Dar Williams

Dar Williams should be a familiar name to anyone who follows folk music. She's been around since 1990, long before I became aware of her! Not sure if I found out about her via the library or one of my daughters. MaryAnn has one of her albums and Shannon might have 2 or 3. Shannon is definitely the one who gets blame/credit for our family getting into contemporary folk. She was a bit of a granola girl in high school. Drove her mom nuts playing Mary Karlzen while getting ready for school in the morning. I enjoyed the genre during the 50's and 60's folk revival that swept the country, but following contemporary folk, is a fairly recent development. I'm certainly no expert on the subject and am continually discovering new artists.

I bought Dar's The Beauty of the Rain album because of the Alison Krauss connection on The One Who Knows and have been a casual fan ever since. I bought a used copy of The Honesty Room a few years ago. That's her '95 breakout album and has Shannon's favorite Dar song When I Was a Boy. I was recently reunited with Dar on BYUtv's excellent The Song That Changed My Life. This is an excellent series with top notch production and videography, beautiful in HD. The Dar episode really pulled me in and is a particular favorite. Watching the video and listening to Dar's intelligent commentary re-ignited my interest so I went to her website and aquainted myself with her works in greater depth. 2010's Many Great Companions really jumped out. It looked like a perfect album for someone like me who isn't likely to buy up all her albums, but appreciates her better known songs. I was also intrigued by the album's contributers, Sean and Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Larkin and Gary Louris of The Jayhawks. It's a 2 cd album. The first cd consists of re-works of 12 of her best songs featuring the aforementioned artists. These are stripped down arrangements which naturally appeals to me. The second cd has 20 original recordings drawn from her previous works. I was hoping the library would have a copy so I could make an intelligent decision of whether to purchase or not. I got lucky and found they did indeed have one and have been giving the album a thorough listen. Turns out to be a perfect album for me. That I would like the first disk is a given and the second one is a perfect overview of her body of work, so it's a definite must have!

Rating: 4 stars

Here's a less than perfect video of Dar singing one of my favorites from The Honesty Room, The Babysitter's Here. I chose it because it shows what a hoot Dar is in a live setting. Love the chimey sound of her new Collings guitar (featured on the BYUtv episode and most of her latest work including Many Great Companions)! Hope to get to see her in person some day soon!

Amy Black - One Time

Amy Black is a singer/songwriter from New England,with Southern roots. I'm pretty sure I found her when looking up versions of Angel From Montgomery on Youtube, but won't swear to it since I can no longer find the video. I was impressed with her lovely, laid back country vocals. She has many videos out there in Youtube world and I contented myself with watching/listening to them for quite some time. Amy finally motivated me to get some of her music for my Ipod by offering her first album, Amy Black and the Red Clay Rascals, as a free download last week. I'd been wanting to get her new album, One Time, for.several months after reviewing tracks on her website, so I took advantage of her offer and made it a twofer by ordering a hard copy of One Time and downloading Amy Black and the Red Clay Rascals. It took a few days for the cd to arrive so I listened to the first album regularly until it came. The first album is pretty good stuff, consisting of covers of songs special to Amy, among them the aformentioned Angel From Montgomery. The new album arrived in good time a few days later. As I've stated before, I prefer to buy cds because I can play them at work, Ipods not being allowed. When I finally got to play One Time I was really blown away. The quality of the album is quite a leap from the previous recording. I mentioned this on Amy's Facebook band page. She was kind enough to write an explanation for the disparity. The first album was cut in a day in a studio with her band at the time. The only producer was Amy herself. It's pretty good for a self produced effort, but employing some pros, including producer Lorne Entress (Lori McKenna, Bittertown), multi instrumentalist/back-up singer Mark Erelli, famed Nashville fiddler Stuart Duncan and other top flight musicians made a huge difference. Now I don't know if Lorne Entress was the cause or if Amy's become more relaxed in the genre, but I'd swear that her vocals are more fitted to the music on the new album. The first album sounded a bit forced. The new one feels more relaxed, right in the pocket. It may just be Amy's growth as an artist or the fact that 9 of the 12 tracks are her own and she's more comfortable singing her own stuff. Whatever, I'm highly recommending  One Time. From the Bluegrass tinged Run Johnny thru the Bluesy Ain't No Grave, One Time offers 12 tracks of honest Americana. My favorite track may be the weepy Whiskey and Wine, although it's hard to pick just one. They're all that good! Not sure where it will go with the radio, but maybe that's not a big issue any more for most musicians. Internet buzz is probably a better way to promote music these days so if you read this, please help spread the word.

I'm giving One Time a strong 4.5 Stars.

Here's Amy talking about and singing Whiskey and Wine:

PS - I'm an active, church attending, teetotaling Mormon. I picked this clip because it has the best sound quality I could find and I enjoy hearing the story behind a song, even when it describes a life style different from my own. 

Stetson and Cia

I've been a fan of Cherryholmes, a family band of the same name, almost from the first. They have a very interesting back story which I won't take the time to repeat here. It's out there to be found with a simple Google search. The gist being that they decided to take up Bluegrass music as a family and became world class almost overnight! From the beginning I've thought that eldest daughter Cia had one of the finest female voices in Bluegrass music, rivaling even such luminaries as Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent. I always anticipated she'd eventually strike out on her own solo career and looked forward to that day. When I learned of the breakup of the family band last year I was sure her time had come. Imagine how surprised and a bit concerned I was when I learned she'd hooked up with a fellow named Stetson and formed a duo. Duos are springing up like weeds these days and the thought of another one didn't thrill. Fortunately my worries were unfounded. Stetson turns out to be a vocalist perfectly matched to Cia. Their collaberation worked out so well, in fact, they decided to make it permanent and Cia became Mrs. Adkisson last month. They also released their first cd about the same time, an Americana EP appropriately titled Stetson & Cia. It's an 8 track collection of music that can't be too easily catagorized, but as far as I'm concerned it's country. Not radio country, but country none-the-less. I'm just as happy they chose the indie route rather than try to please the tastes of the music industry, and I err a bit by implying this isn't radio friendly, because it certainly could be if the industry execs were open to it. The track It's Been Too Long could easily pass as a country ballad. Surprise me radio people and pick up on it! The thing about Stetson is that he has a very radio friendly voice. He has the kind of baritone you expect from an Alan Jackson or Trace Adkins type singer. Cia's voice is so beautful that she could also pass as a regular country artist if she chose. In fact she's more versatile than I thought. Check out her gypsy jazz number with Cherryholmes titled Just You. Awesome!

I ordered the EP from their website and sent an accompanying note asking if they wouldn't mind signing it. I got a close to an immediate reply email saying they'd be happy to and that the cd was going into the mail the next day. Pretty impressive. I love dealing with indie artists! It was obvious the package was addressed with the same Sharpie that was used to autograph the cd. Again, pretty cool. I really love the EP. All tracks are great. This isn't Cherryholmes type, fiery bluegrass, but is very stripped down, lovely, acoustic music. They trade off lead vocals and all songs are their own writing. Cia is known as one of the top banjo players in the world. Her style here isn't the usual Scruggs picking you might expect, but is a little more laid back, hearkening back to an earlier era. My favorite track is I'm Not the One, a perfect example of Cia's great vocal work. The track titled Lullaby sounds like something Alison Krauss would record. I always thought she sounded similar to Rhonda Vincent in most of her cherryholmes work. She's seperated herself from such comparisons with this album. Her own style is emerging here. The goal was to keep things very simple, allowing the vocals to dominate. This philosophy is summed up in the following Frederic Chopin quote included in the liner notes: "Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art." They've certainly achieved that goal. Here's I'm Not the One:





Here's a video of their new single Waves:

Rating for the EP: Easily 5 Stars!