In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes
(Smithsonian Folkways)
Too many folks shy away from the unerring archival nature of the Smithsonian Folkways releases. Apparently there isn't actually a huge market for banjo players that sing hundred year-old ballads through their nose. That is not the case with this special new collection. Hobart Smith died in 1965 at 87 years old making him one of those turn-of-the-century dudes and the music he heard in his travels stuck with him. This hugely talented musician became a kind of human repository for all kinds of (mostly white) folk music over the course of his entire life and you get a sense of his worth. Hugely talented may be an understatement. Smith played piano, guitar, banjo and fiddle with equal aplomb and the 36 renditions here will make your jaw drop accordingly. Nudged into the cracks between (and sometimes during) songs, archivist/recordist Fleming Brown pulls as many dates and events out of Smith as possible like he knew it would all be important some day. The 80 page booklet and smart packaging will meet the highest fan expectations and provide neophytes with a history lesson that won’t be challenged anytime soon.
The MONk 2009 view: Truth be told, I listen to a lot of this olde timey stuff when the mood strikes me thatta way. The general spookiness that much of this classic Americana spins holds my attention as much as Swedish hard rock gets me going physically. The moods evoked from that real wild Appalachian music or searing conjunto or cajun music all comes from similar veins of experience and while the themes may vary the instruments used are pretty much the same, and hearing how they are used in differing ethnic musical variants is what truly excites my brain. Conversely, much of what passes as "roots" music or *sigh* "country" music these days is but a thin discourse on stylistic application. Many of the groups hailed as saviours of *real* roots music are only generational interpreters of what has come before. That may sound a bit trite, I know, but if you dig deeper into some of the music of cats like Hobart Smith and his ilk you will find that in reality the current crop of artists are really only reasonable facsimiles. Plus, and I know that they HAVE to do it to compete, I don't see that a band that tweets (fuuuuck) their every bowel movement and string change or has 5,000 friends on facespace has any real concept of being dirt poor and struggling to release demons from their soul. But that is just me. I do like the new Reckless Kelly album. Is that being contradictory or what? Right then, away with ya!
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