Taking traditional tunes and doing something completely new is a challenge. Up Around The Sun have succeeded in creating a new genre, ambient Bluegrass.
Up Around The Sun is Jerry Hagins on banjo and Tim Kerr on guitar and harmonica. Their label boss Matt Patton describes them as “traditional old-time music fused with open-tuned guitar.” The Up Around The Sun sound was also described as “Windham Hillbilly” by a DJ, who clearly wasn’t entirely sure what to make of them.
It’s not hard, and you can get a clear feel for what they are all about from the opening tune ‘Shove The Pigs’ Foot.’ It is almost ambient Bluegrass, sounding at once ancient and thanks to Kerr’s modern acoustic guitar style very contemporary. The Windham Hill comparison makes sense when you hear the hypnotic soundscapes of the all instrumental tunes. The Windham Hill label offered music that was difficult to define, with elements of classical, folk, and jazz, most of it instrumental, acoustic, and often more about atmosphere and tone than tunes. ‘Davey, Davey’ introduces a second guitar, courtesy of Patton, and elsewhere Fiddle from Beth Chrisman adds a folkier tinge to pieces like ‘Did You Ever See The Devil.’ Overall, most of the music is created by the core duo, relying on repeating riffs from guitar or banjo linked together by harmonica wails and stabs. They say that “the approach brings new life by adding movement and often a cheerfulness to the overall feel of time-tested songs composed in times of struggle.”
Those songs are old-time fiddle tunes but the twist of taking clawhammer banjo and adding the big opened-tuned guitar which has a distinctly Celtic feel, especially when mixed with Chrisman’s Fiddle is inspired. Stripping away much of the melody and leaving just the meditative, repeating background to the tunes takes you back to pre-blues folk music.
The songs picked are mainly from that earlier time. ‘Last Of Harris’ was written early in the last century by Kentucky Fiddler and Farmer John Salyer. ‘Kyle Creed’s Lost Indian’ was indeed written by the Appalachian Banjo player. ‘Devoted To Lonesome’ was recorded by Matt Patton’s band The Dexateens and is just about recognisable from its punkier roots. ‘Ducks On The Mill Pond’ was collected by Alan Lomax in 1937, from Galax, Va., musician Fields Ward. Taking tunes with a heritage and making them over into something new and fresh seems to be what Kerr and Hagins are aiming for with this album. And despite the various beginnings of the tunes, they have created a set of songs that holds together and is indeed something entirely original and wonderful.
The Texas duo recorded the album at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, MS, formerly home to Fat Possum Records and now owned by Matt Patton of The Drive By Truckers. In common with the early Fat Possum recordings this has a very natural, organic sound. Recording live in the studio builds on that.
It’s an album which need to be played at one sitting. While you can take individual pieces out and play them on their own, allowing the music to take you into their world and weave around you is a supremely relaxing experience. Which is probably where that Windham Hill comparison came from.
Thanks to Tim Kerr and Matt Patton, AUK has an exclusive early stream of one of the songs from the album, ‘Shove The Pigs’ Foot.’
