Re: [Harp-L] New Jason Ricci album

[Alberto Robles <grillslinger@xxxxxxxxx>]

The album is amazing. I also saw Jason in Houston at the Pocket Full of Soul
festival, of which I'll be writing in the blog soon. The new songs are very
different from any music I've heard before. Although I don't know the songs
by name, I knew exactly  which one Dave was talking about with his
description. Great show. Great album!

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:04 PM, David Payne <
dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>
> I've not heard the whole album yet, although I hope to soon get a media
> copy of it, but this new one Jason has coming out later this month “Done
> With the Devil” is a mite different. It's closer to Rocket than some of the
> more blues-intense albums, like “Blood on the Road, (my favorite),” but it
> doesn't seem to be as punky as Rocket was. The best way I can think of to
> describe to describe the sound, in light of the other albums, is mature.
> It's definitely a manturation of his sound.
> It was mentioned earlier on the list about Jason paying homeage to all
> these old guys before, on this one he's paying some homeage to the old
> harmonica bands, Minnevitch, Puleo, Murad and the like. I've only heard
> three songs from it so far, one of which is “Enlightenment.” B-Weed is
> playing bass harmonica, Jason is playing a 48 chord and a Polyphonia No. 7.
> I can't remember for sure, but I remember Jason bouncing off the wall when
> he got it, I'm pretty sure it's prewar.
> Anyway, Weed does a good job on the bass harmonica, Jason puffing on the 48
> chord, and doing this sliding around glissando effect like Johnny Puleo used
> to do.
> When I hear songs a lot of times, I get these mental pictures in my head,
> probably stems from listening to classical music as a kid, I used to imagine
> trout swimming on Schubert's Forelle (trout), or I'd see Siegfried opening
> up a can of whoop---  on the dragon and whatnot or maybe it's my narcolepsy,
> which can make your brain kick into REM  even when you're wide awake.
> Whatever it is they just pop in my head.
> The picture I get when I hear “Enlightenment” is this evil circus. There's
> a black sky at sunset, a band of evil clowns playing in the fairway. The
> ghosts of the Harmonica Rascals show up with their ghostly harmonicas and
> join in. Tankersley's on the chord (primarily known for chromatic, I know).
> Don Les is on bass, then Jason shows up and joins in with the ghosts of the
> Rascals and the evil clowns. Puleo's sliding around on the Polyphonia.
> It's a weird picture and it's a weird, foreboding song and it's a hell of a
> wonderful thing for the harmonica, regardless of what you think of that
> sound.
> I've listened to two other songs, but they didn't pull me the way
> “Enlightenment” did, I think the original title was "Sun Rah" or something.
> Think about it. When was the last time a chord harmonica or a bass harmonica
> was featured so prominently on an album?
> Somebody has to pick up the chord and bass and adapt it for another role
> for them to survive. That was the main reason I took up the chord, I thought
> a percussive chop would be ideal for bluegrass and it could get that
> wonderful instrument some of the exposure it needs to survive another
> century. Whatever I could do, however, is minimal compared to this.
> Now, the 48 chord harmonica has been played in rock n' roll. So has the
> bass harmonica. So has the old Polyphonia No. 7. I hope it's the start of
> something. I know I, for one, am going to be playing along with it on my 48
> chord (formerly Tankersley's, that's why he was playing chord at the
> circus).
>
> You can listen to three of the tracks here:
> http://www.harmonicaspace.com/profile.php?profileid=2
>
> Dave Payne Sr.
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com
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