a musical companion
to Horace Kephart's
classic book,
"Our Southern Highlanders"
Now, the soundtrack score to Bonesteel Films The Mystery of George Masa!
By Daniel Gore
| with |
Peter Rowan
Tim O'Brien
Jim Watson
Scott Huffman
Craig Smith
Rickie Simpkins
Jack Lawrence
Tony Williamson
and others
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From: The Bluegrass List Posting 6/30/98
Daniel Gore
Ways That Are Dark
Elephant Rock, (888) 685-9665
www.elephantrock.com
by: Jaanus Vainu
RATING 5 (of 5) Exact rating 4.9 (of 5.0)
This is very unusual project at all -- At first, it is straight bluegrass recording,
being somewhere between traditional and progressive side. Mostly with melodical edge of the
music.- Second, it has all-original compositions, all but one by Daniel Gore.- Third, this
album is not just a bunch of songs and tunes. It's an original song cycle, all lyrics and ideas
based on Horace Kephart's "Our Southern Highlanders", book written in 1913. Daniel Gore has
written both lyrics and the music, based on texts and feelings got from that book. And it's
very well done! (Yes, this will be another review in "positive" series, but unfortunately
that's the trueth). I am not a specialist in American history and have not read this book on
which the album is based. So I will not comment the facts and topics but it can be immediately
noted that the production of this "Ways That Are Dark" project is superb. May-be one of the
best I have ever seen. One side is that the songs written are so professional ones that you
may think that they are already old classics. But the equally impressive side is the
accompanying 16-page booklet. There you can see attention to every detail, every fact. All the
informative texts for every song are written by Daniel Gore with high scholarship and in style
of historician-librarian. It's not bad, as the texts aren't very long but give still enough
facts for the reader. When there's some ancient or unusual words in the lyrics then there's
always a useful lexicon added. All information (complete lyrics, lexicon, story behind the
song, personnel (musicians) are listed together on the same page (one page per song) which is
the best way HOW TO MAKE CD-BOOKLET RIGHT!!! You do not need to search part of the information
from one end, other part from other end and so on. All data for one song is together here.
And even more, the pages of this booklet aren't simply just text-filled. Every page
has almost 100% of B/W photo background (sometimes even more than one photo mixed very well
there). All these B/W photos are printed with gray contrast which makes them not to interfere
with the text. And the text layout is done so that it doesn't cover essential objects on the
photos. The best work on the layout of CD booklet I have ever seen. Yes, the only complaint may
be the very small font used but I understand that it was the only way to place all the
information in the booklet of limited number of pages. And those photos on background! They are
deserved own story here -- they are mostly from Horace Kephart's original book, but many are
from archives, never published before. Mostly picturing life and nature of southern areas about
100 years ago. But all those photos are very sharp and high-quality, although they are 'made
gray' for design purposes. The cover image is hand-colored photo. Very well done, too. THE
MUSIC on this CD is performed by many artists, some of them take lead on more songs, some only
in one song. Two are instrumentals (also written by Daniel Gore and very strong bluegrass
pieces). All those lead singers are in their best form here (except may-be Tim O'Brien whose
vocals aren't just his best) but my favorites are Peter Rowan's and Mary Miller's leads. I have
followed Peter's music many years but on this recording he sounds best ever. He is sure in his
top form here. Clear, haunting, bluesy, powerful vocals! Those 4 songs with Peter's lead on
this recording are already worth the price of this CD. Even more... There's a lot of variety in
tempos and stylings of the music. Some driving "good-mood" bluegrass cuts, couple of bluesy
bluegrass, couple of melodical bluegrass songs, couple of swinging bluegrass, couple of
bluegrass waltzes/ballads and so on. Two uptempo bluegrass instrumentals, one rhythm and blues
sounding cut (#7) and one a bit folky classical-sounding ballad (#3). Audio recording quality
is excellent, very enjoyable balance in mixing and no overforced bass sounds here. Perfect CD
mastering, too. Thanks for it go to Jerry Brown. The CD has 14 cuts, Total playing time is
42:45. Just released, in June '98 although the dates on the package refer to 1997. This is
probably because Daniel has worked two years on this project and he wanted to complete it
correctly, not just to fit it in any time schedule. And that's right done. The only confusing
thing for bluegrass recordings may be the main title of this CD. It is in style "AUTHOR /
ALBUM TITLE" (Daniel Gore / Ways That Are Dark), just like for classical music albums. But in
fact it is still various artists album. Daniel plays occasional mandolin in some cuts but is
mostly the writer. OK, that's not big problem and I understand this move from trad. standards
well - this is just a song cycle, just like a book. And Daniel has really deserved to mention
his name on the spine of this CD. Huge work done here! This is a project which deserves much
attention from every bluegrass fan and also can be interesting for every folk music lover and
also for those being interested in history. I think it's not easy to find good distribution for
such almost unknown small-label release but I wish a lot of success in it.
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