Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Sam Bush connects Homer to the 21st century
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted ... -Homer, The Odyssey
In 2000 the Coen Brothers took this epic tale and recast it as the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" a typically quirky project that drew a line from 800 B.C. to around 1930 A.D. Set in Mississippi, with George Clooney as chain gang escapee Everett Ulysses McGill, the comedy used vernacular music of the time--southern gospel, old-timey and bluegrass. The multi-platinum soundtrack took five Grammy awards, including the coveted Album of The Year award.
The great bluegrass and "newgrass" mandolinist Sam Bush, who worked on the soundtrack, appeared with his band at the Outer Banks Forum for the Lively Arts Sunday and pulled that same line that stretched back to the Odyssey firmly into the 21st Century.
There were even some sirens who settled on the stage steps early in the evening.
Bush and his band mounted the guitar-littered stage of the Kitty Hawk Elementary School at 7:40. He carried a fiddle while Brad Davis, Chris Brown and Byron House took their places at acoustic guitar, drums and bass respectively. Bush led off with his fiddle against a backdrop of repeated chords before settling into the vocal of "Hollywood Hills." The music was a sort of heavy country-rock, the rhythm section spot-on and Davis taking a guitar solo that invoked a pedal steel, a la the late Clarence White.
Soon Bush strapped on an exotic National Steel mandolin, which he played with a slide, like an old blues player. It had a steel resonator and four strings instead of the standard eight, and in Bush's capable hands produced some new sounds. So far there had been a touch of bluegrass in what could only be called a melange of country-tinged rock 'n' roll and jazz.
At times the musicians flashed their roots with songs such as Grandpa Jones' "Eight More Miles to Louisville" and the Carter Stanley song "Think of What You Done."
At other times, they showed that music is music, with South African Johnny Klegg's rock-steady "Spirit is the Journey" and a "Reggae Fiddle Medley" that sounded like Jean-Luc Ponty with the Wailers.
After the intermission, Bush mounted the stage alone and connected two songs with a common riff, Van Morrison's "Hungry for Your Love" and Bob Dylan's "Girl From the North Country." He covered bass, rhythm and lead parts easily on his mandolin and showed quite a gift for vocal phrasing.
Bush reintroduced the band to the stage, saying "Let's hear it for the Foggy Memory Boys!" and said a request had been made during the intermission for something from the "O Brother" soundtrack.
"I worked on the album--one song, but even the water boy gets a Grammy when it wins album of the year. I Forrest-Gumped my way into that!" Instead of the Stanley Brothers' "Man of Constant Sorrow," they played the aforementioned "Think of What You Done."
They played "King of the World," from Bush's new album King of My World, with Davis playing electric-sounding solos thanks to an effects pedal on his acoustic guitar, and a pastiche of the seminal '70's rock-jazz fusion band, guitarist John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. Bush named the song after a rustic listener asked him after a show, "Who do y'all think you are--the Mahavishnu Mountain Boys?"
This gratified reviewer's picking up a little Jean-Luc Ponty influence was vindicated; Ponty had played with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. This piece could have been played by the Orchestra as well.
The last song was a highly idiosyncratic interpretation of the old-timey warhorse "Old Joe Clark," reimagined as from the standpoint of a 19th-century slave. It became an extended workout, showcasing at one point Byron House's bass virtuosity. His solo led the band into Jimi Hendrix' "Machine Gun" and Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" before they were done.
When the stunned audience espied the end of the piece, they shot to their feet to bring the musicians back, but the ragged-out band didn't return, possibly owing to the late hour and the dim chances of topping what they had already done. They had given their all, and it was plenty!
©2004 Womack Newspapers Inc.
In 2000 the Coen Brothers took this epic tale and recast it as the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" a typically quirky project that drew a line from 800 B.C. to around 1930 A.D. Set in Mississippi, with George Clooney as chain gang escapee Everett Ulysses McGill, the comedy used vernacular music of the time--southern gospel, old-timey and bluegrass. The multi-platinum soundtrack took five Grammy awards, including the coveted Album of The Year award.
The great bluegrass and "newgrass" mandolinist Sam Bush, who worked on the soundtrack, appeared with his band at the Outer Banks Forum for the Lively Arts Sunday and pulled that same line that stretched back to the Odyssey firmly into the 21st Century.
There were even some sirens who settled on the stage steps early in the evening.
Bush and his band mounted the guitar-littered stage of the Kitty Hawk Elementary School at 7:40. He carried a fiddle while Brad Davis, Chris Brown and Byron House took their places at acoustic guitar, drums and bass respectively. Bush led off with his fiddle against a backdrop of repeated chords before settling into the vocal of "Hollywood Hills." The music was a sort of heavy country-rock, the rhythm section spot-on and Davis taking a guitar solo that invoked a pedal steel, a la the late Clarence White.
Soon Bush strapped on an exotic National Steel mandolin, which he played with a slide, like an old blues player. It had a steel resonator and four strings instead of the standard eight, and in Bush's capable hands produced some new sounds. So far there had been a touch of bluegrass in what could only be called a melange of country-tinged rock 'n' roll and jazz.
At times the musicians flashed their roots with songs such as Grandpa Jones' "Eight More Miles to Louisville" and the Carter Stanley song "Think of What You Done."
At other times, they showed that music is music, with South African Johnny Klegg's rock-steady "Spirit is the Journey" and a "Reggae Fiddle Medley" that sounded like Jean-Luc Ponty with the Wailers.
After the intermission, Bush mounted the stage alone and connected two songs with a common riff, Van Morrison's "Hungry for Your Love" and Bob Dylan's "Girl From the North Country." He covered bass, rhythm and lead parts easily on his mandolin and showed quite a gift for vocal phrasing.
Bush reintroduced the band to the stage, saying "Let's hear it for the Foggy Memory Boys!" and said a request had been made during the intermission for something from the "O Brother" soundtrack.
"I worked on the album--one song, but even the water boy gets a Grammy when it wins album of the year. I Forrest-Gumped my way into that!" Instead of the Stanley Brothers' "Man of Constant Sorrow," they played the aforementioned "Think of What You Done."
They played "King of the World," from Bush's new album King of My World, with Davis playing electric-sounding solos thanks to an effects pedal on his acoustic guitar, and a pastiche of the seminal '70's rock-jazz fusion band, guitarist John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. Bush named the song after a rustic listener asked him after a show, "Who do y'all think you are--the Mahavishnu Mountain Boys?"
This gratified reviewer's picking up a little Jean-Luc Ponty influence was vindicated; Ponty had played with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. This piece could have been played by the Orchestra as well.
The last song was a highly idiosyncratic interpretation of the old-timey warhorse "Old Joe Clark," reimagined as from the standpoint of a 19th-century slave. It became an extended workout, showcasing at one point Byron House's bass virtuosity. His solo led the band into Jimi Hendrix' "Machine Gun" and Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" before they were done.
When the stunned audience espied the end of the piece, they shot to their feet to bring the musicians back, but the ragged-out band didn't return, possibly owing to the late hour and the dim chances of topping what they had already done. They had given their all, and it was plenty!
©2004 Womack Newspapers Inc.
