The past few months I’ve been caught up in a storm of dramatic life changes, and haven’t had much time to write. I’ve been trying to figure out ways to keep up more of a regular presence on this Substack newsletter for a while now, as in the past year I’ve mostly just used it to post reviews that I didn’t have enough time to pitch to publications. I have to credit my dear friend Dorothy Carlos for giving me the idea to write a regular monthly column detailing each of my track picks for my radio show, Honky Tonk Dream House, on Beloved. I hosted a radio show every semester I was in college, and after graduating there was a massive radio-shaped hole in my heart, so I’m endlessly grateful that Beloved gave me this radio show a few months ago; putting it together is always one of my favorite things to do in any given month. This mix is the first one I’ll be writing about, and it’s been a challenge writing about it considering how different it is from what I usually play on my show. There’s no theme to Honky Tonk Dream House outside of whatever music I’ve been listening to that month, which is more often than not experimental electronic and improvised music. This past month, I found myself listening to a lot of African guitar music, and I thought it would be cool to do a show focusing on guitar music, mostly from non-western idioms, that isn’t exactly conventional but isn’t far out either (lord knows I’ll be happy to play Derek Bailey on every other show I do). You can tune in to my show tonight at 9 PM central time on Beloved.wtf, or find it here on Mixcloud after the fact. With that in mind, here goes nothing:
S.E. Rogie - Dance with the Morningstars
S.E. Rogie was a Sierra Leonean guitarist who performed Palm-wine music. This was a style of guitar music that originated from the Kru people of Sierra Leone and Liberia, which was heavily influenced by Calypso and would later influence the Soukous and Highlife styles of Congo and Ghana respectively. I don’t have much to say about this song itself, other than that it’s pretty much impossible to not feel good while it’s playing.
Joseph Spence - Out on the Rolling Sea
Joseph Spence is absolutely a desert island musician for me. I first became aware of his music while I was interning at Smithsonian Folkways a few years ago. Folkways put out an album of his music titled Bahaman Folk Guitar: Music of the Bahamas, Volume One. Back then I didn’t have much of a frame of reference for Caribbean folk music so I’m not sure what I expected, but it definitely wasn’t what I heard. Spence performed arrangements of gospel and folk songs in a bluesy style, and his guitar playing was simply from another planet. His playing style was deep and percussive, and sounds like it’s moving in several different directions at once. To top it all off, he sang all of his songs in a throaty grunt, often ad-libbing and taking as many liberties with the lyrics as he wanted. All of his music is brilliant, but this particular recording always stuck with me.
Vumbi Dekula - Zanzibar, Kinshasa & Vållingby
A big catalyst for putting together this mix was hearing Vumbi Dekula’s new album Congo Guitar, which only came out last month on Hive Mind. The title of this track reflects Dekula’s personal and music journey, one spanning multiple different countries and continents. He was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was schooled in the Soukous music that was omnipresent in Central Africa at the time, established himself as a guitar player in Tanzania, and eventually emigrated to Sweden. Much of this album is just Dekula and his guitar, stripping Soukous music down to its most central elements without losing any of its joyous, loping melodic wonder.
Lord Ivanhoe & His Carribean Knights - Belinda
I worked at an ice cream place this past summer, and one of the perks of the job was that I could play whatever music I wanted in the store (within reason). I’d usually be playing Reggae and Calypso music, which went a long way towards keeping my spirits up during what were often long and tedious shifts. I heard this song on a box set of Calypso released on the legendary Trojan label, a Jamaican label more associated with Reggae. I can’t find much info about Lord Ivanhoe, or His Caribbean Knights for that matter; it seems like they only released a couple of singles. I would love to know who plays guitar on this track.
Lou Harrison - Harp Suite: Avalokiteshvara
Lou Harrison was a truly original American modernist composer. He was known for composing extensively with microtones and for incorporating Gamelan influences in his music. He was also gay, and open about his identity as far back as the 30s, which is absolutely unthinkable for me. For that alone, I’d say he has to be one of the most heroic figures in New Music. This piece, performed by David Tanenbaum and William Winant, has Gamelan-like percussion, but the central guitar parts are more reminiscent of Hispanic American folk music to me than anything else.
Maurice Halison - Ny afindrafindrao tsy azo avela
I owe a good chunk of my musical education to the Ocora record label, which is home to an extensive library of ethnographic music. This track is taken from one of their first releases, a collection of recordings from Madagascar released in 1964. Malagasy music is known for being incredibly unique, due to the island’s Austronesian, Arab and East African cultural influences. Even in that context, Halison’s four tracks on the Valiha Madagascar album stand out, utilizing some European instrumentation and unorthodox arrangements. The only piece of information I could find on Halison was a biography on AllMusic written by the venerable Eugene Chadbourne, which compared the complexity of Valison’s music to Schoenberg and Boulez. At the same time, this track is as beautiful and playful as everything else on this mix.
Gabby Pahinui - Lei Nani
Gabby Pahinui is one of the most well known figures in Hawaiian slack-key guitar music. I first became familiar with his work after reading that legendary guitarist and improviser Henry Kaiser was a fan; I’ll listen to pretty much anything he recommends, and there’s a few other tracks on this mix that I learned of through that connection. This track finds Pahinui vocalizing over a lush array of strumming guitars. In a lot of my favorite Hawaiian music, I feel as though I can hear the performer throwing themself entirely into the music, and this is certainly an example of that.
The Four Pals - Nifwe Ba Four Pals
I heard this song on a compilation of recordings by the ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey titled Origins of Guitar Music in Southern Congo and Northern Zambia. These recordings, which date back to the 50s, can definitely be heard as precursors to soukous, and it includes recordings from the legendary Congolese guitarist Jean Bosco Mwenda. I cannot find any information on this group, The Four Pals, but their music centers around the group’s rich, booming harmonies. This track actually reminds me a lot of the doo-wop music that was popular around the same time in the United States.
Skip James - Jesus is a Mighty Good Leader
Skip James is simply one of those musicians who anyone with even a passing interest in guitar music, or American folk music, or really any form of music needs to hear. James was known for his intricate fingerpicking guitar style; it’s a bit of a cliche to say that a legendary Blues guitarist sounds like multiple guitar players at once (I hear this all the time in reference to musicians like Robert Johnson), but with James it’s 100% true. I’ve listened to his 30s recordings several times, but each time I’m struck by how clear the textural elements of his playing are despite the aged recording quality. And while it’s hard not to focus exclusively on his guitar playing, it must be said that he’s definitely one of my favorite vocalists in Blues music. His haunting falsetto vocals serve this Gospel tune perfectly.
Tabu Ley Rouchereau - Lily Mwana ya quartier
Tabu Ley Rouchereau was one of the originators of Soukous music, a style of African guitar-based music influenced by Cuban Rumba. Rouchereau was a major figure in Congolese culture and an insanely prolific songwriter. His vocals and harmonies are always absolutely gorgeous, and this track is no exception. I’m not sure who played guitar on this particular recording, but the playing is both deeply resonant and stunningly intricate.
Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete - Little Fishes
I was raised on Peanuts, and though Vince Guaraldi is most well known for his soundtrack to the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, I’ve always associated his music with autumn, which is my favorite season by far. It’s hard to separate my enjoyment of his music with the rush of nostalgia I experience every time I hear it, but there’s definitely a melodic richness to Guaraldi’s piano playing that I’ve never heard anywhere else. In keeping with the loose guitar theme of this mix, I wanted to include one of his collaborations with the legendary Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete. I first became aware of Sete’s music through hearing his Ocean album and learning about his influence on John Fahey, so when I found out he was also a frequent collaborator of Vince Guaraldi it was a very big deal. The two complement each other perfectly on this track.
John Ondolo - Sira Ya Vijana
I’ve discovered a lot of great music from the Mississippi Records label, and the compilation of John Ondolo’s music that this track is taken from was one of my favorite compilations of last year. The Bandcamp description for this release emphasizes Ondolo’s usage of open tuning and drone-like chords, but musically this track is very upbeat and joyful, with beautiful harmonies and lyrical fingerstyle guitar.
D’Gary - Anary Tany
D’Gary is another artist I know about through the Henry Kaiser connection, as he produced the album this is taken from. D’Gary is a Malagasy artist whose guitar playing is informed by Madagascar’s unique traditional instruments. I’ve been tempted to overuse the term “intricate” in describing the guitar playing on a lot of these songs, but D’Gary plays with such swift technical dexterity that I have to wonder if he has a second smaller set of fingers underneath his regular ones.
Amadou Binta Konté & Tidiane Thiam - Kayraba
This is taken from an album of extended instrumental improvisations on hoddu - a traditional West African lute, played here by Amadou Binta Konté - and acoustic guitar, played by Tidiane Thiam. I heard this album for the first time a few years ago and it absolutely blew me away. It’s impossible to not feel completely transported while listening to it.
Bruce Langhorne - Ending
This is from Bruce Langhorne’s soundtrack to The Hired Hand, a 70s acid western directed by Peter Fonda. Langhorne has a fascinating backstory; he was a stalwart of the Greenwich Village folk scene and collaborated extensively with some weird Jewish guy named Bob Dylan. It’s been said that Langhorne was the inspiration for Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” as he would often play a big frame drum that he adorned with bells. Langhorne also composed music for films, and much of his soundtrack work was pretty obscure until relatively recently. I’ve actually been intending to include something from The Hired Hand since I started this show, simply because it’s one of my favorite albums of all time. Langhorne’s craft as a composer and an arranger is simply masterful, and I wish he was given more opportunities to explore it.
all gold!