LAST
FOREVER
Acres
of Diamonds
StorySound
Records
In 1997, I was highly taken with Last Forever, a self-titled album by Last
Forever, a project centered around composer-arranger Dick Connette and singer Sonya
Cohen that included highly reimagined versions of traditional folksongs
like “In the Pines” and “Ain’t Going Down to the Well No More” and new compositions
of Dick’s that seemed inspired and informed by folk music. I played the album a
lot on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program.
They did a second album in 2000, Trainfare Home, which I loved just as
much. I played it a lot on the radio show, reviewed it in Sing Out! magazine (see below), and did phone interviews with Dick and Sonya for the show.
Fifteen years later, Acres of Diamonds is a new and equally wonderful release from Last
Forever. It’s an EP-length release – seven songs, 30 minutes – of more
wonderfully reimagined folksongs and some new, but seemingly timeless, compositions
of Dick’s.
The tour-de-force is the finale – variations
on the traditional “Boll Weevil Blues,” an amazing 13-minute performance that
begins with a string section playing classical-style variations on the folk
music theme before the folk-style instrumentation and Sonya’s lovely, but oh so
powerful, voice come in. Eventually, the folk and classical elements blend
seamlessly leading to a hair-raising ending of Sonya’s vocalizations on top of
a single violin bowing the very highest notes.
Although each of the other songs could well
be cited as a highlight, I’ll mention “Lady Franklin’s Lament,” a reimagined
version of the traditional ballad in which Sir John Franklin’s wife laments his
death while searching for the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean in
1845; “Mr. Olio,” a sad but beautiful set piece about an old vaudevillian
co-written by Dick and Loudon Wainwright
III; and “Acres of Diamonds,” a catchy, very folkish song, originally
written by Dick for Loudon’s High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project.
Every time I’ve listened to this album, I’ve
discovered something new in the music, the lyrics, the strikingly original arrangements,
the beautiful singing, or the totality of it all. I’ve returned often to the early
Last Forever albums over the past 15 years and I expect I’ll be returning often
to Acres of Diamonds.
Sonya was born to a folk music family as the daughter of John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers and the late Penny Seeger. There’s a photo I recall –
I’m sure it was taken by David Gahr – of Sonya being held as a small baby by
her uncle, Pete Seeger, as he spoke on stage at the 1965 Newport Folk
Festival. Sadly, Sonya died of cancer on October 9, a week before Acres of Diamonds was released. She was
just 50 years old.
LAST
FOREVER
Trainfare
Home
StorySound
Records
StorySound Records has also recently
reissued Trainfare Home, the second
Last Forever album, originally released by Nonesuch Records in 2000. My review
originally appeared in the Spring 2001 issue of Sing Out! magazine:
Dick
Connette spent much of his composing career working in neo-classical and
avant-garde music before turning his attention to rearranging traditional folk
songs and writing new songs inspired by traditional music. Last Forever was
formed when he began collaborating with vocalist Sonya Cohen, the daughter of
New Lost City Rambler John Cohen and niece of Pete, Peggy and Mike Seeger.
Their
first album, released in 1997, was a fascinating blend of old and new music
that quickly became a favorite of mine. This sophomore effort from Connette and
Cohen is just as fascinating and is one of the best releases of the past year. Like
Last Forever’s first album, this one mixes old songs recast in new ways with
new songs based on old melodies or lyric phrases.
Among
the already-familiar songs is “Louis Collins/Spike Driver Blues,” a medley of
two Mississippi John Hurt songs that begins with Cohen’s voice multi-tracked to
sound like a choir on a brief refrain from “Louis Collins” before the familiar
guitar notes of “Spike Driver Blues” come pouring out of Connette’s spinet and
the accompanying violins, saxophone, bass, harmonium, guitar and drums begin to
emulate the sound of a train as Cohen sings the lyrics. It’s all so very
familiar and so very different at the same time.
On
most of the original material, Connette draws on traditional elements in his
compositions. “Down the Road,” sung from the point of view of an emancipated
slave in the 1860s, uses “Feather Bed,” the old jug band song as its melodic
starting point. The upbeat arrangement features Connette’s spinet interacting
with trombone, banjo and drums. Connette’s “Bachelor’s Hall” borrows the
traditional melody from “Pretty Saro” for a drawing room arrangement.
One of
the most ambitious of the original songs is “Oklahoma,” which encapsulates some
of the history of the state stretching from the forced relocation of the Cherokee
from Georgia to the devastating bombing by a domestic terrorist in 1995.
With the new music they are creating,
Connette and Cohen are proving that there is much to learn from, and to be
inspired by, in traditional folk music while they create something new and
different.
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--Mike
Regenstreif
