Triessence: Quintessence – 'Rebirth, Live at Glastonbury'; Shiva’s Quintessence – 'Only Love Can Save Us'; Allan Mostert – 'Inside World'

Trusted Trilogy

As I wrote recently when reviewing Quintessence albums, I had ordered three related cds which have now arrived and been enjoyed: Quintessence – Rebirth, Live at Glastonbury; Shiva’s Quintessence – Only Love Can Save Us; Allan Mostert – Inside World.

The Quintessence reunion and Glastonbury performance is superb: testament to brilliant musicianship that will always endure; Shiva Jones with keyboardist Rundra Beauvert revisit Quintessence music to recreate and reinvent beautifully, Shiva’s vocal such a key element of the band’s memorable sound and as dynamic as ever [with additional ‘cosmic’ tracks], and Mostert’s is the most individual, still steeped in the spiritual for musical inspiration, and an ambient soundscape [‘psychedelic essence music’] that is gloriously rich and aurally enriching. As a fan, I’m bound to be pleased in these continuations of a sound that has always appealed, but I genuinely recommend on their innate qualities.

I got the first two through amazon; the Mostert is burnt to order and comes neatly packaged from Burning Shed here.

Leif Vollebekk - North Americana

Utmerket Americana

It’s mainly in the name I think, but Norwegian-Canadian singer/songwriter Leif Vollebeck has little of the Scandinavian about his music – other than title of seventh track Takk Somuleiois [sans inflections above certain vowels] – and the album title pretty much broadcasts where his geographical sound actually resides. As do his clear influences: the vocal, as is readily noted in reviews I’ve read, is unmistakably Ryan Adams, and I have detected a little of Josh T Pearson on opener Southern United States, and elements of Jeff Buckley [isn’t that so often the precursor case?] on the aforementioned seventh unpronounceable.

But the music is superlative Americana, reflecting voices mentioned above and a bit of Dylan – also widely noted – because of the use of harmonica really rather than in the songs which are very Adamesque. Vollebeck shouldn’t, however, be defined/confined by the vocal links as his voice is clearly his own, rather than an affectation, and it delivers strongly throughout the album’s twelve tracks. The home-recording authenticity adds to the overall musical credibility, and the accompanying musicians add their own stellar support at times to arrangements which are lively and skewed just that bit to be original, especially the violin contributions from Arcade Fire luminary Sarah Neufeld: eerie on the opener, for example, and where the pedal steel of Joe Grass adds more Americana texture.

As ever, the lyrical dimension requires further listening and I am writing this very much as a first impression, and a strong one at that. Indeed, the music is ‘classic’ enough to prompt that aural urge to listen again and more deeply. I trust that is accolade and recommendation enough. 

Iron and Wine - Ghost On Ghost

Have A Cake And Eat It

This is unashamedly pop perfection, an album at the peak of Mt MOR. Not everyone likes to climb the slippery slopes of such saccharine songs, but if you do, here’s one to assail in the ease of casual Springtime attire with a picnic basket full of candy.

Any studious reader of this blog knows I like both the bourbon and brawl of hard rock as well as the maple syrup of pretty pop sounds [especially West Coast harmony and similar] and there are times with the latter when you worry that the creative ability to produce new sweet melodies may have been exhausted. The bombast and bludgeon of hard rock is easier to blast with fuzz and wah-wah, but the genuine soothing caress of melodic loveliness is harder to achieve with any sense of originality.

Yet enough of the strident premise. Latest Ghost on Ghost from Iron and Wine – aka Sam Beam – is proof in the pretty pudding. My special selections - like picking chocolate chips out of the chocolate fondue - are Joy, Low Light Buddy of Mine, Grass Windows, Sundown (Back in the Briars), Winter Prayers, and Baby Centre Stage. Andrew Gold by way of Freedy Johnston.

David Munyon and Mary's Band - Meanwhile, Back in Japan

Munyon's Musical World

I first made a passing reference to David Munyon on this site very recently when mentioning his song Hare Krishna Christmas which linked through a coincidental listen to the album Quintessence I was reviewing at the time. That Munyon song came from his last released album David Munyon & Mary’s Band Meanwhile, Back in Japan from 2010. This features the love ballads and folkblues of his own fine songcraft and the individual vocal that does so much to distinguish his work.

The album begins with a relatively upbeat honkytonk track This Is California Baby which rocks along to some sassy sax. The next two, Cafeteria Blues and Finally Scotland, immediately places us in what seems more familiar territory, and the former is a beautifully simple love song though the narrative is a complex story, it seems, of yearning for the real and a past that was more certain,

I wish it would be 1957 again

And I had a brand new Chevrolet

And DJs playing the record that they wanted to

We could dance to Little Richard and his tunes again

The second also reflects back to being 19 years old – real or imagined, it doesn’t matter – and it is another lovely song, this time piano-driven with a tale of love and loss. There is some fine electric guitar work from Mick Hutchings, and flute from Tony Ardin. Similar electric guitar broadens the sound on folk tale Song For Dora Mae.

Fifth Pretty Blue is an acoustic love song, and one inspired, as Munyon recalls, by a prayer to his god and a wish for a number one song to help him support his family. Munyon’s Christianity and other spiritual affinities are obviously an important aspect of his muse, but they never intrude, and he certainly never preaches. Whatever Love Munyon worships and wishes upon others clearly gets transmuted warmly through his music and his secular stories of relationships/family.

Sixth is Hank Williams Taught Me How To Play Guitar, and this is a lively blues homage to influence, and underpinned by the fact that Munyon used to [and perhaps still does] live in a trailer owned by Hank Williams Senior. Seventh OK To Love is a consummate Munyon song: slow and simple, but highlighted by his vocal, the guile of such straightforward songwriting, and the storytelling here which is a tale of love that is both illusory and yet real, the message indefatigably declaring that however this is found it is to be treasured for whatever comfort it delivers.

Eighth is the gorgeous Hare Krishna Christmas and seems to recall Munyon’s Army service in Germany in the early 70s as well as his residency there during his adult life, historical points linked to other life experiences. References to the autobahn and Heidelberg have an extra poignancy for me, recalling my time there as a youngster in the mid-60s, living in Karlsruhe not that far south of Heidelberg – a tenuous connection, but one that seems to resonate along the similar conduit of memories his song so tenderly evokes for himself.

Ninth Bollywood Dreams ups the pace with sustained rock guitar, and tenth Hey Love is a country rock jaunt, so the album has its variations. The album’s title track is at eleven, and this too rides the increased tempo, reggae rhythms and other electronic sounds maintaining a break from acoustic introspection. It’s a foot-tapping healthy hiatus.

Twelfth Painting For You returns us to the acoustic balladry, Hutchings’ electric licks providing an atmospheric overlay to the lyrical rumination on love again, with Munyon invoking the idea of painting to reflect both his imagist’s encapsulation of love and his actual other artistic endeavour as a painter. I do like the simple suggestiveness here,

You can call me frequently

I have a borrowed phone

You could tell me stories

Some of your own

You could wear that negligee

And my favourite perfume

We could just hold each other’s hands

Playin’ in each other’s moods

The penultimate track is a neat harmonica-fuelled number, The American Blues, and the album closes on sweet San Francisco In The Heart, a reminiscence on the hippie city of love and the real love in a relationship: she danced awhile in the kitchen and we moved around some shelves painting the simple and domestic scenery that so dominates what Munyon makes so memorable in his wonderful musical world. 

David Munyon - Big Shoes

Covers Celebration

David Munyon is a truly great American singer/songwriter I am slowly discovering, acquiring and listening to his work which is unfailingly idiosyncratic – essentially his gravelly and emotively charged vocal - and consistently perfect in performance. He would seem to be relatively unknown for someone of such notable talent: his Wikipedia page is in German [or Dutch?], and an allmusic bio reads simply David is a hard-driving guitarist and blues-based singer/songwriter. The exemplification of litotes and a clear refutation of the notion that less is more.

The album I am listening to as I write is his 2009 Big Shoes, a set of sixteen covers. Each track is a beautiful interpretation and rendition of a well-known song – an astonishing album of sustained excellence. He achieves what Jimmy Lafave has singing Dylan, and Munyon includes two Dylan covers on this album. The most surprising success on Big Shoes is perhaps Price’s Purple Rain, but when one realises how much he moulds every song to his distinctive style/sound, it isn’t then really that unusual. The same could be observed with Cat Steven’s Father and Son. I’ll pick three favourites for further illustration of the range, but it is a nuanced choice from sixteen redefined hits: Ol’ 55 [Tom Waits]; Who’ll Stop The Rain [John Fogerty]; Sugar Mountain [Neil Young].

Hell, make that four: Atlantic City [Bruce Springsteen]. This album is a celebration in so many ways.