Monday, January 7, 2013

Drop Down Florida's one-string wizard

I'm repeating myself, I know, but still working through this truckload dump from Dust-to-Digital, and enjoying very much the archival Drop on Down in Florida: Field Recordings of African American Music 1977-1980. It's about a third blues, a third gospel and a third sacred harp singing, and all of it quite good, but I am especially loving the tracks from one-string virtuoso Moses Williams, from Inna, Bena Mississippi (he says), who constructed an instrument out of one length of wire. Williams has a fine, gravelly voice, but the fascinating thing is the way the wire reverberates, a very metallish sort of sound, almost industrial, quite at odds with the traditional melodies.



Pretty cool, isn't it?

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