[Harp-L] Wailin' Wood's Wayfaring Stranger

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

After the recent discussion of Wailin' Wood, I remembered that he had
sent me a copy of his Wayfaring Stranger CD, so I pulled it out for a
listen.

How utterly different from the frenetic performance I saw at Buckeye!

Of course, this is an album entirely of religious tunes, mostly but not
exclusively southern white gospel. So absolute wildman blazing is
perhaps not in order (though I guess that depends on your idea of
expressions of religious devotion). But still I was not prepared for
the crystalline tone, careful accuracy of pitch and rhythm, and the
controlled exuberance and flawless taste shown in this collection.

It's a really nice collection, beautifully played. He gets lively here
and there, but always well within what's appropriate for the material -
some of these tunes are like bluegrass instrumentals, while others are
hymns, devotional ballads, rousing anthems - the full gamut of tunes
that express religious sentiment acros a fairly large segment of North
America.

Backed by guitar, banjo, and acoustic bass, Wailin' plays diatonic (and
occasional bass) harmonicas acoustically in first, second, and third
positions, with a vocal on one cut contributed by a young child, which
I take to be his own.

He produces a gorgeous sound, using subtle hand shaping of tone in
addition to hand tremolo. He uses both bends and overblows in ways that
are entirely in keeping with the material. The overblows are entirely
at the service of the melody and nicely produced - you might not notice
them if you didn't know what they were. And I never get the sense he's
inflecting a note with a bend just because he can - a temptation too
many harmonica players yield to without even being aware of it.

The interpretations are restrained and respectful, absolutely sincere,
and always expressive. Even on fare like "Jesus Loves Me" that one
expects to come off trite (think back to rote recitations in Sunday
School), he delivers the tune with conviction and depth, like he's
thinking about what the words mean while he plays it.

Check it out (sound samples available) at http://www.wailinwood.com

Winslow


		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. 
www.yahoo.com