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One of my favorite pieces of
music -- one which I return to at least once a day -- is a piece
called "Blue Yodel No. 9" by Jimmie Rodgers. Rodgers
recorded a dozen of the blue yodels; No. 9 is noteworthy for the
appearance of...Louis Armstrong. One of the many factors which
makes this track such a stand-out
is that neither Rodgers nor Armstrong compromised their
respective styles for this collaboration; they had no need to.
The track stands as a Rosetta stone of the influences which have
been instrumental in the creation of American popular music, and
also demonstrates that classification of music by genre, while
convenient, becomes irrelevant at the source. This was once
again demonstrated when Armstrong played the tune with Johnny
Cash, another American icon of country music, for a television
special in 1970. And it is further demonstrated, if indeed any
demonstration was necessary, by two tracks on DOWN FROM THE
MOUNTAIN.
DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN is a companion
piece of sorts to the soundtrack of O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU.
It's a recording of a concert featuring the stalwarts from the
BROTHER soundtrack. No feedback, no
dance mixes, none of
the usual cheerfully obscene greetings from the stage found on
most live recordings these days (The phrase,"Are you
fuckers ready for some BLUEGRASS?," for example, will not
be heard here). Just beautiful, plaintive music, played as if
some neighbors brought their instruments over to your front
porch to play and sing for you a spell.
One of those neighbors actually, would be
a gent named Chris Thomas King, a bluesman from New Orleans who
has instant name recognition all over the civilized world with
the exception of his native country. King was in the O BROTHER
film, so he's starting to get his just due here also. His
contribution to the DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN is
"John Law Burned Down the Liquor Sto'"
which is such equal parts of blues and what used to be called
hillbilly music that it can be called either, both, or neither.
But the real revelation
here is the Fairfield Four, a vocal quartet described quite
accurately by Holly Hunter as a national treasure. No
instruments, no d.j., and probably no formal training, either;
nothing but their voices, hands, and feet to make time stand
still. And, incidentally, all the elements of blues, rock and
country in four minutes and change.
But there are ten other tracks here and
not a wasted, unnecessary second in the bunch. Emmilou Harris is
present, as she should
be, on "Green Pastures;" Allison Krauss, who has with
quiet gentleness and determined steel demonstrated that
bluegrass has commercial viability, is all
over the place, both with her Union Station stalwarts and
Gillian Welch, who also performs on a couple of tracks with
faithful creative companion and soulmate David Rawlings. The
Whites, maybe the best American band going these days, check in
with "Sandy Land," while the Cox Family literally
stops time and space with "I Am Weary (Let Me Rest),"
a bluegrass number that, while technically not the blues,
communicates the feeling of it so effectively that it is
impossible to paint it with any other brush. Similarly, John
Hartford reprises "Big Rock Candy Mountain," in which
his plaintive voice and expert fiddling fore-shadow, eerily, his
death approximately one year after this recording was made.
Hartford was a true artist, walking away from fame and fortune
over 20 years ago because it was interfering with his craft. If
you look up "integrity" in the dictionary, his picture
is right next to the definition.
In the movie "The Verdict," one
of the secondary characters makes a statement to the effect that
people really want to hear the truth. If you want to hear it,
unvarnished, without the sturm and drung and strobelights and
fog machines, look no further.
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| Artist |
Various |
| Title |
Down from the
Mountain (OST) |
| Label |
Lost Highway |
| Reviewer |
Joe Hartlaub |
| Rating |
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| win stuff |
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