![]() "Oh the Wind and Rain" clocks in at nearly nine minutes, and "Barbary Ellen" tops 12 minutes. ![]() The two obvious highlights here are the title tune, a poetically rendered murder and ghost story probably best-known in a version by the great autoharp master, Kilby Snow, and an unhurried-yet urgent-reading of that ballad of all ballads, "Barbary Ellen." In both cases Stecher finds the narrative and emotional center of the song, and then lets it wind out with its dignity and inherent structure enforced, yet he still takes care to leave its native mysteries preserved. The arrangements here are marvelous, with Stecher supporting his easy, everyman vocals on guitar, banjo, mandolin and oud, bringing in interesting strands of folk DNA to flesh things out and give each of these ballads a full, complete feel, and at the same time, creating an album with remarkable unity and cohesion. It is certainly his most thematically consistent, comprising 11 ballads, all of which have long pedigrees, and he works each one as carefully as a man refinishing his grandmother's rocking chair. In some ways Oh the Wind and Rain is Stecher's best album. A trait Brooklyn-born Jody Stecher shares with most urban-traditional singers is a careful attention to the history of the songs he sings, approaching them as valuable pieces of art in need of delicate restoration. It is certainly his most thematically consistent, comprising 11 ballads, all of which have long pedigrees, and he works each one as carefully as a man refinishing his grandmoth. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music GuideĪ trait Brooklyn-born Jody Stecher shares with most urban-traditional singers is a careful attention to the history of the songs he sings, approaching them as valuable pieces of art in need of delicate restoration. ![]() Most of this is pretty traditional and acoustic in tone, however, though it has the undercurrent of dark, uneasy tension that gives much of Fahey's '60s material its intriguing combination of meditation and restlessness. "A Raga Called Pat, Part III" and "Part IV" is a particularly ambitious piece, its disquieting swooping slide and brief bits of electronic white noise reverb veering into experimental psychedelia. One of his more obscure early efforts, Voice of the Turtle is both listenable and wildly eclectic, going from scratchy emulations of early blues 78s and country fiddle tunes to haunting guitar-flute combinations and eerie ragas. Like some of John Fahey's other projects in the '60s, this was actually recorded and assembled over a few years, and primarily composed of duets with various other artists (including overdubs with his own pseudonym, "Blind Joe Death"). One of his more obscure early efforts, Voice of the Turtle is both listenable and wildly eclectic, going from scratchy emulations of early blues 78s and country fiddle tunes to haunting guitar-flute combinations an. ![]() Previously available as an LP on its original Changes release and an Arhoolie reissue, it was reissued on CD in 1998, but at just half an hour it's pretty skimpy on running time. "Ragahantar" and "Ara-Be-In," by contrast, are fusions of jazz with middle-eastern music and a bit of a psychedelic rock drive, not unlike the kinds of things that a rock group of the period, Kaleidoscope, would occasionally try on their albums. ![]() Some of the cuts swing pretty well in a bop-Django Reinhardt sort of fusion, with Michael White on violin. Interesting, eclectic set of five originals (all but one written by Hahn), from a date including Jack DeJohnette on drums. "Ragahantar" and "Ara-Be-In," by contrast, are fusions of jazz with middle-eastern music and a bit of a psychedelic rock drive, not unlike the kinds of things that a rock group of the period, Kaleidoscope, would occasion. ![]()
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