Article:
The Old-Time Herald (Volume 12, No. 7) | Jubal's Kin: Album Review
Author:
Pete Peterson
October 2010
Gailanne Amundsen and her older brother Roger are the heart of Jubals Kin. (Jubal is described, early in Genesis, as the father of all who handle the harpthe first stringed instrument player!) Roger plays guitar, dulcimer and mandolin; Gailanne plays fiddle, banjo and guitar. Their younger brother Jeffrey plays bass, but does not sing. (On this CD, Byron House plays bass on many of the tracks.) The siblings sing well together, choosing notes and vocal tones so as to blend into duets and more complicated harmonies using overdubs.
In one of the original Star Trek episodes, McCoy and Kirk are exploring an alien planet and McCoy says to Kirk, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it." For a fast description of this CD, "It's old-time music, but not as we know it," is accurate, but unfair. If you are open to having your mind stretched beyond traditional old-time music, you will certainly enjoy this CD. In contrast to many old-time bands who play a tune or sing a song using Lewis Carroll's advice of, "Begin at the beginning, and go on until you come to the end, and then stop," almost every song here is arranged so as to progress from simple to more complicated as the song goes on. You first hear a single voice and a simple accompaniment, adding complexity and harmony voices as the song goes on. Sometimes the tempo changes as well, usually from slow to fast. (Raleigh and Spencer is a good example.)
Of the seven songs listed as traditional here, probably the one closest to the original is I Will Arise. The words date back to the 18th century, while the tune is the one that William Walker published in Southern Harmony in 1835. Using overdubs, the Amundsens add their own beautiful harmonies. No Depression is also very similar to the Carter Familys version, although the tempo has been slowed, and harmonies changed. Red Rocking Chair, also known as Red Apple Juice or Sugar Baby (depending on which of the floating verses you sing first) was first recorded by Dock Boggs in 1926. Charlie Monroe's version, from 1949, is already very different, and later recordings vary tempo, harmonies, and key. Jubal's Kin sings it in a way that was clearly influenced by Uncle Earl's version, but has changed the key and the harmonies from Uncle Earl. The game of Telephone (which I first learned as Whispering Down the Lane) might be a good analogy. Why should creativity have to stop with the first person to record (or, going back to Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles, write down) the song? In addition to their interpretation of traditional songs, Jubal's Kin covers more recently written songs: Dolly Parton's What will Baby Be, Patty Griffin's Rowing Song, and two others as well as five of their own compositions; four by Gailanne alone and one by Gailanne and Roger. In their own songs, clearly rooted in old-time music, they describe their own thoughts and feelings, yet avoid the self-indulgence of too many singer-songwriters. (Was Gailanne's 'Nothing is Free' written as an answer to, or even a tribute to, Welch and Rawlings' 'Everything is Free'? Or were they both inspired, directly or indirectly, by "The best things in life are free" from a 1925 Broadway musical?) The last song, Patty Griffin's Rowing Song with its simple, repetitious words, is probably my favorite of the newer songs.
Jubal's Kin uses acoustic instruments commonly associated with old-time music as a vehicle for their own creativity. They are doing with words and harmonies (as well as their instrumental skills, which are substantial) what people like Mark Simos, Garry Harrison, Jane Rothfield and others are doing when they write new tunes, or Adam Hurt and Walt Koken are doing as they create new ways of playing the banjo. The test will be, of course, whether other people follow this new path. This, Jubal's Kin's debut CD, blazes one of the trails that old-time music could take in the years ahead.
About
Tour
News
Music
Photos
Video
Store
Press
Links
Contact
