The BGS Radio Hour – Episode 207

Welcome to the BGS Radio Hour! Since 2017, this weekly radio show and podcast has been a recap of all the great music, new and old, featured on the digital pages of BGS. This week, we bring you new music from our Artist of the Month, Allison Russell, an exclusive live performance by Madison Cunningham from BGS’ Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, and much more. Remember to check back every week for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour.

APPLE PODCASTS, SPOTIFY

Sunny War – “Losing Hand”

Coming out of COVID isolation with fingers crossed and masks on, many artists are releasing new and exciting music. We’re particularly thrilled about Sunny War’s latest release, Simple Syrup. We caught up with the LA-based guitarist and singer for an edition of 5+5 and talked everything — from Elizabeth Cotten’s guitar playing to eating black-eyed peas with Nina Simone.

Ted Russell Kamp – “Lightning Strikes Twice”

Singer-songwriter Ted Russell Kamp originally wrote “Lightning Strikes Twice” in the style of Billy Joe Shaver, as a honky tonk number. But, for his upcoming album Solitaire, he decided to rework the track, bluegrass style.

No-No Boy – “Gimme Chills”

A student of singer-songwriter, multimedia artist, and scholar No-No Boy (AKA Julian Saporiti) once called his song “Gimme Chills” a “fucked up love letter to the Philippines.” No-No Boy agreed. The track is part history lesson and part tribute.

Yola – “Diamond Studded Shoes”

Yola’s roots-pop outing “Diamond Studded Shoes” is a song that explores the divides created to distract us from those few who are in charge of the majority of the world’s wealth. It calls on all of us to unite and turn our focus to those with a stranglehold on humanity.

Dale Ann Bradley – “Yellow Creek”

BGS recently caught up with Kentucky’s own Dale Ann Bradley, discussing her recent album, Things She Couldn’t Get Over — her first release since departing group Sister Sadie. Each of the songs on the project deal with hard times, and finding the courage that gets us through. “Yellow Creek,” a song about the forced removal of Native Americans from their land, finds Bradley giving us a reminder to walk with empathy.

Josephine Johnson – “Where I Belong”

“Where I Belong” by singer-songwriter Josephine Johnson was inspired by characters from British Navy novels set during the Napoleonic wars. Love and high seas adventure, to be sure!

The Wandering Hearts – “Gold”

Inspired by their song “Gold,” The Wandering Hearts created a Mixtape for BGS, entitled The Golden Tonic, it’s a selection of songs that have helped them through tough situations, inspired them, and take them back to specific moments in time. They hope that the Golden Tonic will work its magic on the listener after this heavy and hard year.

Eli West – “Brick in the Road”

In a recent 5+5, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Eli West discusses the influence of Paul Brady and Irish folk music, understated chaos in visual art, and drunk BBQ with Sting and Mark Knopfler.

Allison Russell – “Nightflyer”

Our Artist of the Month Allison Russell has already made a mark on the modern roots scene through various powerhouse groups, like Birds of Chicago and supergroup Our Native Daughters. Now, she’s stepping out with her first solo record, Outside Child. Stick around all month long for exclusive content from Russell.

Bhi Bhiman – “Magic Carpet Ride”

Bhi Bhiman reimagines iconic rock song “Magic Carpet Ride” in the style of old country blues players – artists like Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and others who’ve played a huge role in Bhiman’s evolution as a guitarist.

Parker Millsap – “Vulnerable”

Parker Millsap, one of our recent guests on The Show On The Road, is a gifted singer-songwriter who grew up in a Pentecostal church and creates a fiery gospel backdrop for his tender (then window-rattling) rock ‘n’ roll voice.

Madison Cunningham – “L.A. (Looking Alive)”

Last spring, on our debut episode of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, Los Angeles-based, Grammy-nominated guitarist and singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham kicked off the entire series with an acoustic rendition of “L.A. (Looking Alive).”

Stash Wyslouch – “Lord Protect My Soul”

From bluegrass mad scientist Stash Wyslouch, formerly of progressive string band the Deadly Gentlemen, here’s a traditional number turned upside down, taking a Bill Monroe tune and contrasting it with polytonal backup. Wyslouch told BGS that while he gravitates towards gospel standards in the bluegrass world, his own style drifts to the absurd and unexpected. Like a bluegrass Frank Zappa!

Bob Malone – “The River Gives”

Singer-songwriter and pianist Bob Malone wrote “The River Gives” after the devastating 2016 flooding in West Virginia, but he never had a chance to produce the track like he wanted to – until now!

Marty Stuart – “One In A Row”

Marty Stuart’s new project, Songs I Sing In The Dark, is a collection of twenty songs that he curated that helped him through the tough times that we all saw in 2020. Stuart says this Willie Nelson song has followed him around since he first heard it over twenty years ago. “I think of it as an old friend, same as Willie. It’s a friend for the ages, and an excellent song to sing in the dark.


Photos: (L to R) Madison Cunningham by Claire Marie Vogel; Yola by Joseph Ross Smith; Allison Russell by Marc Baptiste

BGS 5+5: Eli West

Artist: Eli West
Hometown: Olympia, Washington
Latest Album: Tapered Point of Stone

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Probably Paul Brady, as a singer and guitar player. While I don’t play Irish folk music much, the tradition, while having lots of shapes and inflection, isn’t inherently showy. You don’t see an Irish folk musician put their foot up on a monitor to take a solo. I think communicating something interesting in an understated way is so satisfying…. Leaving room for the listener, not hitting you over the head with an idea. Tim O’Brien is an American version of that as well.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I’m a visual learner. Visual and spatial art, woodworking, painting, all have something to do with my musical decisions. I love understated chaos, like arranging things that seem to already be there. Goldsworthy is an obvious example of this, but there are many folks who do this in a variety of mediums. I tend to overthink, so anything that helps me escape my head to see things in a simpler way.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

Running, for my mental health. Also, getting to know a new town before a show. Also, eating. Big fan of eating.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I grew up on salt water, sailing, and kayaking with my dad. Also skiing and backpacking in the mountains of the Northwest. I think the understory of a dense cedar grove is pretty inspiring, usually quiet while full of life.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Huh… I love seafood. There is a restaurant in Tel Aviv called the Old Man and the Sea. I would love to sit outside, eating fish, talking to someone like Django or Jim Hall about guitars. Since both those guys are gone, maybe drunk BBQ with Sting or Mark Knopfler would be fun (all those things borrowing from my high school self).


Photo credit: Jenny Jimenez

Christian Sedelmyer, “Brain Scan”

If you have happened to spend any amount of time inside an MRI machine (as this writer has), you’ll know it’s not a particularly comfortable experience. Claustrophobia is almost guaranteed, as your body is ushered into a tiny, cramped tube where patients are instructed to lay impossibly still for as long as the gigantic magnet and coils rotate, whine, and grind around your body. If you’re lucky, and your particular imaging orders don’t require otherwise, some MRI machines are equipped with music through magnet-safe earbuds (“What Pandora station would you like to listen to today?”) or, in one rare case for this writer, Netflix was projected through a series of relayed mirrors to allow Parks & Recreation to appear within the machine.

MRI machines are loud, and the noise is not particularly pleasant. Bumping and squealing and repetitive clunks and bangs become like a sound bath, as your brain attempts to make sense of the cavalcade of random noises. Some patients pick out sounds and gibberish syllables from the noise (I often hear “DAD! DAD! DAD! DAD! DAAAAD!”), while others simply let the cacophony wash over them hypnotically. Others cannot help but be swept away by the adrenaline-boosting, horror film-esque atonal soundtrack.

On his brand new solo album, Ravine Palace, Grammy-nominated fiddler Christian Sedelmyer (Jerry Douglas Band, 10 String Symphony) proffers a gorgeous alternative to that soundtrack. “Brain Scan” is a tune that certainly calls to mind the prerequisite din of an MRI machine, but with slippery bowed chromaticisms and Sedelmyer’s signature musical wit — plus a healthy dose of joy, something often suspiciously absent from radiology departments. Andrew Marlin (Mandolin Orange) on mandolin, Eli West (Cahalen Morrison & Eli West) on guitar and clawhammer banjo, and Clint Mullican (also Mandolin Orange) on bass follow along with rapt attention, combining the detail-affixed listening of chamber music with the sly lilt and energy of old-time.

Even while the foursome toys with the dissonant themes of the melody throughout the tune the aesthetics here will always be more palatable, enjoyable, and irresistible than a gigantic piece of magnetic medical equipment — no one is surprised, here — but “Brain Scan” still captures the anxieties, uncertainties, and inevitabilities of such a procedure uncannily. In a package any listener would be happy to encounter, whether through scan-safe earphones or not.

ARTIST OF THE MONTH: Cahalen Morrison & Eli West

 

You should know, this is not the first time CAHALEN MORRISON AND ELI WEST have made an appearance on this site.  Quite honestly, ever since we heard the Seattle-based duo’s 2012 release Our Lady of the Tall Trees we haven’t been able to get enough of their beautifully crafted harmonies and skillful picking.  It’s a sound that is both simple yet intricate; familiar yet new.  It’s why we absolutely had to include them on The Sitch’s 2012 Anti-Year End List, and the same reason so many other respected musicians in the industry list them as an influence (case in point: Kimber Ludiker of Della Mae’s recently contributed Mixtape).  So the real question is: why aren’t you listening yet??

BEGINNINGS:

Cahalen:  My dad is a musician – fiddle, guitar, things like that – so I grew up with a lot of bluegrass and old time music in the house.  In middle school I started playing drums and was in a band for several years.  When I got to college I studied jazz and drums, but I never really stopped playing guitar.  After college I went on the road for a few years by myself.  At one point I was visiting my sister in Seattle, and Eli and I had this mutual friend there, which is how we were introduced.  We played together and tested it out for a little bit and found ourselves very in sync.  The rest, they say, is history.

Eli:  I was a little more into folk than bluegrass.  I started playing Suzuki violin when I was 5 and by about 7th grade I thought guitar was much more interesting, but my mother – being the smart woman that she is – said if I wanted to make the switch I had to take guitar just as seriously as I had been studying violin.  In middle school and high school I was playing a lot of big band, swing music and by the end of high school I had discovered flatpicking.  In college I was a visual arts major but never stopped playing.  It was there that I really caught the bluegrass bug – hearing it totally changed my path and interests.  Started on mandolin and a little bit of banjo… but music was still secondary – I was focusing on visual arts, with a political science minor… never thought I would be a professional musician.  After college I moved to Seattle where I was a graphic designer for several years.  Once I met Cahalen, I made the switch to do music all the time.

I think timing was a big variable… Cahalen had already been on the road for three years when I met him, and I was really worn out from being a graphic designer, so we were both ready for a new path.

We’re very complimentary yet different musicians… we’re not competing for the same roles.  He’s the primary songwriter – writes the majority of the material.  I was drawn to his songwriting.  But I’m the harmony to that.  I help in the arranging.  It’s all complementary.  That’s why it works.

INFLUENCES:

Cahalen:  Definitely Tim O’Brien – my dad was a big Hot Rize fan, and eventually got in to his solo stuff so I grew up listening to a lot of that.  But then goes into folk songwriter  Greg Brown and Kelly Jo Phelps.  Outside of that, I also read a lot of poetry, which I think sneaks into my own lyrics and the music as well.

Eli:  I would speak more to my identity as an improvising musician.  I’m definitely a subscriber to the Bill Frizell school of improvisation.  Pat Metheny’s One Quiet Night – which is him playing acoustic baritone guitar – was pretty transformational for me.  And I think the standards are always Tim O’Brien and Tony Rice.

PLANS:

Eli:  We’ve both hit it really hard the past few years to get where we’re at right now.  We’ll definitely keep going, booking for the duo, etc.  Plus I’m still doing some graphic design work on the side

Cahalen:  I don’t think either one of us has plans to stop doing what we’re doing as a duo.  Planning on another record in the future.  A bunch of tour dates coming up.  Plus I have a country band project that I’ll be working on, the record for which won’t come out til the end of 2013, which should be fun and a nice change of pace.