Getting in a mid-week review with my current work schedule is not an easy feat, but I decided I was ready to move on from this next record as soon as possible.
Disc 1559 is…. Mountain Shout
Artist: Red Tail Ring
Year of Release: 2015
What’s up with the Cover? It would appear, my dear Frodo, that after encountering a cyclopean antler high in the mountains, you have panicked. And in that panic you have forgotten Uncle Bilbo’s advice and donned the Ring of Power. And as peer through the tines you see you are not alone in the shadowy world of the Ringwraith – for two creepy figures haunt the alter-dark with you. Flee this weird realm while you can, lest they spot you and play you…a FOLK TUNE!
How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed “the Heart’s Swift Foot” back at Disc 923, I learned about Red Tail Ring through an article on obscure folk music. This caused me to search out the rest of their catalogue, at which time I decided that "Mountain Shout" must also be in my collection.
Finding the CD was nigh impossible, and I eventually broke down and downloaded the digital version from Bandcamp. I then turned it into a CD, with cover and all, because I’m a middle-aged man and I like my physical media. Damn it.
How It Stacks Up: I have just two Red Tail Ring albums, and if you are following along, then you know which two. Of those two, “Mountain Shout” is not nearly as good as “The Heart’s Swift Foot” and so it is second or - in this case - last.
Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3
Sometimes you’ll find Heavy Metal enthusiasts getting excited about just how HEAVY a band is. Sometimes the heaviness ranking clouds their judgment about whether the music is any good. This is true for folk music as well, as we folk devotees go out searching for music as authentically FOLKSY as we can possibly find. Raw and real is how we like it, but like with the search for metal music, sometimes the purity of the cause gets in the way of good judgment.
Which is what led to me to “Mountain Shout” which is incredibly folksy, but beyond that one identifier, just OK. This is disappointing, and I can only assume I was still basking in the glow of “The Heart’s Swift Foot’s” 4-star brilliance when I gave it a listen. But with a bit of time and distance in the relationship, I have to conclude this record is not at that level.
Don’t get me wrong, however, because the duo of Michael Beauchamp and Laurel Premo have some serious talent. Premo on fiddle is particularly good on this record, in part because she does one of the hardest things, which is to play slow as well as she plays fast. She also plays with a lot of power. Near the end of the instrumental, “I Wish I Wish/Vamp For John” you’re convinced she’s going to saw that thing in half she’s hitting it so hard.
Both Premo and Beauchamp are masters of the banjo as well, so while these songs often didn’t generate a lot of interest, the very amateur musician in me was thrilled to just hear them wail away.
The record opens and closes strong, starting with “Pretty Polly”, an old school murder ballad of a man taking his girl for a walk in the mountains so he can murder her and drop her into a grave he dug the night before. In some versions of this song, the killer explains his reasons, but here he just stabs her, buries her and walks away. It is dark and creepy, but that’s the idea.
And for a closer, we get a lovely fiddle-forward waltz in “the Blackest Crow” that would fit nicely on a Gillian Welch record. It features the finest vocals on the record as well, aided by the timeless beauty of stanzas like this one:
“The blackest crow that ever flew would surely turn to white
If ever I prove false to you bright day will turn to night
Bright day will turn to night my love the elements will mourn
If ever I prove false to you the seas will rage and burn”
That’s some quality action right there.
Unfortunately, while the musicianship is strong throughout, I found the stark production was too stark even for me. Even that classic “every folk band does it” songs like “The Cuckoo” had me thinking of other versions in my collection (notably versions by Outlaw Social and Hem) and finding it wanting by comparison.
As for the other tracks, they aren’t terrible, but few stand out, and while I wanted to soak in the resonant wonder of all that flatpicking power, sometimes it felt a bit too much like a technical lesson, and not enough like it was telling me a story.
So while I like the record overall, I don’t see myself picking this down from the shelf when sitting just to the left is the amazing and inspiring “Heart’s Swift Foot”. And for this reason I’ll keep my electronic copy (since that’s how I bought it) but I’ll bid adieu to my burned CD and makes some much-needed space on the shelf.
Best tracks: Pretty Polly, I Wish, I Wish/Vamp For John, The Blackest Crow
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