WHiTHER THOU GOEST, MICHAEL TARBOX?

Did you know that noted Bostonian Michael Tarbox of Tarbox Ramblers fame has two terrific new songs out? Yup. Both recorded live and with & without his Ramblers at the Beachland Tavern in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio, by somebody in the audience.
Listen:


 And did you know he did a beautiful album of covers in 2020 called Paler Suns?
I didn't. It follows eight after 2013's Work and Days. I guess I need to get out more or something. The songs on Paler Suns vary from William Blake's poem Ah! Sunflower which he set to music, Hendrix's Room Full of Mirrors on which Tarbox accompanies himself on harmonium - a bellows-powered organ - to haunting effect. This is followed by an acoustic cover of Mississippi Sheiks' World Gone Wrong. Talk about deep blues! Whew! Little Moses was first recorded by The Carter Family in 1929 and Tarbox does a lovely rendition here some 90 years later. Blind Lemon Jefferson popularized the song Jack of Diamonds via his 1926 recording. According to Wikipedia (because I do love some research) Jack of Diamonds "...was sung from the point of view of a railroad man who had lost money playing conquian" Also called "Coon Can, or Colonel" it's a rummy-style card game requiring close attention and a good memory to play. The song Jack of Diamonds is also called Drunken Hiccups as well as Rye Whiskey and A Corn Licker Still in Georgia. The alternate titles are all popular fiddle tunes and Tarbox is accompanied here by fiddle player Alan Kaufman. 
Now, I've skipped a couple songs because what's the point of not being surprised? But the last song, Jerry Garcia's Mountains of The Moon is one that Michael Tarbox has had on his mind...well...I should let Mr. Tarbox tell you about it: 

"I came away from learning this song with an even greater love for, and fascination with, the otherworldly version that's on AOXOMOXOA, which I believe is the Dead's second album. I've always been a sucker for they way Jerry Garcia uses minor chords, and I think this song may be the best example of the master at work. That, combined with Garcia's fragile singing and Robert Hunter's great lyric, has kept this on my mind since I first heard it when I was twelve."

As an album, Paler Suns, as Garcia said about his song Mountains of The Moon, "...came off like a little gem."  It's a wonderfully varied work, artistic, and well-played (as you would expect coming from Tarbox) featuring Michael Tarbox's rough-hewn voice that feels like a well-worn and comfortable dress shoe. Yes, there's similarities in voice and sound but to tell you the truth I've never heard a Tarbox album that wasnt as if not more solid that anything Bob and Neil have put out in the last twenty-five years. Fight me. I'll be over here listening to some new to me Michael Tarbox recordings.
LiSTEN:
  

The Hendrix of The Sahara :: BOMBiNO! BOMBiNO! BOMBiNO!

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Omara "Bombino" Moctar belongs to the Tuareg people   ( known to themselves as Kel Tamasheq ),  a semi-nomadic people from the Sahel region of Africa, a desert swath that stretches across the whole of North Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.  Bombino was raised in the city of Agadez, an important stop on the ancient trans-Sahara trade route.  During the regions Tuareg rebellions, rebel news was carried through the region via song so guitars were banned by the goverment.  Young Bombino traveled with his guitar to Algeria and Libya to escape the violence. While living there with family and friends he absorbed the videos of artists like Jimi Hendrix and Dire Straits. 

Sometime later his Group Bombino was recorded by Seattle-based found and field recordings label Sublime Frequencies, for it's Guitars From Agadez series.  Bombino disavows these recordings, but I find them to be thrilling and just as satisfying as his new studio recording Agadez.  The Group Bombino recording is raw, with the sound of a good quality field recording, which is what it is.  The performances, however, carry the crisp immediate edge of a Sahel desert-style post-punk clash with the late night soul of North Mississippi's juke deep grooves. 

One can imagine Bombino, head and face wapped in a Tamasheq scarf, a young Tuareg blasting away the dark nights bright stars with arid Jimi'd guitar shards as his band and friends rock and groove the Saharan sky away to dawn.

 

The performances on Bombino's new recording Agadez are, to the contrary, smooth, refined, and often laid-back, but certainly no less powerful, rocking, and groove-a-licious.   The recording quality is gorgeous, and Bombino and his band bring a variety of song styles to the sessions, from plaintive guitar and singer pieces with simple clapping and backup vocals for accompaniment, to trance-like polyrhythmic jams, no doubt influenced by local/regional artists like Ali Farke Toure and his son Vieux Farke Toure, and of course Tinariwen, and others. But Bombino brings his own vibe deeply filtered by the desert sand and ancient city streets of Agadez.

( You should know there is one other Bombino album out there called Agamgam that makes a nice bridge between the two. )

Listen, if you've been wanting to try out some of the New Desert Blues, the new Africa sound, but don't know where to start: Bombino's Agadez is the album to get. It's tasteful, hot, daring, smooth, tight and deep, and it's one of the top audio highlights of the year.

There's a wealth of cool North African stuff out these days that you should be checking out: Tinariwen, Toumast, Tamikrest, Group Doueh, Tartit, Mariem Hassan, Group Inerane,Terakaft, Staff Benda Bilili, and several others. Not to mention the guys working a hybrid, like Marcus James and Justin Adams. Click the names for a taste.

  

If you want a much deeper roll in the Sahel, pick up Bombino's Agadez, and The Rough Guide To Desert Blues (various artists). With tracks from four to nine minutes, put 'em on loud and random, let your western ears acclimate, and get your booty leg shakin'.