Tag: tune

Alex Sturbaum, “Radish in Spring”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

There’s an immediately whimsical, transatlantic quality to Alex Sturbaum’s original tune, “Radish in Spring” that feels intuitive, like a long-forgotten melody on a medieval video game’s pause menu or the perfect backing track to a montage scene in a sepia-toned, independent film. The cheerily wonky descending chromaticism feels like a wry, knowing smile, teasing listeners’ ears for expecting the predictable.

A genderfluid musician, educator, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Sturbaum is full of delightful turns such as this on their new release, Loomings, purposefully and pointedly queering a musical aesthetic that hearkens far back, beyond Appalachia, American shores, and across the sea. The title, a serendipitous reference in a pandemic that has forced many a backyard gardener to embrace homegrown brassicas of all varieties, is a reference to Sturbaum’s partner, Rae, whose pet name is “Radish.” 

“I had to include ‘Radish in Spring’ [on Loomings];” Sturbaum explains via email, “Not just because I love playing the tune, but to honor the person whose love and support has been integral to my journey as a musician and as a person.”

Knowing, sensing this tender tribute allows listeners to untangle even more of the song’s subtly captivating themes — including that prerequisite spiciness we all know, love, and expect from a crisp, icy cold, earthy radish. Sturbaum’s Irish-style button accordion combined with fiddle supplied by Brian Lindsay and bass by Loomings producer Alicia Healey are together a textbook less-is-more approach to instrumental tune-crafting. And, whether metaphorically or literally, they’re a reminder of the beautiful simplicity of a just-after frost, freshly-tended garden bed full of bright, new, homegrown radishes in spring.

Photo credit: Brian Lindsay

WATCH: Mark Stoffel, “Shadowbands”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Mark Stoffel
Hometown: My birthplace and original hometown is Munich, Germany. My adopted hometown is Murphysboro, Illinois
Song: “Shadowbands”
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “This tune came to me relatively quickly while warming up for a show in Auburn, Alabama, in 2017. It also happened to be in the year of the wondrous transcontinental total solar eclipse and my chosen home near Murphysboro, Illinois, lay smack in the middle of the path. It seemed just right to name the tune after an amazing phenomenon associated with a total eclipse: ‘Shadowbands.’ (Google it.) My hobby astronomy friends assure me that the tune actually captures the mystique of shadow bands!

“The musicians, which I am honored to call very close friends of mine, all live scattered around the world, so we produced this video in an extreme socially-distanced fashion: Ross Sermons shot his bass part near Hobart, Tasmania. Niall Murphy, fiddle, posed for his part in South Armagh, Northern Ireland; and Gina Furtado, banjo, picked her scenic spot near her hometown of Winchester, Virginia. Josh, the guitarist, and I captured our parts in Alto Pass, Illinois. It was a lot of fun to put together, both the recording and the video. I hope it shows. Cheers, everybody!” — Mark Stoffel

Photo credit: Mary Stoffel

LISTEN: Bluegrass 2020, “Vanleer” (Feat. Scott Vestal, Patrick McAvinue, Cody Kilby, Dominick Leslie & Curtis Vestal)

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Bluegrass 2020, featuring Scott Vestal, Patrick McAvinue, Cody Kilby, Dominick Leslie, and Curtis Vestal
Hometown: Greenbrier, Tennessee
Song: “Vanleer”
Album: Bluegrass 2020
Release Date: June 26, 2020
Label: Pinecastle Records

In Their Words: “I wrote this tune around 2004 and had totally forgotten about it until a few weeks before the Bluegrass 2020 session. The name is from the beautiful countryside of Vanleer, TN about an hour and a half west of Nashville where my wife, Alice, grew up. We were married there in the middle of Bear Creek on a gigantic rock. There are caves, creeks, plains, hills, and valleys. The tune has 5 parts with the various instruments weaving in and out of the melodies, much like the landscape of Vanleer.” — Scott Vestal, Bluegrass 2020

Hear Six of Our Favorite Instrumentals on IBMA’s Second-Round Ballot

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

We debuted Tunesday Tuesday in January 2018 for a pretty simple reason. Roots music has a world-class stable of talented pickers, and unlike other more commercial genres, that talent is something of a prerequisite. Whether blues or bluegrass or country or folk, there’s something about American roots music that goes hand in hand with virtuosic playing ability. It’s one of the main reasons BGS loves string band music. 

The 20 tunes that advanced to this year’s second-round IBMA ballot in the Instrumental Recording of the Year category showcase a wide range of the talent that draws us to instrumentals, so why not go through a half-dozen of our favorites? Some of these folks have been featured in their own Tunesday Tuesday before, some are newcomers, but two things unite all of them: You’ll be tapping a toe and looking up whether your IBMA membership has lapsed or not after listening to any of the following instrumentals. 

“Bish Bash Bosh” – David Benedict

An outlier in this category for more than one reason, mandolinist David Benedict’s “Bish Bash Bosh” is a breath of fresh air thanks to its tender intro, its languid tempo, and the musical wiggle room afforded to the track by each. Fiddler Mike Barnett and IBMA Award-winning veterans Missy Raines (bass) and David Grier (guitar) are each sensitive, empathetic sounding boards for Benedict’s themes, unspooling and embellishing them expertly. More tender-yet-gritty instrumentals in this category going forward, please!

“Big Country” – Gena Britt

Can’t get much more bluegrass than a tune like “Big Country” and Gena Britt’s right hand! The Sister Sadie banjo player’s solo album, Chronicle: Friends and Music, showcases not only her spotlessly crisp, bread-and-butter approach to Scruggs-style banjo, but her singing voice and her sparkly group of musical friends, too. It’s refreshing to hear banjo playing that’s truly unconcerned with ego, while remaining happily in a pretty much traditional lane. If it ain’t broke, after all… 

“Princess and the Pea” – The Gina Furtado Project

Two incredible, banjo-playing Ginas/Genas back to back! Gina Furtado’s debut record with her band, the Gina Furtado Project, features this delightfully medieval, fairy tale tune with a more-joyful-than-most minor-key motif. Furtado reminds all of us that her playing contains many more influences than we often assume, with subtle call backs to Tony Rice and John Carlini-tinged eras in bluegrass’s new acoustic circles. Even the tune’s production guides listeners’ ears in this direction. It’s another excellent sonic “ear break” on the ballot.

“Soldier’s Joy” – Jesse McReynolds (Feat. Michael Cleveland)

A Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductee and the oldest living member of the Grand Ole Opry, Jesse McReynolds epitomizes what it means to be a bluegrass legend and forebear — and he’s still picking. On a recording with umpteen-time IBMA Award-winning fiddler Michael Cleveland, McReynolds shows his audience exactly why he deserves every accolade he’s received and more. Given his age (McReynolds will turn 91 this year) and inevitable decline in mobility and dexterity, you’d expect a gracious caveat herein to allow for the recordings “warts” and “raw moments,” but damn if his playing isn’t as clean as ever! An award-winning, award-deserving mandolinist, no doubt.

“Chickens in the House” – Deanie Richardson

That fiddler, educator, and multi-instrumentalist Deanie Richardson does not have an IBMA Award unto herself yet is a true injustice. Also a member of Sister Sadie with Gena Britt, Richardson has been a lifelong presence in bluegrass and fiddle contest scenes around the US, and has toured with Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Bob Seger, and been house fiddler on the Grand Ole Opry. “Chickens in the House” features some timeless fiddling chicken imitations, as well as a languid backstep feel that clicks up a few BPM as the band goes, so watch your feet should they get to shufflin’ without your say-so.

“Guitar Peace” – Billy Strings

Until snagging his first proper IBMA Awards just last year for Best New Artist and Guitar Player of the Year, flatpicking phenomenon Billy Strings has gone generally underappreciated by voting members. His crowds, his shows, and his fans are extraordinary in bluegrass, jamgrass, and similar communities – the roots music sphere continues to watch his ascent with something like a slack jaw. Though it’s unlikely he’ll dominate this year’s IBMA Awards, this trance, solo acoustic guitar track, “Guitar Peace,” which features a calming, buzzing drone and plenty of Strings’ trademark six-string acrobatics, deserves the nod. 

Photo credits: David Benedict by Louise Bichan; Gena Britt courtesy of the artist; Gina Furtado Project by Sandlin Gaither; Jesse McReynolds still; Deanie Richardson by Kerrie Richardson; Billy Strings by Shane Timm. 

Christian Sedelmyer, “Brain Scan”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

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.

Laurie Lewis & Friends, “Dear Old Dixie (Live)”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner
This edition of Tunesday turned out to be an oddly circuitous task. We often take this space to highlight our Artists of the Month, pointing out instrumentals from throughout their catalogs and across their careers, but for singer, songwriter, guitarist, poet, frontwoman, and long-distance hiker Laurie Lewis, the tunes are simply in too-short supply. Not because they don’t exist, but because Lewis’ cosmic level lyricism tends to eclipse her virtuosic command of the majority of bluegrass’s titular instruments. You may most often see her with a dreadnought strapped around her shoulders, but rest a fiddle there instead and you’re bound to enjoy some of the best bluegrass fiddling — with an even sprinkling of contest style, West Coast country, and the melody-driven old-time of the Pacific Northwest throughout.
In this clip from a live performance on The Texas Connection in 1992, Lewis is joined by longtime musical partner and bandmate Tom Rozum as well as Sally Van Meter, Alan Munde, Peter Rowan, Peter McLaughlin, and Cary Black on a sleek and stupefying rendition of “Dear Old Dixie.” It’s a banjo number, naturally, so Munde kicks it off with an uncharacteristically normative, Scruggs-like play through the melody. The remaining bandmates each take a turn, but the fire’s really lit when Lewis saws out her own solo, reminding all of us that she only ends up placing herself behind the guitar more often than not because she chooses to. With slippery, deliciously dissonant double stops she capitalizes upon the signature energy and showmanship concentrated within every note, every bow stroke, and every string pluck she issues.
While a quick stroll through her catalog, especially on streaming platforms, may not immediately land you in a pile of recordings of burning Bill Monroe tunes, or contemplative waltzes, or danceable hornpipes, you’ll probably find yourself confounded by the natural imagery, tender emotion, and raw spiritual power of her lyrics instead. That’s understandable. With a little digging, though, that picture of a legendary artist’s work can be expanded to include lifelong rations of indomitable pickin’ like this, too. And it ought to.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Watkins Family Hour, “Bella and Ivan”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

“Bella and Ivan,” one of two instrumentals on our Artist of the Month Watkins Family Hour’s brand new LP, brother sister, begins with a folky, whirring Vitamix of notes. It’s a frenzied melody, one that allows the siblings’ bluegrass virtuosity to glint like a bright reflection off a sly smile. Sean’s aggressive, Tony Rice attack and the slight Celtic bounce of Sara’s bow are demonstrating that they, too, can accomplish the unlikely complicated ease of the duo’s tight, familial harmonies.

And they do. Ever since the first notes of Nickel Creek’s “Ode to a Butterfly” transformed an entire generation of listeners into bluegrass fans, Sean and Sara Watkins have been giving us these effortless-while-acrobatic instrumentals. Each one reminds us in its own way that no matter how far afield the pair may travel from their genre of origin, they carry it with them still — and can execute any of its aesthetics with immediacy and delightful, mocking aplomb. 

Named for a friend’s two dogs who love to wrestle, “Bella and Ivan” isn’t so much rough housing as it is a scripted, choreographed, pro fight. Their interplay is just as exciting to those of us who suspend disbelief as it is to those who don’t; the musical dialogue precariously and joyfully unfolds in a way that refuses to either feel rehearsed or totally off-the-cuff. 

In whatever iteration one encounters the music of Sean, Sara, and/or Watkins Family Hour, they’re giving listeners every last ounce of that ethereal “something” that sparked our love for them in the first place. While they constantly reinvent themselves and explore new sonic territories, somehow that “something” remains indelible. It’s just Sean and Sara Watkins.

WATCH: The Slocan Ramblers, “New Morning”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Slocan Ramblers
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Song: “New Morning”
Album: Queen City Jubilee
Label: SloMusic

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘New Morning’ right after our second album Coffee Creek came out, and it came to me pretty quick. There’s this funny period after you put out an album — a moment of calm and then the crashing realization that it’s on to the next one. It’s that push to get back to work that got me writing again, and this song came out first. I was listening to Béla Fleck’s Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2 endlessly around that time, so maybe you can find some bits of inspiration in there. Big thanks to Trent Freeman (check out his awesome band The Fretless) for the videography.” — Adrian Gross, The Slocan Ramblers

Photo credit: Jen Squires

LISTEN: Dylan McCarthy, “Mosquito”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Dylan McCarthy
Hometown: From Boulder, Colorado; currently living in Lyons, Colorado
Song: “Mosquito”
Album: Lost & Found
Release Date: May 1, 2020

In Their Words: “‘Mosquito’ was one of the first tunes I had selected for the project and in many ways it was the catalyst for the whole thing. The tune got its name from the mosquito bite I received while writing the tune on my front porch in Lyons, Colorado. The overall approach to this tune was inspired in part by the opening track of Béla Fleck’s Drive, ‘Whitewater.’ I’ve always loved the way they start off that tune and I wanted to try to capture that energy on ‘Mosquito.’ The track features Eric Wiggs on guitar, Bradley Morse on bass, Sam Armstrong-Zickefoose on banjo, and Justin Hoffenburg on fiddle.” — Dylan McCarthy

Photo credit: Kyle Ussery, Flat Nine Design

Della Mae, “Peg Monster”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Time and again Della Mae demonstrates that of their indisputable strengths as a dynamic, powerhouse string band, a conglomeration of some of the most talented musicians and writers in bluegrass and roots music, their most impressive trait must surely be their unrelenting taunting of every convention handed down to them by those genres. Even now, as they make what some would call “the pivot to Americana,” they laugh off that very idea on Headlight, the record tasked with the brunt of that rebrand. The subtle, crooked smile of self awareness makes appearances throughout this collection of songs, but is flaunted outright on “Peg Monster,” the record’s sole instrumental. 

Written by fiddler Kimber Ludiker, “Peg Monster” is an impressively ancient-sounding tune, drawing on Ludiker’s deep fiddling pedigree and the expansive musical vocabularies that have won her two Grand Master Fiddle Championships. The melody strikes listeners as haunting, as if emanating from a shady holler or a decades-old campsite at a fiddle convention. It builds like a campsite jam, too, with a dash of Jenni Lyn on mandolin and a ripple of Avril Smith’s flatpicking. Then, as seamless as the rest, through the crack left in tradition’s door by that haunting vibe — and beckoned through by the Dellas’ virtuosic irreverence — organic, campfire percussion and low rumbling organ pads fill in the spaces artfully left by each instrumentalist. 

Pigeonholing and “recommended if you like” habits will always attempt to relegate Della Mae to countless ones versus others, but, as they consistently and artfully remind us, this band refuses to give up their autonomy and self-expression for the sake of tidiness and clean labels. “Peg Monster” shows it — hell, their entire catalog does; Della Mae loves living in the spaces in the middle, and with Headlight that’s exactly where they’ve made their home.