for lee jackson in space

va ~ for lee jackson in space (not on label, 2012)

"This tribute album came together in love and honor of Lee Jackson, writer, music fan, dear friend, who passed in late March 2012 after a struggle with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. This collection of songs, nearly all of which are new or previously unreleased, comes from the many bands and musicians who Lee not only covered and celebrated with such passion, but also in many cases befriended over many years of correspondence, concert and festival attendance and more. 12 hours of music/94 bands (including contributions from Valerio Cosi, Six Organs Of Admittance, Charalambides, Pelt, Roy Montgomery, Helena Espvall, Head of Wantastiquet, Charlatan, Tara Burke, Mike Tamburo, Theo Angell, R Keenan Lawler, etc.)

The album's liner notes contain full information about each song as well as thoughts from Lee himself about the contributing artists, taken from his writing work. All profits will go to the Texas chapter of the ALS Association. Please feel free to join our Facebook discussion group if you'd like to learn more about the remarkable man who we all dearly miss; there is also a direct link to this album in Facebook itself"

On June 5th, Brad Rose from Foxy Digitalis interviewed Travis Johnson, Mats Gustafsson, and Ned Raggett. These guys compiled the monolithic compilation "For Lee Jackson In Space"

fotos: carla fernández andrade

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john fahey

v/a - the great koonaklaster speaks: A Jonh Fahey Celebration (table of the elements, 2007)

"A collusion of folk, blues, ethnic and modern classical methods, Fahey's music suggests both the trikster and the shaman, and has attracted a cult of musician followers over the years, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. His unsolved disappearance has inspired another cult that worships Count Saint Germain, a Rosicrucian adept who is said to have never died and assumed various identities over the centuries. Disciples of this sect, heard on this record, believe Fahey, "The Great Koonaklaster," to be the most recent incarnation of Saint Germain. They view Fahey's music as a synthesis of Saint Germain's abilities as a classical composer and skills as an alchemist, and have absorbed his guitar style in order to pay homage to him. There is much to be gleaned from the Kloonaklasterians' rites contained within; whether or not you choose to accept this "Inmortal Motherf#cker of the 20th century" as Saint Germain is up to you"

Jack Rose - since I've been a Man Full Grown
Greg Malcolm - Spanish Flang Dang
Ben Vida - Exorcise / Intone
Sir Richard Bishop - Hood River Lap Dance
Michael Hurley - My Babe, My Babe
No Neck Blues Band w/ John Fahey and Coach Fingers - Overcome
Lichens - Escapisms in a Comedic Forum
Badgerlore - Red Apple
R. Keenan Lawler - I Used To Strive For A Tree Now I Thrive On A Mountain
Pumice - Ceremonial Knives
David Daniell - Crossing the Susquehanna River Bridge

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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)

lead into gold

va - lead into gold: long form works [2cd] (rebis, 2006)

el año pasado tuvimos, entre otros, dos recopilatorios como dos soles: Invisible Pyramid (Last Visible Dog) y Gold Leaf Branches (Digitalis). este año tenemos el doble Lead into Gold, no tan exhaustivo pero sí igual de fascinante. dos aportaciones en especial, The Zoo Wheel, aka Liz Payne de Town & Country, y el bucle, una vez más, de Bird Show. siempre me atrae cualquier cosa que tenga que ver con Ben Vida, siempre lo escucho con más expectativas ¿sera la mejor canción del recopilatorio? ¿será sólo un pequeño interludio? ¿Otro tema más? y nunca decepciona. Isa's Ball e Inverted House son exactamente lo que pudimos ver en el Vade hace un par de años, un bucle infinito de campanillas rozando las alturas. con permiso de Field on water, dos piezas cumbre de toda la trayectoria de Town & Country, Bird Show y, ahora, The Zoo Wheel.

disco uno 1. isa's ball - the zoo wheel 2. the rocks will open - of...ohv 3. cherubim wheels - the gray field recordings 4. the finesse of limitation - son of earth 5. burning bright ember - birds of delay

disco dos 1. monadnock - white/light 2. time subjugatior - keenan lawler 3. {(music=time)=(time=music)}3 - bruce russell 4. goldener hour - bird show / lichens 5. inverted house - the opera glove sinks in the sea