Five ideas for your summer listening, from American roots classics done up with a touch of twenty first century style to songs from Ireland that cross the centuries:
The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore are the ones taking on those American roots classics, song such as In the Pines, Deep Ellum Blues, Uncle Pen, and I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes. Even if these titles seem unfamiliar. odds are that once you begin listening to their album Heirloom Music, you’ll find several to sing along with, so woven into the fabric of life have these songs become. Texas troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore has a high tenor just suited for such things, and The Wronglers, headed up by Warren Hellman, who also helms California's Hardy Strictly Bluegrass festival, are just the right band to join up with him, steeped in tradition and with a lively willingness to brush up old classics in a new way, too.
Wild Carrot and the Roots Band share that same flair for drawing connections between heritage and present day, as well. In their album Crowd Around the Mic. the two duos of Pam Temple and Spencer Funk from Carrot and Brandt Smith and Brenda Wolfersberger of Roots make an inspired quartet, offering up a batch of fine original songs from Temple, as well as covers of songs from Michelle Shocked, Guy Clark, John Lennon, and Sammy Cahn. It’s a lively roots bluegrass country album with a dash of jazz now and then and a fine cover of the traditional Celtic tune MacPherson’s Lament, too.
Speaking of bluegrass....Alison Krauss and Union Station are known for interpreting that genre in creative ways, and so they do on the album Paper Airplane. Krauss, along with band mates Jerry Douglas, Barry Bales, Dan Tyminski, and Ron Block, have chosen eleven songs from across a range of top contemporary writers and given them the band’s own unique and cohesive sound, one that holds echoes of ancient stories and timeless emotion while being grounded in the present moment. Another band who is good at that is Crooked Still. AKUS have chosen Lay My Burden Down from Crooked Still’s Aoife O’Donovan for this album, along with Peter Rowan’s Dust Bowl Children, Jackson Browne’s My Opening Farewell, and Richard Thompson’s The Dimming of the Day, and the title cut, a new song from longtime band favorite songwriter Robert Lee Castleman.
Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller add their own take on tradition, too. In their case the tradition they explore is that of Scotland. The rising duo have won a batch of award recognitons.. Shadows Tall is the pair’s second album, and finds them building on the promise of their earlier work, with fine lead singing, excellent playing, and a gift for inhabiting and channeling the emotions and ideas of the songs they choose. Leslie hails from Orkney, in the far north of Scotland, while Miller is from Penicuik, near Edinburgh, so they have a range of Scottish geographical style and tradition to draw on. Notable tracks on Shadows Tall include Buttermilk Hill, The King’s Shilling, The Giant Set, and Who Will Sing Me Lullabies? paired with Sleepy Laddie. Both women are fine singers and instrumentalists -- fiddlers will want to take special note of Leslie's contributions there.
Róisín Elsafty draws deeply on tradition, as well. In her case, the tradition is that of the west of Ireland, Conamara in particular. She follows the sean nos style, in which emotion is conveyed deeply by the singer’s voice and choice of exactly how to place and sing each word to tell a story. On her album Má bhíonn tú liom bí liom she offers classic sean nos songs such as Róisín Dubh, which you may take either as a love song or a song about Ireland, and Seothin Seó, which is a lullabye. It is a lively and varied collection, which you will enjoy whether you speak Irish or not. There is one song in English, John Spillane’s Poor Weary Wanderer, and Elsafty tells the stories of the songs in English in the notes, as well. Updating the sean nos tradition of unaccompanied singing, she brings along a fine group of backing musicians, including Ronan Browne on pipes and Siobhan Armstrong on wire strung Irish harp.
side note: I’ve been fortunate enough to see all of these musicians play live at one time or another. As you are making your plans for summer, schedule in time to listen to live music....
Kerry Dexter is the Music Editor for Wandering Educators.
Kerry's credits include CMT, National Geographic Traveler, Strings, and The Encyclopedia of Ireland and the Americas. You may reach her at music at wanderingeducators dot com. @kerrydexter on Twitter and at Music Road.
Feature photo: Róisín Elsafty