|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Review of "Going Somewhere"
Review of "Going Somewhere"
Page:
1
scojo
519 posts
May 21, 2015
9:21 AM
|
Paul Messinger wrote this review of Going Somewhere. A version of this review will appear in the next edition of Harmonica Happenings, the magazine of SPAH. Paul is one of my favorite harmonica artists AND one of my favorite songwriters; we have congruent ideas about how the harmonica can fit into eclectic types of music. Paul, if you read this... THANKS!
Scott Albert Johnson - scottalbertjohnson.com
---
ALBUM REVIEW: Going Somewhere by Scott Albert Johnson
Reviewed by Paul Messinger
My first listenings to the new Scott Albert Johnson release, Going Somewhere, somehow made me think of the movie, “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” As some may recall, the movie told the tale of the Coca-Cola bottle that fell from the sky and is found by a tribesman living in the Kalahari Desert, without any context to understand this magical object.
Listening to the things that SAJ does with the harmonica in many ways makes me think that, like that tribesman, Scott Albert Johnson found the vestal harmonica that fell from the sky and, without any prior context, discovered his own, singular language in which to relate to and summon song from this object that somehow fell from the heavens.
It’s as if all the context that we as listeners expect and depend on is somehow undiscovered still, and Scott Albert Johnson encounters this ten-hole talisman that fell from the sky, for the first time, for all of us … The joy and wonder in which he encounters this celestial object, and arranges the sounds and silences of this new-found world are, in a word, profound.
Scott Albert Johnson is, first and foremost, a songwriter.
His songs cover a kaleidoscopic range of life experiences, inner imaginings, and song-stylings that have often been largely untouched by the ten-hole, which, for we harmonicists make them all the more innovative, and well, fascinating …
Songs like “Simply Human,” the heartfelt cry of a robot who yearns for inclusion amongst the humanity he has been programmed to serve, are just not among the usual harmonica-music themes. In production notes provided to this reviewer, SAJ describes the song’s musical structure: “the increasingly seamless mix of organic and synthesized instrumentation is meant to complement the lyrical theme of our merging with our creations.”
In “Fragments,” as Scott explains in the production notes: “Walker Percy once wrote in The Moviegoer, "Not for five minutes will I be distracted from the wonder." That’s pretty much the way I feel all the time: in awe of Creation and Infinity and very much unsure of what it all means (but grateful for the chance to be here to consider it at all). I wanted to try to capture this feeling in a song about the fundamentals of who we are and where we are going.”
Then, in tunes like “Going Somewhere” and “All,” there is the FUNK …
It is a Dr. John meets Frankenstein funk, filled with rat-tat-tat staccato bursts, harp lines structurally set up to function as funky horn lines, but then they morph into something ‘other.’ For example, in “All”, Scott’s first break is an 8-bar, noteless warble that ‘suggests’ a flat third; that’s the best I can describe it, you just gotta hear it … The 2nd harp break blows freakily precise lines, in freakily imagined time phrasings with the rest of the band, then blasts into a solo saturated with a tweaked Richard Hunter phaser-effect-patch … Then, more freakily precise, freakily-effected, freakily imagined funk-section-line-playing seals the deal …
And on and on it goes, through different musical styles and characters of Scott’s imaginings, tune after tune … with a great band that features such luminaries as Chalmers Davis (a Muscle Shoals/Little Richard sideman… check out “Haunt My Dreams” for about as ‘evil’ an organ part as you’ll ever wanna hear), Scott Albert Johnson re-imagines the instrument as if … well … as if it fell from the sky, and he encountered it as if it had never been played or heard before.
Experience the joy and wonder of it … this is a ride worth taking, folks.
|
bluemoose
1084 posts
May 21, 2015
3:28 PM
|
Well my advanced copy just dropped out of the mailbox! Some very cool tunes.
Sort of like Blind Mississippi Morris meets Sugar Blue.
Can't wait for the play along attempts. Sounds like some interesting positions and modes.
MBH Webbrain - a GUI guide to Adam's Youtube vids
FerretCat Webbrain - Jason Ricci's vids (by hair colour!)
|
scojo
521 posts
May 21, 2015
8:55 PM
|
Thank you, Bluemoose. Email me and I will send you some production notes, lyrics, and harmonica notes.
scott [at] scottalbertjohnson dot com
|
Post a Message
|
