NORMAN BLAKE
Wood Wire and Words
Plectrafone

www.westernjubilee.com
 

Blake opens this album with “Savanna Rag,” a loose, syncopated instrumental that shows off his low key fingerpicking virtuosity. Descending bass runs and meandering flurries of mid-range improvisations give the tune a bright, buoyant feel. His technique never calls attention to itself and he closes the tune with a couple of end-or-the tune clichés, just to let us know that he’s not taking things too seriously. Later on in the set he gives us three more instrumentals including “Blake’s Rag,” a more impressive display of his marvelous technique and the album closer “Cloverdale Plantation March,” a solemn, bluesy number with a poignant, nostalgic feeling. The rest of the album is made up of what Blake archly calls “recently composed traditional songs,” eight fairly grim tunes that echo the hard working ethos of American mountain music.

Blake opens “The Keeper of the Government Light on the River” with an explanation of the song’s origin. In the days of steamboat travel, the government paid people to keep lanterns burning along the riverbanks to warn boats of shoals, sand banks and treacherous currents. They were paid 10 or 15 dollars a month. The singer of this tune feels like he’s got it made, because he gets 15 bucks a month. Blake delivers the tale of Will Harper, a man content with his lot in life, in a gravelly, almost fragile voice. It’s a straightforward folk-like song that conveys the simple joys of performing a monotonous task that carries enormous responsibility.

“The New Dawning Day” talks about the ghosts we perceive lurking in the darkness. The long night could be an ordinary sleepless evening or the darkness of life itself. It comes to a pleasing resolution with the protagonist about to “ride the golden sunbeams of our own new dawning day.” Nancy Blake contributes harmony vocals to “There’s a One Way Road to Glory” a beautiful anti-war hymn. “Black Bart” is a bad man ballad told in the first person, the story of a gentle highwayman who was famous for robbing stagecoaches without firing a shot and leaving poems in the empty strongboxes he emptied and “Farewell Francisco Madero” tells the story of the revolutionary thinker that tried to bring democracy to Mexico. He got a bullet to the head for his trouble, with the blessings of the United States government, fearful that his reforms might interfere with American business interests. Blake’s measured vocals and simple guitar accompaniment hew close to the folk tradition. He jokingly says the album is “kind of a downer, if you listen to the words,” but the songs all illuminate aspects of the American experience that are important to remember. Blake’s scholarship and musicianship are to be lauded for shining light on some of history’s forgotten corners.

— j. poet

A few samples from the album:

Track 1: Savannah Rag

Track 2: The Incident At Condra’s Switch

Track 3: Keeper of the Government Light on the River