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THE GOLDEN SILVERS

“True Romance”

(XL)

A keys/bass/drums trio from North London, the Golden Silvers make wistful, swooning pop marked by barbershop harmonies and singer/songwriter Gwilym Gold’s fixation on magic and myth. Despite the lack of guitar, these songs alternately recall early Blur and Super Furry Animals, Bowie at his most streamlined, and a less smarmy Pulp.

This full-length debut isn’t perfect: The middle few tracks are dull compared with the album’s strong start and finish, though “Shakes” does have its moments. The high point and onetime U.K. single “Arrows of Eros” is buried in penultimate position, its squiggly faux-disco lit up with a horn section.

Largely enjoyable, “True Romance” closes with “Fade To Black,” a sweet entry featuring just Gold’s rubbery voice and gentle piano.

— Doug Wallen, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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"Dancin'" Dave Versch is a FloydFest institution, setting up his traveling tent city annually for folks who like camping without the hassles. The paper has been cool enough to put me up in a Dave tent three of the four years I've gone -- the first year, I hadn't learned about his setup.

Versch hits some of the best bluegrass and roots festivals in the country, and has heard a lot of bands. So I've made it a habit of asking him what he's liking from year to year. He stresses to me that he's just giving his opinion -- other people might like other stuff. True enough; he and I have different thoughts on some of the bands. But he has good taste, so his opinion is worth some of our ether.

I didn't have to ask him about The Belleville Outfit, because I saw him dancing at their dance stage set. And I didn't have to ask him about Holy Ghost Tent Revival, because they were playing at the beer garden, right in front of his tent, where I was his neighbor -- he was enthusiastic about the act.

Later, he told me that he had dug Boulder Acoustic Society, The Horse Flies, the Duhks, Yarn and Railroad Earth.

"And getting turned on to Grace Potter was certainly a treat!" he said in an e-mail exchange this week.

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At FloydFest, Community High School Band was one of the big surprises for me. The kids were good players and worked well together.

After the set, I spoke with singer Lindsey Willis, 17, and guitarist/keyboardist Ellis Byrd, 14, two young players who are musically wise beyond their years. Then I talked some with their music teachers, John McBroom and Mike Maycock, both talented and well-seasoned pro players. I sandwiched the interviews between some sound clips that will give you an idea of this band's talent.

The rest of the band is: Dereck Volpe (drums); Will Hooper (guitar) and Isha Devine (vocals). Keep an eye out for them.

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For years, I've been wanting to capture in words what it's like at certain points on the FloydFest grounds, where a listener can catch several acts blazing at once. This year, podcast machine in hand, I decided to forego words in favor of the sound itself.

So here, at about 11:45 p.m. Saturday, July 25, is what the Zoom H4 caught at a hilltop just above the beer garden, across from the dance stage and catty cornered to the holler stage. The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker were on the holler stage. The New Familiars were at the dance stage, and Rose's Pawn Shop was jamming the beer garden.

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This might possibly be the poorest-quality podcast ever. The wind was whipping at FloydFest last week as I spoke to Django Haskins on Thursday afternoon. He and his band, The Old Ceremony, had just played a fine set to open the fest, proving that this event is quality from jump.

I had to chop a lot of substantial interview stuff, which was simply overpowered by the wind. If you were there, you know what I'm talking about. But here it is anyway. Sorry, Django -- we'll get it right next time.

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Mike Seeger, well-known to old-time music fans in Southwest Virginia and elsewhere, is suffering multiple myeloma and is in home hospice care.

Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan delivered the news during yesterday's show on NPR radio.

The radiocast is available online.

As we wish Seeger the best, we also must note that his illness has forced cancellation of his Nov. 13 show at The Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg.

Information from folklore productions:

Many folks in the bluegrass world know, or know of, Mike Seeger. But you may not know that Mike has been undergoing treatment for leukemia for several years; just recently he was diagnosed with a new and very aggressive form of cancer, called multiple myeloma. In the same forthright way that he has lived his life, he has now made the decision to discontinue treatment and enter hospice care. His wife Alexia says that he would enjoy hearing from friends via cards and emails which can be sent care of his booking agency:

Folklore Productions
1671 Appian Way
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Jack Rose is one of the best fingerpickers alive. The Black Twig Pickers, from these valleys, include my colleague Mike Gangloff and former colleague Isak Howell. The Black Twigs bring Rose and another great fingerstylist, Charlie Parr, frequently to the valleys. Keep an eye out for show dates.

Here's a review of their recent collaboration, From http://www.theskinny.co.uk/

>Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers - Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers
>Posted by Ewen Millar, Mon 27 Jul 2009

>[Four out of five stars]

>With the recent resurgence in nu-folk (Sufjan Stevens, Devendra Banhart), alt-folk (Iron and Wine) and anti-folk (David Cronenberg’s Wife), you’d think that all corners of the market were saturated. That is, until someone like Jack Rose comes along, his weather-beaten songs standing testament to how life really is down in the grim and gritty folk trenches, with his tour of duty consisting of many moons spent trawling the underground. The Black Twig Pickers clearly mean business, incorporating elements of bluegrass and country into songs that are resolutely not twee, but salt-of-the-earth earnest (that’s earnest borne out of blood sweat and tears, rather than some marketable commodity). The album seesaws between breakneck speed instrumentals to more contemporary folk tracks, sung by a man who sounds like he was breastfed on Jack Daniels; probably an album then, to soundtrack you drinking your sorrows away, instead of encouraging you to moan about them.

Paul Brunett Project  8-7
Bernard Hairston Group 8-14
Lenny Marcus Trio    8-21
Dave Morgan Jazz  8-28

http://redclayrestaurant.net/

I'm not going to pretend like I ever heard of George Russell before he died. And that's bad on me, because he was at the root of major jazz innovations that I have loved for years.

I read Russell's news obituary in the paper this morning. It was a short obit, and it appeared with all the local ones -- not on the front page like Michael Jackson's. Of course, Russell probably died with his nose on, so his passing didn't have the freak factor of the once-and-not-future King of Pop. But worse for a guy with Russell's apparent intellect and soul, he died of complications from Alzheimer's disease, according to the wire service item we printed.

According to the obit, Russell played drums in Benny Carter's band. He wrote "Cubano Be/Cubano Bop" -- Cubano bebop, get it? -- which is said to be the first fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz.

Russell developed the Lydian chromatic concept of tonal organization, cited as the first theoretical contribution from the jazz world, the obit said. That theory, inspired by Miles Davis, in turn inspired the trumpeter Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane in their modal explorations on jazz records that have more than survived the test of time.

So if musical fusions and deeply developed solo work inspire you, take a minute out to thank this cat.

Read his obit at The Washington Post online.

Watch a youtube.com video of Russell in conversation with the late music writer Robert Palmer and saxophone giant Ornette Coleman.

And if you don't have them, go buy John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue." Listen to a podcast with Wynton Marsalis, breaking down some Latin-jazz history and streaming "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop" and other songs of the genre.

Music List for Fork in the City
August

Sunday, August 2nd, Casey and the Moonshine Band
Thursday, August 6th, Melissa Reaves
Saturday, August 8th, Biggin' Suiite
Friday, August 14th, Bebop Hoedown
Friday, August 21st, Jordan Harman Band
Saturday, August 22nd, Brian Gray
Friday, August 28th, Halfmoon
Sunday, August 30th, Casey and the Moonshine Band

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