It is a busy weekend for me, with
my family in town visiting and lots of official stuff on the go. By contrast, last
night was a quiet night in with the Sheila, playing board games and listening
to music.
On the music-listening front I’ve
had a bit of a double backlog due to all the albums I’ve been buying. The front
line of that backlog has been albums I haven’t heard at all. We got through the
last five of those last night – they were (in order of appearance):
- The Handsome
Family “Singing Bones”
- Thor “Only the
Strong”
- Thin Lizzy “Chinatown”
- Allison Moorer
“Down to Believing”
- Shins “Heartworms”
While that backlog is complete, I
don’t introduce a new album into the “main stacks” until it has had a minimum
three listens, including two consecutively. That backlog is more like 100 discs,
and for this reason every other review is randomly chosen from this overflow until I catch up a bit. This next review is the latest one of those.
Disc 983 is…Self-Titled
Artist: Harpeth
Rising
Year of Release: 2010
What’s up with the Cover? The original lineup! The only
person still in the band is the woman in the hat (violinist/vocalist Jordana
Greenberg). When I said that some of you were going to have to step aside if I
was going to get into the house, that isn’t what I meant.
How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed “Dead
Man’s Hand” back at Disc 955, I read about the band in an article for
Paste Magazine by Jim Vorel. I ordered all their albums direct from the
band’s website.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Harpeth Rising albums. Another one
is being released very soon (excitement!) but for now let’s stick to what we’ve
got, shall we?
While I enjoy
their Self-Titled debut, I like their other albums more so I must reluctantly
put it fourth. I hope it stays in last, because that’ll mean the new album is
even better!
Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4
Sometimes
you fall hard for a band, and that has certainly happened to me with Harpeth
Rising. While their self-titled debut has some rough edges, hearing the germination
of their unique sound is a pleasure.
From the
very beginnings you can see the band wants to be more than just bluegrass. Yes,
they are a bluegrass band, with that front-of-the-beat intensity, crisp
playing, and a lot of ones, fours and fives in the chord progression.
However
they do more than that, throwing in melodic decisions that daringly sidle right
up the edge of classical and put their hand on her knee. Ruthie Valente Burgess’
cello is grounded on the classical side most of the time, and Rebecca Reed-Lunn’s
banjo lives over in bluegrass. Greenberg is the swing vote, playing the fiddle
half the time and the violin the other half. It shouldn’t work, but it does.
As is
often the case when a band is just starting out, there is a restless energy on
this record in both the playing and the subject matter. A lot of the songs
delve into questions about whether we can make a lasting difference in society,
or failing that, at least stand up and resist overweening authority.
The
masterpiece of rebellion on the album is “Abraham,”
which is not so much a retelling of the story of Isaac and Abraham as it is a
rumination on the damage done to both father and son when willful gods descend demanding
loyalty. The melody of the song is soft, lilting and sorrowful, grounded by
Reed-Lunn’s masterful banjo playing and some of the best vocals Jordana
Greenberg has delivered on this or any other Harpeth Rising album.
Most of
the song focuses on Isaac trying to find the path back to love and trust after
his father was willing to sacrifice him on an altar. It won’t be easy, as Isaac
sorrowfully notes to his father “you
should have told him ‘no’” and ends with an unresolved melody and the
question “can this ever be undone?”
Pair this song with Leonard Cohen’s “Story
of Isaac” to have your mind truly blown by what is – along with the Story of
Job – bible storytime at its harshest.
“Abraham” is the high point of the album.
The low points are mostly one-off moments of awkwardness of phrasing or lyrics.
Lines from “Train Fare and 50 Cents” like
“You met a woman in New Orleans/But that’s
not where you’re going it seems” where the superfluous “it seems” is tagged on just to fill the
bar and close the rhyme happen just a bit too often. This is also a song where
the band explores novel melodic structures, but falls a little short.
For the
most part though, this is a fearless and ambitious record that pushes the edges
of disparate musical styles, blurs the lines between them, and delivers some
thoughtful observations on the human condition along the way.
Best
tracks: Here I
Stand, Last Honest Man, Can’t Find the Revolution, Abraham,
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