouths.” I can’t help but believe him.
⇒ “Jubilee” is from the great Jean Ritchie’s family tradition. Her father probably sang it as more of a play~party type piece, or at least that’s what Art Rosenbaum tells me, but it’s taken on different forms since. I’m not sure where I first heard it, but it’s been making the rounds in old~time music circles for decades now, and I’ve always appreciated its basic insight: “Swing and turn, live and learn.”
⇒ “Drinking of the Wine” is a spiritual number, you might could say. The version to which I’m most faithful is one that was recorded by a group of Virginia menhaden fishermen singing it as a net~hauling shanty on a boat off the coast of New Jersey in the early 1950s. Clara Ward also recorded it, as have many gospel singers, as well as the great North Carolina banjo player and folk music promoter Bascom Lamar Lunsford.
⇒ “16~20” is my very loose rearrangement of a tune that I’ve known for years. This was a popular dance piece among guitarists in the lower Chattahoochee River Valley of Georgia and Alabama, including my old friends George Daniel and Robert Thomas, from whom I learned it. I can’t say that this current working of it bears much resemblance to their “16~20,” which was more of an upbeat buckdancer’s choice, but it’s always evolving for me, which is good because it’s one that I will never stop playing. — Jake Xerxes Fussell, Durham, NC, 2019
# Krása řeky Chattahoochee (690 km) je připomínána v epické básni Song of the Chattahoochee (1877), známým básníkem Sidney Lanierem. Jezero Lanier na Chattahoochee je podle něj pojmenováno. Umělec country hudby Alan Jackson vydal jeho píseň „Chattahoochee“ v roce 1993 jako singl z jeho alba „A Lot About Livin“ ‘(And Little’ bout Love). „Chattahoochee“ získal ceny Country Music Association za singl roku a píseň roku.
•¬ Nathan Bowles je nebo byl aktivním členem tří předních světových psychedelických kapel, jmenovitě Pelt, Pigeons, and Steve Gunn & The Outliers. Udělal úžasné sólové banjo~vokální nahrávky, které ukázaly zálibu v nalezení společné půdy mezi tzv. avantgardou, tzv. old~timey a vytvořením něčeho nového, ale povědomého.
°° Tradiční country píseň „Columbus Stockade Blues“ byla napsána a nahrána v roce 1927 duem staré country hudby Darby and Tarlton (Tom Darby a Jimmie Tarlton) a v roce 1930 Cliffem Carlislem v albu „Cliff Carlisle — Country Legacy 1930 ~ 1933“.
„Columbus Stockade Blues“ (RCA) je kompilační album 1970 Willie Nelsona. Bylo to jeho první vydání v 70. letech. Ten rok ovšem vydal také dvě studiová alba „Both Sides Now“ (March 23) a „Laying My Burdens Down“ (Sept. 14).
⇒ Vůbec poprvé však píseň byla nahrána 10. listopadu 1927 a uvedena v prosinci 1927. Tom hrál na kytaru a Jimmy na steelku.
⊕ Jean Ritchie (8. prosince 1922 ~ 1. června 2015) byla americká zpěvačka folkové hudby, skladatelka písní a hráčka na Appalačský dulcimer. Její kariéra vytvořila jakýsi most mezi tradičními a moderními formami lidové hudby: v mládí se naučila folkové písně tradičním způsobem (ústně, od své rodiny a členů její komunity) a v dospělosti se stala úspěšnou moderní singer~songwriterkou, vydávající písně na veřejnosti prostřednictvím koncertů a nahrávek. Říkalo se jí „Matka folku“. Má na kontě 33 alb a 1 DVD.
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⇒ Jižní, ta kratší polovina hranice Georgie~Alabama, kopíruje řeku Chattahoochee#, odštěpující Columbus (The Fountain City) v Georgii od svého rozhodně méně renomovaného souseda — města Phenix City, Alabama. Druhé město Georgie je rodným městem „Matky Blues“ Ma Rainey (Apr. 26, 1886 ~ Dec. 22, 1939) a spisovatelky Carson McCullers (Feb. 19, 1917 ~ Sep. 29, 1967). Vzpomenete si na místní hit „Columbus Stockade Blues“ z roku 1927 od hillbilly dua Darby a Tarlton, který zvěčnil město Columbus v populární kultuře?°° Pokud jdeme proti času do jejich doby, skončili jsme zablokováni v Columbus (teď 194,160 ob.). Pokud ne a vykročili jsme na západ, je pravděpodobné, že jsme udělali svůj nejšpinavější akt přes řeku. Historicky se prolínáme všemi představitelnými odrůdami — organizovaným zločinem, hazardními hrami, prostitucí, moonshiningem (podomácku pálením alkoholu), endemickou korupcí a násilím páchaným gangy i policií — notoricky známé anarchické město Phenix (36,435 ob.) bylo kdysi známé jako „nejhorší město v Americe“ („Sin City, USA“). Hraniční čtvrť byla předmětem uznávaného filmu The Phenix City Story, který byl natočen v roce 1955.
⇒ Podobná hraniční liminalita a zkosený smysl pro místo charakterizují hudbu singer~songwritera a kytaristy Jake Xerxese Fussella, jehož eponymní debutové album, produkované a uváděné Williamem Tylerem, proměnilo deset tajemných folk~bluesových melodií do podoby vibračních kosmických nářků a ohebných říčních toulek. Jake Xerxes (ano, to je jeho skutečné prostřední jméno, po potterovi D.X. Gordyovi) vyrostl v Columbusu, je synem Freda C. Fussella, folkloristy, kurátora a fotografa, který pochází z amerického Wickedest City. Fredova práce v terénu ho často s mladým Jakeem v závěsu, přes dokumentaci hráčijihovýchodní tradiční lidové kultury, zahrnující nahrávání blues a starých hudebníků s kolegy folkloristy a hráči George Mitchellem a Art Rosenbaumem (což vedlo Jakea k hudbě a k některým z písně na tomto albu) a spolupracují s americkými nezávislými umělci (což Jakea nakonec vedlo k jeho postgraduálnímu výzkumu na Choctaw fiddlers.)
⇒ Jako teenager začal Jake hrát a studovat se staršími hudebníky v údolí Chattahoochee. Učil se s legendou Piedmont blues Precious Bryant ((née Bussey; leden 4, 1942 ~ leden 12, 2013); „Georgia Buck“), se kterou cestoval, nahrával, a divoce jezdil s bluesmanem, černým rodeo jezdcem, majitelem lihovaru na žitnou whisky George Danielem (“Rabbit on a Log”). Připojil se ke country skupině Phenix City, která studovala u Jimmieho Tarltona z Darby & Tarlton; doprovázel Ettu Baker v Severní Karolíně; přestěhoval se do Berkeley, kde působil s geniálním dokumentárním režisérem Lesem Blankem. Učil se od Haight písničkářů jako jsou Will Scarlett (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Brownie McGhee) a fingerstyle kytaristy Steve Manna („Push Boat“); Nathana Bowlese•¬ / Cherry Blossoms / The Limitations. Také se objevil na „A Prairie Home Companion“ ( https://www.prairiehome.org/ ). Hodně poslouchal, postupně zlepšoval své úžasné kytarové dovednosti, zpíval a doplňoval repertoár. V roce 2005 se přestěhoval do Oxfordu v Mississippi, kde se zapsal na oddělení Southern Studies v Ole Miss, nahrával a cestoval s Rev. Johnem Wilkinsem. Loni se pak setkal s uznávaným umělcem Williamem Tylerem, aby začal nahrávat své první sólové album.
⇒ Ve spolupráci s Tylerem a technikem Markem Neversem v Nashvillu měl cílevědomé rozhodnutí odchýlit se od klášterních tradic a sonics pro širší a křivolaké obzory. Tyler, kytarový virtuos známý díky svým vlastním skladbám, rozepínající a měnící tradiční šestistrunné formy a techniky, přivedl loď do nenapodobitelného módu a získal veterány Nashvillu Chrise Scruggse (steel guitar, bass, housle: Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marty Stuart), Briana Kotzura (bicí: Silver Jews), a Hoota Hestera (housle: Bill Monroe, Ray Charles) do posádky. To bylo složení na prvním albu.
⇒ Takže není náhodou, že Jake přistupuje ke zde zastoupeným písním a stylům s interpretační a nezasvěcenou úctou, která jim dodává stejný piedestal, průchodnost, ryzostí prosáklou atmosféru a akademickou přísnost. Ctí folkové prameny zdůrazněním jejich proměnlivosti, mimozemské podivnosti a vychytralého humoru. Ovšem..., bez předpojaté představy o statické autentičnosti. Fussell uznává, že folková oživující vzácnost se často absurdně ctí ve falešné hranici žánru. Ruku v ruce s nespravedlivostí a pseudo~vynalézavými praktikami nositelů tradic — když hudba žije, dýchá a vnáší energii do boků a kolen, není nutné žádné oživení nebo rekonstrukci zařízení. Ona je živá pořád. Podobně, když zkoumáte jejich lyrický obsah, zdánlivě lineární příběhy o řekách a práci (práce rukou, jako v „Boat’s up the River“ a „Man at the Mill“ a práce srdce, jako v „Star Girl” a „Pork and Beans“ z debutového eponymního alba „Jake Xerxes Fussell“) se odkrývají jako zlomené, prodchnuté narativními mezerami, uvádějícími texty do pozice veverkových hádanek nebo jemných metafyzických vtipů. Podobně vyznívají všechny současné písně: „Jubilee“ (duet s Libby Rodenbough). „Jubilee“ pochází z rodinné tradice Jean Ritchie ⊕. Její otec to pravděpodobně zpíval jako spíš kus play~party, nebo alespoň to je to, co mi Art Rosenbaum říká, ale od té doby se to děje v různých podobách. Nejsem si jistý, kde jsem to poprvé slyšel, ale roundy se ve starých hudebních kruzích dělají už celá desetiletí a vždy jsem ocenil jeho základní vhled: „Houpejte se, otáčejte se, žijte a učte se.“
⇒ RIYL: Michael Hurley, John Prine, Dave Van Ronk, Jim Dickinson, Raccoon Records, and associated realms of critterdom.
⇒ Peppy, sensual, murderous visions of folk.
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Album release: June 7, 2019
Record Label: Paradise of Bachelors
Duration: 40:59
Tracks:
01 The River St. Johns 3:38
02 Michael Was Hearty 5:28
03 Oh Captain 4:47
04 Three Ravens 2:43
05 Jubilee 3:58
06 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues 4:18
07 The Rainbow Willow 7:13
08 16~20 4:10
09 Drinking of the Wine 4:44
Full band featuring:
• Nathan Bowles (drums),
• Casey Toll (bass),
• Nathan Golub (pedal steel),
• Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and
• James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ).
Press:
⇒ “As long as Jake Fussell is making records and playing shows, there is ample cause for optimism in this world.” — Bonnie “Prince” Billy
⇒ “Jake Xerxes Fussell is a national treasure.” — Aquarium Drunkard
⇒ “His burly, winking voice is made for storytelling.” — NPR Music
⇒ “Achingly beautiful.” — UncutReview
Ben Beaumont~Thomas, Fri 7 Jun 2019 09.00 BST. Score: ★★★★★
⇒ Fussell’s exceptional covers show how folk songs seep into funk, rock and soul, while making them decidedly his own.
This splendidly named songwriter from Durham, North Carolina has had an itinerant life, previously living in Georgia and Mississippi, as well as joining his historian father on research trips across the American south as a child. He has toured with Wilco and plays for gospel group the Como Mamas, and this album came out of informal sessions with other local musicians, covering Curtis Mayfield, doo~wop groups and fiddle tunes. The sense of someone soaked in music and place comes through strongly as Fussell arranges and performs his own versions of traditional folk songs — partly culled via YouTube — that hail from North America, Ireland, the UK and, in the case of the deckhand’s song Oh Captain, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
⇒ It’s fascinating to consider how they might have seeped into our respective cultures, even subliminally, through an ever~spreading word~of~mouth network: the hollers of a fish vendor that Fussell turns into The River St Johns are more than a little reminiscent of the opening lines of Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come; the languid waltz of The Rainbow Willow evokes Van Morrison’s Sweet Thing while not actually resembling it.
⇒ Anyhow, Fussell makes them all his own. The informative salesman’s pitch on The River St Johns is slowed into something sensual, while The Rainbow Willow turns out to be an ultra~violent adaptation of the sometimes less murderous folk song Locks and Bolts, about a man who kills the disapproving family of the woman he loves. For Michael Is Hearty, the wryly funny tale of a man who regrets picking a rich wife instead of a beautiful one, he adapts the free~flowing a capella of Traveller singer Thomas McCarthy into a sturdy bluegrass waltz while retaining something tangibly Irish in its chord changes. Jubilee is also slowed down, from Jean Ritchie’s peppy original, to better lay out its mantra for letting go: “Swing and turn, jubilee, live and learn, jubilee.” Fussell makes the good~natured workplace bitching on Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues feel both particular and timeless. These are exceptional songs, performed exceptionally well. ⇒ https://www.theguardian.com/
Bandcamp: https://jakexerxesfussell.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-sight
Label: http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/jakexerxesfussell/
Website: http://www.jakexerxesfussell.com/
About:
⇒ Durham, North Carolina singer and guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell (yes, that’s his real middle name, after Georgia potter D.X. Gordy) grew up in Columbus, Georgia, son of Fred C. Fussell, a folklorist, curator, and photographer who hails from across the river in Phenix City, Alabama (once known as “The Wickedest City in America” for its rampant vice, corruption, and crime.) Fred’s fieldwork took him, often with young Jake in tow, across the Southeast documenting traditional vernacular culture, which included recording blues and old~time musicians with fellow folklorists and recordists George Mitchell and Art Rosenbaum (which led Jake to music) and collaborating with American Indian artists (which led Jake eventually to his graduate research on Choctaw fiddlers.)
⇒ As a teenager Jake began playing and studying with elder musicians in the Chattahoochee Valley, apprenticing with Piedmont blues legend Precious Bryant, with whom he toured and recorded, and riding wild with Alabama bluesman, black rodeo rider, rye whiskey distiller, and master dowser George Daniel. He joined a Phenix City country band who were students of Jimmie Tarlton of Darby and Tarlton; he accompanied Etta Baker in North Carolina; he moved to Berkeley, where he hung with genius documentary filmmaker Les Blank and learned from Haight folkies like Will Scarlett (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, Brownie McGhee) and cult fingerstyle guitarist Steve Mann; he appeared on A Prairie Home Companion. He did a whole lot of listening, gradually honing his prodigious guitar skills, singing, and repertoire. In 2005 he moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where he enrolled in the Southern Studies department at Ole Miss, recorded and toured with Rev. John Wilkins, and in 2014, began recording his first solo album.
⇒ Jake’s 2015 self~titled debut record, produced by and featuring William Tyler, transmutes ten arcane folk and blues tunes into vibey cosmic laments and crooked riverine rambles. Collaborating with Tyler and engineer Mark Nevers in Nashville was a conscious decision to depart cloistered trad scenes and sonics for broader, more oblique horizons. Tyler, a guitar virtuoso known for his own compositions that untether and reframe traditional six~string forms and techniques, helmed the push boat in inimitable fashion, enlisting crack(ed) Nashville session vets Chris Scruggs (lap steel, bass, mandolin: Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Marty Stuart), Brian Kotzur (drums: Silver Jews), and Hoot Hester (fiddle; Bill Monroe, Ray Charles) to crew.
⇒ In 2017 Fussell followed his celebrated self~titled debut with a moving new album of Natural Questions in the form of transmogrified folk/blues koans. This time these radiant ancient tunes tone several shades darker while amplifying their absurdist humor, illuminating our national, and psychic, predicaments. What in the Natural World features art by iconic painter Roger Brown and contributions from three notable Nathans — Nathan Bowles (Steve Gunn), Nathan Salsburg (Alan Lomax Archive), and Nathan Golub (Mountain Goats) — as well as Joan Shelley and Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah).
⇒ On Out of Sight, his third and most finely wrought album yet, guitarist, singer, and master interpreter Fussell is joined for the first time by a full band featuring Nathan Bowles (drums), Casey Toll (bass), Nathan Golub (pedal steel), Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ). An utterly transporting selection of traditional narrative folksongs addressing the troubles and delights of love, work, and wine (i.e., the things that matter), collected from a myriad of obscure sources and deftly metamorphosed, Out of Sight contains, among other moving curiosities, a fishmonger’s cry that sounds like an astral lament (“The River St. Johns”); a cotton mill tune that humorously explores the unknown terrain of death and memory (“Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues”); and a fishermen’s shanty/gospel song equally concerned with terrestrial boozing and heavenly transcendence (“Drinking of the Wine”).
ALBUM NARRATIVE:
⇒ On his third and most finely wrought album yet, guitarist, singer, and master interpreter Fussell is joined for the first time by a full band featuring Nathan Bowles (drums), Casey Toll (bass), Nathan Golub (pedal steel), Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ). An utterly transporting selection of traditional narrative folksongs addressing the troubles and delights of love, work, and wine (i.e., the things that matter), collected from a myriad of obscure sources and deftly metamorphosed, Out of Sight contains, among other moving curiosities, a fishmonger’s cry that sounds like an astral lament (“The River St. Johns”); a cotton mill tune that humorously explores the unknown terrain of death and memory (“Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues”); and a fishermen’s shanty/gospel song equally concerned with terrestrial boozing and heavenly transcendence (“Drinking of the Wine”).
⇒ Jake has written a fascinating essay — below, followed by some words by Will Oldham aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy — about the nine songs he chose and his journey to them (longer version available upon request).
*
⇒ Like all things having to do with traditional music, there are multiple sources for these songs, many layers of transmission and interpretation. “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues” I heard from my friend Art Rosenbaum, who learned it from a Pete Seeger recording from the late ’40s. Seeger had picked it up from an older source, an unattributed singer at an industrial school for women in western North Carolina. I like thinking of the song as a sort of resistance piece sung created by overworked and underpaid textile workers, which it is, but I also love the sardonic humor and imagery: an inscrutable floor manager who’d “take the nickels off a dead man’s eyes / To buy Coca~Colas and Eskimo Pies.”
⇒ I first heard the Irish tragicomedy “Michael Was Hearty” via my pal Nathan Salsburg, guitar wizard and curator of the Alan Lomax Archive, who played me a YouTube video of an Irish Traveller and ballad singer named Thomas McCarthy, whose a cappella delivery of the song is striking and singular. I immediately wanted to commit the words to memory, but I had to come up with another way to perform it that worked for my way of singing, so I worked out a waltz arrangement on my guitar and taught it to my band. Some great imagery in there too: “High was the step in the jig that he sprung / He had good looks and soothering tongue” — don’t we all know somebody like that? This one dates to probably sometime around the end of the 1800s.
⇒ “Oh Captain” is my bastardized reinterpretation of a beautiful deckhand’s song recorded by the singer, composer, and musicologist Willis Laurence James for Paramount Records in the early 1920s, with piano accompaniment. It’s a very unusual recording. James spent much of his life collecting and interpreting and writing about African American worksongs, yet few have recognized his short, obscure stint as a recording artist. Turns out he was a trained singer who taught in the music department for years at Spelman College, whose library still holds his archive. I became fascinated with him and his work, so this song is my little homage to Dr. James.
⇒ In the mid~2000s when I was living in Oxford, Mississippi, I went to an estate sale at an antebellum house in town and found a first edition of Carl Sandburg’s famous 1927 book The American Songbag, which contains “Three Ravens.” Inside was an index card with a charming calligraphed “If found, please return to,” written by the banjo player and singer John Hartford, along with his Tennessee address. I’d been listening a lot to the music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, a member of the Seeger family of folk music fame, but also an important and influential avant~garde composer. Her music resides in that interesting place where modern abstract forms and traditional abstract forms collide. Her collection 19 American Folk Songs for Piano includes a wonderful minute~long version of “Three Ravens.” I couldn’t get enough of it, so I went back to my Hartford copy of the Sandburg book (from whom Seeger herself got the tune) and learned it.
⇒ The great ballad singer and collector Bobby McMillon, of western North Carolina, has recorded a fine version of “The Rainbow Willow” under the title “Locks and Bolts,” the more common title. My friends Sally Anne Morgan and Sarah Louise (aka House and Land) have also recorded a beautiful rendering. I combined various versions from the Ozarks into the one that I sing, but the story is pretty much the same. Murder is so commonplace in old songs that I don’t know if the term “murder ballad” is very useful. Maybe we should be breaking it down to which type of murder, and what was the motive, and what sort of weapon was used, things like that. I’d say this is more of a love song than a death song, anyway.
⇒ “The River St. Johns” comes straight from one of Stetson Kennedy’s Florida WPA recordings of a gentleman named Harden Stuckey doing his interpretation of a fishmonger’s cry, which he recalls from a childhood memory. What compelling imagery there: “I’ve got fresh fish this morning, ladies / They are gilded with gold, and you may find a diamond in their mouths.” I can’t help but believe him.
⇒ “Jubilee” is from the great Jean Ritchie’s family tradition. Her father probably sang it as more of a play~party type piece, or at least that’s what Art Rosenbaum tells me, but it’s taken on different forms since. I’m not sure where I first heard it, but it’s been making the rounds in old~time music circles for decades now, and I’ve always appreciated its basic insight: “Swing and turn, live and learn.”
⇒ “Drinking of the Wine” is a spiritual number, you might could say. The version to which I’m most faithful is one that was recorded by a group of Virginia menhaden fishermen singing it as a net~hauling shanty on a boat off the coast of New Jersey in the early 1950s. Clara Ward also recorded it, as have many gospel singers, as well as the great North Carolina banjo player and folk music promoter Bascom Lamar Lunsford.
⇒ “16~20” is my very loose rearrangement of a tune that I’ve known for years. This was a popular dance piece among guitarists in the lower Chattahoochee River Valley of Georgia and Alabama, including my old friends George Daniel and Robert Thomas, from whom I learned it. I can’t say that this current working of it bears much resemblance to their “16~20,” which was more of an upbeat buckdancer’s choice, but it’s always evolving for me, which is good because it’s one that I will never stop playing. — Jake Xerxes Fussell, Durham, NC, 2019
# Krása řeky Chattahoochee (690 km) je připomínána v epické básni Song of the Chattahoochee (1877), známým básníkem Sidney Lanierem. Jezero Lanier na Chattahoochee je podle něj pojmenováno. Umělec country hudby Alan Jackson vydal jeho píseň „Chattahoochee“ v roce 1993 jako singl z jeho alba „A Lot About Livin“ ‘(And Little’ bout Love). „Chattahoochee“ získal ceny Country Music Association za singl roku a píseň roku.
•¬ Nathan Bowles je nebo byl aktivním členem tří předních světových psychedelických kapel, jmenovitě Pelt, Pigeons, and Steve Gunn & The Outliers. Udělal úžasné sólové banjo~vokální nahrávky, které ukázaly zálibu v nalezení společné půdy mezi tzv. avantgardou, tzv. old~timey a vytvořením něčeho nového, ale povědomého.
°° Tradiční country píseň „Columbus Stockade Blues“ byla napsána a nahrána v roce 1927 duem staré country hudby Darby and Tarlton (Tom Darby a Jimmie Tarlton) a v roce 1930 Cliffem Carlislem v albu „Cliff Carlisle — Country Legacy 1930 ~ 1933“.
„Columbus Stockade Blues“ (RCA) je kompilační album 1970 Willie Nelsona. Bylo to jeho první vydání v 70. letech. Ten rok ovšem vydal také dvě studiová alba „Both Sides Now“ (March 23) a „Laying My Burdens Down“ (Sept. 14).
⇒ Vůbec poprvé však píseň byla nahrána 10. listopadu 1927 a uvedena v prosinci 1927. Tom hrál na kytaru a Jimmy na steelku.
⊕ Jean Ritchie (8. prosince 1922 ~ 1. června 2015) byla americká zpěvačka folkové hudby, skladatelka písní a hráčka na Appalačský dulcimer. Její kariéra vytvořila jakýsi most mezi tradičními a moderními formami lidové hudby: v mládí se naučila folkové písně tradičním způsobem (ústně, od své rodiny a členů její komunity) a v dospělosti se stala úspěšnou moderní singer~songwriterkou, vydávající písně na veřejnosti prostřednictvím koncertů a nahrávek. Říkalo se jí „Matka folku“. Má na kontě 33 alb a 1 DVD.
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