MUSIC REVIEWS BLOOD AND CANDLE SMOKE

By R. A. Pearson

American folk/country singer Tom Russell released a new CD in late 2009 entitled Blood and Candle Smoke. The CD is a 12 cut CD set and for the most part the setting for the songs on the album is in the American Southwest or in Mexico making the collection a true compilation of related music. The instrumentation on the CD is exceptional. The horns, the accordion, and other instruments seem to give each song just the right blend for just the right mood in the song. While Russell’s carrier spans over 40 years and includes over 20 album credits, Blood and Candle Smoke may be the 56-year-old artist’s best work ever.

The opening song on the CD, “East of Woodstock, West of Vietnam,” is the unique story of a traveler through time and Africa during the turbulent times on the continent. It is a great song as is the second cut on the CD, “Santa Ana Wind.” “Santa Ana Wind” is about California and the deceit and lies used by the whites in settling the area. “Nina Simone” is another great song on the album. It is the story of a man who discovers a long lost singer during a trip down into Mexico. Another great song on the CD is “Crosses of San Carlos.” This song is about being confined by civilization. From the young Native American boys, to the old jaguar on the hunt portrayed in the song as crossing the border hunting a deer and ‘he ain’t afraid of your hunting dogs,’ Russell examines the forces of society’s confining influence on nature and natural freedom. Other songs of interest include, but or not limited to, “Finding You,” “Criminology,” “The Most Dangerous Woman In America,” and “American Rivers.”

Members of the Tucson, Arizona, band Calexico who helped make the CD included: Joey Burns on guitar and bass, Jacob Valenzuela on trumpet, Barry Walsh on keybords, and John Convertino on drums. Blood and Candle Smoke was produced by Tom Russell and Craig Schumacher.

In an interview on National Public Radio (NPR) Russell said, “these are 12 songs I can live with for the rest of my life.” This is one of the best CDs I’ve heard in a long time. It’s worth a listen.

2009 also saw the release of a new CD for Native American folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Cree Indian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, but who was orphaned at an early age and raised by relatives in Maine. She became an influential folk singer in the 1960s and never really left the folk music scene. Her most popular songs include “Universal Soldier,” “Mister Can’t You See,” “Summer Boy,” and “Cod’ine.” Her 2009 CD, Running For The Drum, is her 18th album and her first new album in over 15 years.

The songs on Running For The Drum are often set to the beat of Native American drum rhythms. The first song “No No Keshagesh,” is a heavy rock beat about corporate greed, real estate fraud, and the harm the exploitation has done to the earth. “Working For the Government” also attacks the political establishment for their wars, spies, and continuation of conflicts at the cost of millions to tax payers. However, the CD has a sensitive side. The love songs “Too Much Is Never Enough” and “Still This Love Goes On” show a very tender side of the artist and “When I Had You” is a very emotional break-up song. The collection has several spiritual numbers also. The quietly comforting “Easy Like the Snow Falls Down” is a reflective song about being there for others. “Still This Love Goes On” is a remembrance of the beauty and quietness of the Cree reservation when the artist is away from the beauty of the Canadian wilderness. “Cho Cho Fire” is a song about the first time a city person experiences a powwow and includes the line ‘See ‘em running for the drum’ where the CD gets its title. The CD includes an acoustic treatment of “America the Beautiful,” with new lyrics to reflect the Native American community and a lovely new re-recording of The Buffy Sainte-Marie classic, “Little Wheel Spin and Spin.”

Running For The Drum is a unusual CD. For those readers who like music with a Native American flair or are fans of Buffy Sainte-Marie from way back, this may be an album to look into.

Off The Map by the Silk Road Ensemble is a classical/cultural group originally assembled by fabled cellist Yo Yo Ma. This CD celebrates the group’s 10-year anniversary. The traditions of the Native Americans in the Andes can be encountered with Gabriela Frank’s composition “Ritmos Anchinos.” Evan Ziporyn’s “Sulvasutra” features India’s great tabla player Sandeep Das, pipa player Wu Man, and violin and cello players Johnny Gandelsman, Colin Jacobsen, Nicholas Cords,and Eric Jacobsen in an explosive piece of music designed to present a type of musical Big Bang experience for the listener. Angel Lam’s “Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain” and Osvaldo Golijov’s “Air to Air” help round out as unique a CD as the Silk Road Ensemble has yet to produce.

A Book of Note: In late 2009, Terry Gross host of NPR’s ‘Fresh Air,’ interviewed David Bianculli, the author of Dangerously Funny, The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The author indicated the book was about the Smothers Brothers, especially Tommy Smothers’, battle with the CBS censors during the late 1960s. One episode Bianculli recalls in the book is when folk singer Pete Seeger performed his anti-war song “Waist Deep In The Big Muddy.” The song, set during a training exercise in World War II, is about an officer who leads his troops into an unreconnoitered deep stream and was drowned. The refrain would follow along the line of ‘We were (knee) (waist) (neck) deep in the Big Muddy -- And the big fool said to push on.’ In the symbolism of the day, the big fool was the President ( LBJ or Nixon) who continued sending troops into Vietnam (the Big Muddy) only to be swallowed up by a hopeless quagmire. Some people will argue the song is as valid today as it was in the 1960s thanks to decisions by Presidents Bush and Obama. “Waist Deep In The Big Muddy” is now on Pete Seeger’s Greatest Hits CD (the 16cut version) re-released in April 2002. The Smothers Brothers have a greatest hits CD entitled Sibling Revelry, an 18 cut compilation including “Cabbage,” “Chocolate,” “The Saga of John Henry,” and “Crabs Walk Sideways.” Both CDs are available at the online music stores.