keenan lawler

keenan lawler - music for the bluegrass states (table of elements, 2006)

"Keenan Lawler, a Kentucky-born guitarist and composer who had an excellent debut on Table of the Elements earlier this year, had the tough task of following Connors' obvious influence, but he proved highly capable: Using a resonator guitar, a series of pedals, and a set of finger picks, long bows and four hand-held bows curled inside of his palm, Lawler rolled seamlessly between a distorted low-country blues and a free-strung improvisation and balanced challenging technique with higher considerations in the way that has made Table of the Elements such a powerful stable for innovation." table of the elements

"There’s more to Kentucky than the Colonel’s famous recipe, and armed with his trademark Resonator guitar R. Keenan Lawler (who was last spotted on the ‘Strands Formally Braided’ CD on Music Fellowship) takes steps in re-branding the bluegrass states for us modern avant-garde heads. Taking a similar route to guitar god John Fahey and the Fahey for our modern age Jack Rose, Lawler wrestles with Bluegrass structures, tearing them apart and bending them into shape as if they were made of thin wire. You might get the hint of a traditional structure for a moment and then we’re back into tangled abstraction, allowing Lawler the space he needs to show off his dextrous fingerpicking. I can’t say I’ve heard Americana interpreted in this way before, there’s something undeniably dark and foreboding about Lawler’s style, which gives his America a quality usually pushed way into the background. A brave move and one which certainly pays off as he treads the line between Tony Conrad’s wild experimentalism and John Fahey’s folk reverence. A bizarre and beautiful statement from a unique voice in American music." boomkat

se había hecho esperar tanto que ya casi daba por perdida la esperanza de que apareciera alguna vez el tercer disco (sin contar las colaboraciones con Pelt y Eric Clark y con Mike Tamburo y Matt McDowell en Spiderwebs) de keenan lawler. la segunda canción, 'wall climbing spirit', me corta, literalmente, la respiración, y estoy convencida de que también dejaría boquiabierto a cualquier amante de la línea invisible que une a John Fahey con Loren Connors, a Jack Rose con Tony Conrad, a Ben Reynolds con Albert Ayler, al violinista Lakshminarayana Shankar con el bluesman del delta Mississippi Fred McDowell. desde 'one of these days', ese inicio casi ceremonioso, hasta la dulcísima versión de 'our prayer' de Albert y Donald Ayler, pasando por el bluegrass pantanoso de 'a universal rose' y el blues cósmico de 'the air on mars is hard to breathe, we'll just have to stay in Louisville'...todo es un hermoso sueño, los drones, los ritmos, los cambios, la forma de tocar la guitarra con el arco...todo. si en sus sueños Keenan aparece como la reencarnación de john fahey, en sus discos lo hace como un inquieto explorador de los géneros tradicionales. más allá, mucho más, que la americana del blues arrastado y correoso...

sounds like: 'a rain of mirrors'; filed under: 'sound is pretty boring if you can't see and hear the color'. R. Keenan Lawler

the train has already left the station (mp3 sample)

wall climbing spirit (mp3 sample)