The last time I wrote about D. Charles Speer, AKA Dave Shuford of NNCK and other bands, it was because he was collaborating with Jack Rose on the really great Ragged and Right EP. This time, he’s got two fairly new records, one a solo effort in which he explores traditional Greek music, the other a band affair with the Helix, where he ranges all over traditional Americana styles – folk, country and zydeco.
Read the double-header review here
“Markos’ Cave” (from Arghiledes)
“Freddie’s Lapels” (from Leaving the Commonwealth)”
Looks like he’s going out on tour this month, mostly through the Midwest and south.
May 12 Washington, DC - The Velvet Lounge
May 13 Pittsburgh, PA - Howler's
May 14 Oberlin, OH - TBA
May 15 Milwaukee, WI - Franks Power Plant
May 16 Dubuque, IA - Monks Kaffee Pub
May 17 Minneapolis, MN - Medusa
May 18 Iowa City, IA - White Lightning Warehouse
May 19 Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle
May 20 Detroit, MI - PJ's Lager House
May 21 Columbus, OH - The Summit
May 22 Nashville, TN - Betty's
May 23 Chapel Hill, NC - Nightlight
May 24 Blacksburg, VA - The Cellarw/ The Black Twig Pickers
May 25 Baltimore, MD - Golden West
Showing posts with label D. Charles Speer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label D. Charles Speer. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
The prolific D. Charles Speer
Sometime NNCK-er, Helix bandleader, collaborator with the late Jack Rose and musical omnivore David Charles Shuford, a.k.a. D. Charles Speer, has a couple of excellent new albums coming out this spring on Thrill Jockey.
Arghiledes, the solo disc, incorporates some really fascinating Greek elements into Shuford’s psych/drone aesthetic. It’s a tribute, at least in part, to the bouzouki master Markos Vamvakaris, and uses Greek traditional instruments including bouzouki, as well as guitar, percussion, electronics, voice and some wonderful stand-up bass on the “Lost Dervish” cut. (“Lost Dervish” is on my new mix, which I intend to get to at some point, but I’ve been busy.)
Shuford worked solo on ARghiledes (though it doesn’t sound like it…he must have spent a long time tracking). He’s with the Helix again for Leaving the Commonwealth, which is more what you’d expect if you spent any time with last year’s Ragged and Right (where he and Jack Rose and some other players channeled Link Wray’s Three Track Shack sessions). “Cumberland,” the most bluegrassy, pedal-steel-y, countrified of these tracks, is an overt tribute to Rose…but what I’m liking the best here is the really wonderful guitar playing on “Days in the Kitchen”, the Cajun fiddle-and-washboard swing of “Le Grand Cochon” and the title track, which is an all-out country rocker, in the style of Neil Young or the Band.
I can’t find any audio or video from the two new albums yet, but here’s D. Charles and the Helix tipping the hat to Jack Rose last December.
I went to see Thank You, the Baltimore noise-jam-tribal-drums outfit last night, first time to a show in ages, and it was quite short, but pretty good. They’ve been adding some vocals to their thing, which is very much in line with Baltimore’s ecstatic freaked aesthetic, and now they kinda sound like the Boredoms. It was also terribly, terribly cold last night, single digits again, so it was good to get out and do anything besides huddle around the woodstove. More on Thank You later.
Arghiledes, the solo disc, incorporates some really fascinating Greek elements into Shuford’s psych/drone aesthetic. It’s a tribute, at least in part, to the bouzouki master Markos Vamvakaris, and uses Greek traditional instruments including bouzouki, as well as guitar, percussion, electronics, voice and some wonderful stand-up bass on the “Lost Dervish” cut. (“Lost Dervish” is on my new mix, which I intend to get to at some point, but I’ve been busy.)
Shuford worked solo on ARghiledes (though it doesn’t sound like it…he must have spent a long time tracking). He’s with the Helix again for Leaving the Commonwealth, which is more what you’d expect if you spent any time with last year’s Ragged and Right (where he and Jack Rose and some other players channeled Link Wray’s Three Track Shack sessions). “Cumberland,” the most bluegrassy, pedal-steel-y, countrified of these tracks, is an overt tribute to Rose…but what I’m liking the best here is the really wonderful guitar playing on “Days in the Kitchen”, the Cajun fiddle-and-washboard swing of “Le Grand Cochon” and the title track, which is an all-out country rocker, in the style of Neil Young or the Band.
I can’t find any audio or video from the two new albums yet, but here’s D. Charles and the Helix tipping the hat to Jack Rose last December.
I went to see Thank You, the Baltimore noise-jam-tribal-drums outfit last night, first time to a show in ages, and it was quite short, but pretty good. They’ve been adding some vocals to their thing, which is very much in line with Baltimore’s ecstatic freaked aesthetic, and now they kinda sound like the Boredoms. It was also terribly, terribly cold last night, single digits again, so it was good to get out and do anything besides huddle around the woodstove. More on Thank You later.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Posthumous Jack
I’m thinking that this review of jack rose and D. Charles Speer is a tad over-written…like, too many clauses and adjectives and crap like that…but in any case, the album’s very fine, so try to ignore my shortcomings.
I still kinda like the closing paragraph.
There’s a tendency to canonize people who die way too young, as Rose did, to cast everything they do in a serious and purposeful light. Ragged and Right reminds everyone that Rose could take a drink and play loose and sloppy, too, and that it was a beautiful thing while it lasted. It’s a shame no one will ever hear these songs live again, or find out what would have happened if Rose and Shuford continued on this path, but four songs this loose-jointed and glorious are better than nothing at all.
The rest
“In the Pines” is the first track on my mix, so if you don’t have it yet, go get it.
I just finished a big piece on Woods and the Woodsist label, which I thought went pretty well. It’s for PopMatters, so you should see it in about six months.
I got a new shuffle over the weekend, hurray for random-ness!
I still kinda like the closing paragraph.
There’s a tendency to canonize people who die way too young, as Rose did, to cast everything they do in a serious and purposeful light. Ragged and Right reminds everyone that Rose could take a drink and play loose and sloppy, too, and that it was a beautiful thing while it lasted. It’s a shame no one will ever hear these songs live again, or find out what would have happened if Rose and Shuford continued on this path, but four songs this loose-jointed and glorious are better than nothing at all.
The rest
“In the Pines” is the first track on my mix, so if you don’t have it yet, go get it.
I just finished a big piece on Woods and the Woodsist label, which I thought went pretty well. It’s for PopMatters, so you should see it in about six months.
I got a new shuffle over the weekend, hurray for random-ness!
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