The People Need Light (Compass Records, 2015)
It’s always been my belief that the best recordings out there are the ones where the musician’s love of playing infuses every track, as if that musician or group of musicians would be playing the music regardless whether there was an audience or not. It’s that kind of quality that provides the best turns of phrase and lures the listener to listen deeper. It is that kind of quality that’s found in abundance on Mr. Sun’s The People Need Light on the Compass Records label, of course with the pedigree of players on this American string band the love of playing comes across loud and clear.
Headed up by fiddler Darol Anger of Republic of Strings, Montreux, David Grisman Quintet and Turtle Island String Quartet fame, Mr. Sun corrals and combines the talents with fellow musicians mandolinist Joe K. Walsh of Gibson Brothers fame, guitarist Grant Gordy from The David Grisman Quintet and bassist Ethan Jodziewicz of Sierra Hull.
Where sheer skill and pure passion cross paths, the music of The People Need Light shines sure and clean in this amalgam of bluegrass, folk and jazz. Tossing in sweet goodies like sassy swinging opening track “The Likes of You,” a jazzy finessed version of “If I Were a Bell” from Guys & Dolls, standard favorite “After You’ve Gone” and traditional tune “Dry & Dusty,” much of The People Need Light comes from the writing skills from Mr. Anger for “The Fiddler’s Boot,” Mr. Walsh on the folksy “A Little Heart’s Ease” in a nod to the folks of Newfoundland, Mr. Gordy on the deliciously lush “Ben’s House” and Mr. Walsh, Mr. Gordy on the saucy bluegrass and jazzy mix found on the title track “The People Need Light.”
Polished to an almost blinding brightness, The People Need Light seems fairly unconcerned about being boxed by genre or theme, instead allows for the free flow of music where the turns of phrase are often clever or flirty for this string band.
While there are some vocals provided by Mr. Walsh, The People Need Light is for the most part an instrumental exploration where tracks like “The Fiddler’s Boot,” “Hunter’s Permit,” “A Stranger Comes to Town” and “Key Signator” pull out all the stops on down home coolness.
I think that Mr. Anger puts it best, “…What does it mean to inhabit American String Music, rather than re-invent it? Can we say we are innovating when we each simply play from a powerfully personal point of view? Does the inter-ensemble hebephrenic cross-explication of dominant structures imply a musico-cultural guffaw at diatonic modality? Does anyone care that an inter-generational acoustic string band can deploy just about every musical trope of the 20th century at the same time? What the heck am I blithering about, anyway? I’m coming around to the idea that there are no real music genres as such, only human beings who emanate musical presences of varying power, in unique combinations. The group of souls is one of the most generous, sparkiest and most engaging musical combinations I’ve ever had the honor to be a part of; to the point that I’m willing to end a clause with a prepositions, and a sentence with an expostulation…dang!”
Yeah, Mr. Sun and The People Need Light is just that damn good.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
