Mason Daring and Jeanie Stahl – Forty

MASON DARING AND JEANIE STAHL

Forty

Daring Records

daringandstahl.com

“What a surprise, that after a few decades, we would record another album,” write Mason Daring and Jeanie Stahl in the liner notes to Forty, an album that celebrates the four decades since they first worked together as a duo – and their first new recordings as a duo in well over three decades,

And how nice it is to hear this new music from old friends. Back in the late-1970s, I operated an independent booking agency for a few years and Mason and Jeanie were among the artists I worked with. They were among the top performers in the bustling New England folk scene back then and I started working with them on the strength of a great LP called Sweet Melodies in the Night that included several classics like Mason’s “Marblehead Morning,” Jeanie’s beautiful title song and definitive interpretations of songs by Bill Staines and Robin Batteau. During the time I worked with them they recorded a second great LP called Heartbreak. Years later, many of the songs from those LPs were collected on a CD called The Early Years, and now, decades after that, we have Forty.

By the time I wound down my agency, Mason was heavily into scoring films – notably for director John Sayles – and Jeanie went on to record several solo albums. While both have pursued other primary interests over the past three decades-plus, they have continued to get together to perform on occasion.

All this time later, Mason and Jeanie still sound great together on Forty’s 10 songs – half of them originals, half of them classics drawn from contemporary folk music, country, western swing and the Great American Songbook. Jeanie’s voice remains exquisite while Mason’s glides effortlessly on pieces like Roger Miller’s “King of the Road.”

There’s a timelessness to the songs on the album and originals like Mason’s “Too Much” and Jeanie’s “The Ring” stand tall next to the classics.

And while Forty is a delightful listen from start to finish, I’ll pick out a few of my very favorite tracks.

“The Ring,” is a lovely song which uses the metaphor of a 40-year-old ring in a jewel box for the seemingly quick passage of time that those of us of a certain age can now look back on. It also captures that passage of time celebrated with this album.

“It’s Funny,” written and sung by Mason, is a cool, love comes-love goes tune that would have been at home on a Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett LP, while their versions of “San Antonio Rose” and Chattanooga Choo Choo,” – both of which I’m sure I remember Mason and Jeanie playing live back in the day – are full of playful swing.

Perhaps my favorite track, though, is Jeanie’s sublime interpretation of “Across the Great Divide,” a beautiful song written by my late friend Kate Wolf. Perfection.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Ball & Chain -- Louisiana Love Bug

BALL & CHAIN
Louisiana Love Bug
Ball & Chain
ballandchain.ca

Cajun-inspired music dominates much of Louisiana Love Bug, the latest album by Ottawa’s Ball & Chain – Michael Ball and Jody Benjamin – a duo well known for their excellent take on traditional country music.

In fact, the album was recorded in Louisiana and features back-up from several musicians well-known in Cajun and Zydeco music circles including Dirk Powell of Balfa Toujours who variously plays guitar, bass, piano and accordion; Zydeco accordionist Corey Ledet; pedal steel player Richard Comeaux; and guitarist Mark Trichka. Michael plays fiddle, mandolin, bass and viola, while Jody’s on guitar and triangle.

Either Michael or Jody wrote six of the album’s 13 songs and several including Michael’s kick-off tune “Yessirree,” a high octane rhythmic workout driven by Ledet’s accordion, and Jody’s “Whirlybird,” which starts out in waltz-time and then kicks into high gear, are firmly in Cajun mode. Jody’s “He’s Already Gone,” sounds like a classic country song from decades ago.

Speaking of classic country, they also do fine versions of Roger Miller’s “A Girl Like Me,” Wayne Kemp’s “Love Bug,” and “Open Pit Mine,” an almost folk-like song recorded in 1962 by George Jones.

The album was produced by Dirk Powell, a great musician who’s been in several folk festival workshops I’ve hosted over the years. When Linda Ronstadt was a guest on Folk Roots/Folk Branches in 2006, she was raving about Dirk who had just played on Adieu False Heart, the Zozo Sisters album she’d made with Ann Savoy.

Ball & Chain will be performing Sunday, March 7, 7:00 pm, as part of the Spirit of Rasputin’s concert series at the Elmdale House Tavern, 1084 Wellington Street West, in Ottawa. They’ll open the show and then team up with Michael Jerome Browne as the Twin Rivers String Band.

--Mike Regenstreif

Montreal Gazette's Album of the Week

Although my weekly CD reviews are gone from the Montreal Gazette (I promise to start posting reviews here soon), I still occasionally write the Gazette's Album of the Week feature. This week's is my review of Jesse Winchester's new album, Love Filling Station (Appleseed).

Jesse Winchester

Love Filling Station

Appleseed

****1/2 out of five

MIKE REGENSTREIF

SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

For a little over a decade, beginning with his self-titled debut classic in 1970, longtime Montrealer Jesse Winchester released albums of new material at a relatively prolific rate; seven albums in 11 years, each chock filled with great songs. In the ‘80s, though, the pace slowed to a trickle. There was a new album in 1989, then a decade’s wait until 1999.

Another decade has passed. In the years since, Winchester has remarried and left Quebec – where he lived for almost four decades since arriving at Dorval Airport as a Vietnam War-era draft resistor – for small town Virginia. And, at last, we have a new Jesse Winchester studio album; nine finely-crafted original gems and three excellent covers.

Winchester grew up in Memphis and his music has often blended Memphis R ‘n’ B traditions with country and folk influences. This album also has a very strong influence of early rock ‘n’ roll, particularly the ballad tradition of singers like Roy Orbison, a bit of jazz, and, perhaps in a nod to the sounds that waft through the Virginia countryside where he now lives, a hefty dose of bluegrass. Several of the core backup musicians, including guitarist Russ Barenberg, steel guitarist Jerry Douglas, fiddler Andy Leftwich and singer Claire Lynch have deep roots in bluegrass.

A couple of the songs, Bless Your Foolish Heart and Eulalie, both in country veins, first surfaced on Live from Mountain Stage, a live album put together from Winchester’s appearances on that American public radio program. Both seem fresh and new in these arrangements fleshed out by the fine studio band.

Another previously-heard tune is O What A Thrill, a ‘90s Winchester tune covered by the Mavericks. Winchester reclaims the song for himself with a gently rocking arrangement that highlights his haunting, liquid-like tenor voice. Others in that vein include Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding and a version of Stand By Me, the old Ben E. King hit that Winchester convincingly makes his own with his so-very-soulful singing and an arrangement highlighting Leftwich’s fiddling.

Other standouts include It’s A Shame About Him, an infectious country-swing tune that would have done Roger Miller proud, and the simply gorgeous I Turn To My Guitar which captures the feelings that have led to the creation of so much music by so many people over so many years.

The album ends with a terrific honky tonk duet that has Winchester trading lines with Lynch on Loose Talk, Carl Smith’s huge country hit from 1955.