Consider: The Pants

Carroll: The Boy Called Billy Joe (haunting late 60s Texan 45 answering Bobbie Gentry's genius hit)

Bobbie Gentry - Fool on the Hill sung in Japanese

The Trick Is To Breathe is the first solo album from ex-Long Ryder Sid Griffin in a decade. Known as a founder of today's Americana/Alt-Country genre for his groundbreaking work with the Long Ryders then (and the Coal Porters since) Sid Griffin has never been far from the cutting edge. Few who could honestly claim to be a Godfather to the current roots music scene have made their mark in so many ways; bandleader, songwriter, instrumentalist, author of four books and broadcaster.

Yet it took a decade for The Trick Is To Breathe to happen. ''I was waiting for the right combination of songs and the right place to record'', says Griffin, ''I got the songs, I found the place just outside Nashville, and I found the right pickers. It was a heavenly experience''. Twelve tracks featuring ten new Sid originals, one cover song and a spoken word poem(!) combine to equal what Sid describes as ''the best album of my long career''. Find out why. 

Ode To Bobbie Gentry

World’s Fair. Julian Lage’s first solo guitar album, is so spontaneous and intimate in feel it’s as if this prodigious guitarist had just arrived in your living room, picked up his vintage Martin, and simply started to play.

“I always had a fantasy about doing a solo guitar project, “ Lage explains, “especially one that highlighted various orchestrational aspects of guitar playing and guitar techniques, drawing from the structure of the three to four minute song, pieces that did not depend as much on improvisation but on moods, or musical attitudes. When I started recording, I discovered what a rare opportunity this was for me to recalibrate my senses to one instrument and within that recalibration learn to savor the vast world of intimacy and nuance, both qualities so inherent to the guitar.”

While conceiving of and recording World’s Fair, Lage was inspired by the orchestral approach to the guitar of the great Andres Segovia and by the music of the early 20th Century, of “jazz before be-bop. He found a similarly unbound spirit in the early seventies work of singer-songwriters like Randy Newman, who managed to incorporate a sophisticated range of ideas into the concise pop-song format. He was drawn, in other words, to sounds that were both challenging and pleasing -- work, much like his own, that defies easy categorization.

As the New York Times has put it, the 26 year-old Lage is a an artist whose roots are “tangled in jazz, folk, classical and country music.” A child guitar prodigy, he was the subject of the 1997 Oscar-nominated documentary short, Jules at 8.; he made his first recording, with David Grisman, at the age of 11. His first recording as a leader, 2009’s Sounding Point, garnered a Grammy nomination as Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Up to now, collaboration has been essential to Lage’s process; he has toured and/or recorded with such artists as Gary Burton, Nels Cline, Fred Hersch, and Jim Hall, who was a major influence on the young Lage. His most recent project is Room, a live-in-the-studio exchange with experimental guitarist Cline. Earlier this year, he released Avalon, a duo recording with fellow guitarist Chris “Critter” Eldridge (of Punch Brothers) that surveyed the American Songbook with an easygoing virtuosity.

World’s Fair, co-produced by Matt Munisteri and engineered by Armand Hirsch, sets up a new sort of relationship between Lage and his audience, as about as one-on-one as a musician can get without physically being there. Says Lage, “Here are twelve songs that represent this opening into my world, a musical and personal aesthetic I haven’t yet had the opportunity to express in full on record. This music, these explorations, this overarching narrative -- taken together, they represent one of my long times dreams, to create music for one guitar, played by one person, for you.”

- Michael Hill
credits
released February 3, 2015

Produced by Matt Munisteri and Julian Lage
Engineered and Mixed by Armand Hirsch
Assistant Engineered by Teddy Tuthill
Mastered by Dan Millice at The Engine Room
Design: Matt Pfahlert for www.thesilentp.com

Recorded June 16-17, 2014 at Sear Sound in New York City, with the exception of "Double Stops" and "Where or When" which were recorded March 19, 2014 at Echo Mountain in Asheville, NC with Assistant Engineer, Jon Ashley. Mixed at Sterling Studios in NYC. 

Red Prairie Dawn

Ryland

Japan

The Kronos string quartet isn’t your average classical music ensemble. Though you’ll see your standard violins, cello and upright bass, their concerts aren’t just filled with pieces by Beethoven or Mozart. Instead, they look to the future of music – and they take risks.

KCRW's Jonathan Bastian spoke with  Kronos founder and violist, David Harrington about their latest piece, "Silent Cranes," which commemorates the 100 year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey.

A music journey through genocide

Peter Case - Water From A Stone

One of my fave 'Salsoul' tracks. The orig could never be topped but i Just wanted to make a dub version really. Im happy how its turned out. enjoy

Consider: The Pants

muddy mike