Erynn Marshall – Tune Tramp

ERYNN MARSHALL
Tune Tramp
Hickoryjack 
hickoryjack.com

Erynn Marshall is a Canadian ethnomusicologist and fiddler now based in Galax, Virginia, home to the Old Fiddler’s Convention, the longest-running fiddle contest. For Tune Tramp, she tramped around various locations in Canada and the United States recording 20 different tunes with various combinations of 45 musicians – an ambitious and completely successful undertaking – after noting that old-time music is played differently in different regional locales.

Erynn is a superb fiddler and she seems to adapt easily to whatever collaborators she’s working with from tune to tune and blend beautifully with them. Her fiddle is front and centre on some tunes and plays a significant supporting role on others.

Some of my favourites among many include a couple of tunes recorded here in Canada. On “Milwaukee Blues,” she fiddles and sings harmony with Pharis Romero on guitar and lead vocals and Jason Romero on banjo and harmony vocals. Then, on the delightful “Ragged But Right,” Erynn and her partner, mandolinist Carl Jones who is also heard on many of the tracks, are joined by Toronto-based musicians Arnie Naiman on vocals and banjo, Chris Coole on guitar, Chris Whiteley on harmonica and Ken Whiteley on jug.

A few of the other highlights include an up-tempo string band version of “Rovin’ Gambler” featuring lead vocals by guitarist Mac Snow; a Cajun version of “Poor Hobo,” sung by Joel Savoy and featuring twin fiddles by Erynn and Joel and a great lap steel solo by Carl; a sad duet with Skip Gorman on the Delmore Brothers’ “Fugitive’s Lament”; and the title song, “Tune Tramp,” a beautiful song written and sung by Carl with Erynn on fiddle that captures the spirit of the album.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Hans Theessink & Terry Evans – Delta Time

HANS THEESSINK & TERRY EVANS

Delta Time

Blue Groove

theessink.com

terryevansmusic.com

Delta Time is yet another in a series of remarkable albums by the always excellent Dutch, Austrian-based blues singer, songwriter and guitarist Hans Theessink – and his second collaboration with Terry Evans, an outstanding blues and gospel singer, originally from Mississippi, who is probably best known for his sublime harmonies on many of Ry Cooder’s albums dating back to the 1970s.

The album begins with Theessink’s title track – one of five songs which feature transcendent trio harmonies from Evans and colleagues Arnold McCuller and Willie Greene, Jr. – which celebrates a return to what the late folklorist Alan Lomax referred to as “the land where the blues began.” As on the other 12 songs, Theessink’s and Evans’ guitars and voices blend perfectly and lead into a gorgeous slow version of the Delmore Brothers' classic, “Blues Stay Away From Me,” with Theessink’s deep baritone floating on the bottom while Evans’ tenor rides on top. “Blues Stay Away From Me” is one of three songs in which the duo’s guitars are augmented by sweet and distinctive lead guitar lines from Ry Cooder.

The other tracks with Cooder are a groove-inflected version of Bobby Charles’ “How Can People Act Like That” and Theessink’s “Shelter from the Storm (not to be confused with the Bob Dylan song of the same name),” a beautiful love song that also features those amazing harmonies from Evans, McCuller and Greene.

Among my other favorite tracks are terrific, slow acoustic versions of blues classics “It Hurts Me Too” and “Honest I Do,” a fun version of “The Birds and the Bees (Evans sang harmonies on Jewel Aiken’s pop hit version in 1965),” and Theessink’s “Mississippi,” a 10-minute tribute to many of the blues greats – including Evans – who have come out of that state.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Willie Nelson -- Country Music

WILLIE NELSON
Country Music
Rounder
willienelson.com

Willie Nelson, who turns 77 on Friday, has got to be one of the most prolific of all recording artists. He’s rooted in the Texas country tradition, but, like Ray Charles, he’s a genre-crosser who’s made compelling music in all sorts of styles. I have no idea how many albums he’s made over the years, but I’ve got more than 30 Willie Nelson keepers sitting on my shelves. (To be honest, there have also been some that haven’t made it on to my keeper shelves.)

In recent years, Nelson has released several excellent albums including Two Men with the Blues, a classy set of jazz and blues with Wynton Marsalis and his band, and Willie and the Wheel, a great western swing album with Asleep At the Wheel.

Add Country Music, recorded with a drummerless collection of A-list musicians assembled by producer T-Bone Burnett – and including Folk Roots/Folk Branches guest Riley Baugus on clawhammer banjo and Buddy Miller on electric guitar – to Nelson's list of fine recent albums. This one rooted, as the album title implies, in traditional country music. Most of the songs are bona fide classics.

The album opens “Man with the Blues,” the only Nelson original, an old-school honky tonk tune like the kind of songs Nelson was probably singing back in the 1950s, and closes with a deep-from-the-well arrangement of “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” an African American gospel tune that's given a haunting arrangement featuring Nelson stalwart Mickey Raphael on bass harmonica, Dennis Crouch’s heartbeat bass playing and some eerie guitar interplay between Nelson on gut string acoustic and Miller on electric.

One of my favourite tracks is an exciting rendition of f the Delmore Brothers’ “Freight Train Boogie” which, like Doc Watson’s version, you can’t help but feel the train boogieing down the tracks.

Other highlights include Merle Travis’ coalmining classic, “Dark as a Dungeon,” the tongue-in-cheek “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” and a sweet version of Hank Williams’ “House of Gold” that seems like a traditional folksong.

--Mike Regenstreif