Pop music is, at its heart, merely what the common people are singing and listening to at a given point in time. Delta blues, ragtime, and the music of the Appalachians were in their time pop music. There is a single unbroken chain of melody that runs backwards through our history — and the musicians who remember it tend to, at least in my opinion, be the ones that are the most fun to listen to.<\/p>\n
So I was excited when Josh Joplin and Garrison Starr, both of whom have been reviewed on the DV before, decided to get together and record an album of traditional\u00a0 and traditionally-styled music. Calling themselves Among The Oak & Ash, they have recorded a melodic, brilliantly-performed, and moving CD of timeless music.<\/p>\n
From the present, ATOAA presents “Joseph Hillstrom 1879-1915,” a tribute to the turn of the century labor leader Joe Hill, and the deeply mournful “High Low And Wide.” “Hillstrom” is a tough row to hoe — Joan Baez’ iconic performance of Earl Robinson’s “Joe Hill” being one of the highlights of Woodstock — but Joplin and Garrison handle it with grace and panache, making the song a more upbeat tribute to Hill’s life. Joe Hill historically had a sense of humour and joie de vivre; that comes out in the sheer energy of “Hillstrom.” As a counterpoint, “High Low And Wide” is a deeply touching song about grief and survival.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Add in the traditional songs and ATOAA is a powerful statement. Joplin and Garrison nail “Hiram Hubbard,” “Peggy-O,” and “Angel Gabriel,” and sing “All the Pretty Little Horses” sweet enough to put a baby to slumber. If I have one quibble with the songs, it’s that “Come All You Young And Tender Ladies” ends abruptly; I thought it was just an introduction, but suddenly the song was over and I was left wanting more. A minor consideration at best. When you add in the hidden track at the end — I’m not saying what it is — it proves that pop music is pop music, regardless of the era.<\/p>\n
Among The Oak & Ash<\/i> is an elegant and effective proof that good music is timeless; that it exists in all times; and that Josh Joplin and Garrison Starr continue to be brilliant musicians who are also true to themselves. I recommend it highly.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":30091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8470],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41729","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-among-the-oak-ash","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41729"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}