His second LP as Entrance, Wandering Stranger , picks up on the gutty Leadbelly-era moans of his first, tracing the eternal welcome in age-old standards while creating novel originals steeped in the form's history. Blakeslee's straight depression-era accompaniment-- from slow guitar-picking to a moaning, despondent fiddle-- makes the track sound like a camp-fire hymn crumpled under the faded lore of histories and proclamations that "the South will rise again".
As his voice gives way to a rumbling piano, Blakeslee confesses a historic allegiance to the blues but, more importantly, makes them seethe again. On the title track, Blakeslee asks his production crew to dim the lights, setting an appropriate mood for the blistering acoustic blues jam that follows.
Though it spends a bit too much time repeating its titular phrase, Blakeslee manages to hold your attention with his hypnotic guitar picking and vagabond desperation. At times, Blakeslee mixes the experimental leanings of the Velvet Underground and Tim Buckley into his country-blues, and he does so to mesmerizing effect. Advanced Search. Wandering Stranger Review by Thom Jurek. Track Listing. Train Is Leaving.
Rex's Blues. Townes Van Zandt. Wandering Stranger. Honey in the Rock. Lonesome Road. Please Be Careful in New Orleans. Happy Trails. Release Date October 12, Recording Date January, - February, Train Is Leaving Entrance.
Spotify Amazon. Rex's Blues Townes Van Zandt. The resistance occurs on a sonic level as well. The strained quality of Entrance's voice verges on breaking, and the songs climax with guitar chords that sound like he makes them with wide, hard, almost out-of-control strokes of his hand across the strings.
The sound creates an "in extremis" state that threatens to pierce the placid surface of life in a society saturated by markets; in Matrix terms, it causes a glitch in the program that projects an illusion in place of reality.
All of this assumes the invalidity of one explanation for such a non-commercializable style—that the musicians lack the skill to produce music acceptable to a larger audience, and that the little audience they have consists of sonic masochists. Are musicians like Entrance just people who want to play rock star without submitting to the disciplines of technique in playing, singing, songwriting and production? The same question can be asked about punk rock, another style that often flouts technical expectations.
Is it a matter of choice or of limited options? At this point, punk has too strong an identity as a musical style for that question to hold up. There's no reason why the same won't hold true for the reuse of archival sounds.
A singer like Entrance works along a continuum with others who go to the same sources but respond with more polished musical product. Joan Baez cast songs like "The House Carpenter" in serenely beautiful settings, and Natalie Merchant does the same today. Baez's voice on those early recordings for Vanguard is a miracle, and Merchant's efforts are worthy in a similar way.
Does this pleasure represent a surrender to compliance? No doubt, both women would disagree vehemently, but Baez's crystalline renditions lend themselves to ready absorption into the world of mass culture and advertising, even if she has made decisions to resist that. Such polished sounds are hard to conceive in the contexts that musicians like Entrance create and occupy. Edit Close. Like what you read?
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