What some listeners have
had to say about the music:
Rambles.Net review
"So
- this is the second CD I've received this month for which the words
'strange and worthwhile' seem appropriate..." "All of the playing is
pretty quirky - and extremely interesting..."
Sing Out! review
|
H |
unter Robertson is a modern day banjo songster. Sings Songs for the Masses is his first CD, and it’s a solo effort through and through with Hunter playing all the instruments and establishing a wide range of sounds all the while remaining solidly rooted in traditional old-time and blues.
Although his biographical information is sketchy, the cover photo shows a young man and the promotional material states that he has been playing the banjo and 12-string guitar for nearly 20 years. If I had to guess from listening to the CD, I’d say he’s a much older man. His voice is deep and resonant, and his playing is very reminiscent of Doc Boggs and various Piedmont blues players.
The CD opens with “Threw Down,” one of the half dozen original selections on the recording. It is a short drop-thumb clawhammer banjo piece demonstrating that he is a fine player. “She Had Eyes” follows, a tune that could easily have been heard on a plantation well before the Civil War when African American workers could only play music on whatever happened to be around them. Hunter performs on a self-made instrument called an Opus. It is a piece of music remarkably unaffected by modern styles.
We are introduced to Hunter’s singing through his rendition of “Pretty Polly.” His voice would indicate a life surrounded by the horrors described in the old-time classic. “You Gonna Need Someone On Your Bond” features Hunter as a one man band as he supplies slide banjo, bass drum, high hat, kazoo and vocals. He realistically captures the sound that was quite prevalent in many southern towns on court day. Later, Hunter includes “Milo mou Kokkino,” a Northern Greek tune, as part of a banjo medley containing “Bonaparte’s Retreat,” “Ducks on the Millpond” and “Salmon Tails up the River.”
Hunter Robertson
is a highly talented traditional musician. Sings Songs for the Masses is
as strong a solo CD as I’ve heard in quite some time.
- TD for Sing Out! (v.
52/2)
Rambles.Net review
"Listening
to Songs for the Masses (that title comprising the album's one and only
flash of humor), I reflected on how rarely these days one hears
traditional songs -- field recordings aside -- performed traditionally.
Even less commonly encountered are records by
raised-outside-the-tradition artists who choose to recreate a sound
that seems to capture the feeling of homespun front-porch, dance-hall,
street-corner music from the age before the advent of the recording
industry. (Since we have no recordings from back then to guide us,
imagination and inference are as omnipresent in the attempt as
"authenticity," of course.)
Hunter Robertson, who now resides in Vermont but who has lived in the United Kingdom, Greece and France, has produced that kind of record. The sole performer, he employs the banjo (along with the occasional fretless, gut-string or gourd variation) as his principal instrument, though 12-string guitar, electric guitar, kazoo and percussion also show up, if less often. There are 14 songs and instrumentals, approximately half of them traditional, the rest originals indistinguishable from traditionals.
Robertson sings in a rolling rumble that will likely put you in a couple of minds: Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart in one, in the other the sort of field recording in which an ethnomusicologist is seeking to document an instrumental style and the singing, rough as a cob, is simply -- at least from the immediate academic perspective -- extraneous. Contributing to the latter psychic impression is Robertson's sometime habit of burying his vocal into the mix, if "mix" is not too fancy a word to denote the almost skinless sound; sometimes, if one were a superstitious soul, one might imagine a 200-year-old ghost was accidentally captured on the tape as, otherwise inaudible, it sang to Robertson's playing of an old tune. All of this, by the way, is perfectly fine by me.
The banjo playing -- as exquisite as it is eccentric -- has the creaky ambience of a haunted house. "Banjo Medley" is 5:37's worth of four venerable tunes played clawhammer style, the last of them a Greek folk piece that feels in no way out of place. The African-American spiritual "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed" has Robertson's growled lyrics set on top of a fierce, doom-laden 12-string groove. It is damned scary.
'Til now, I have not heard a version of "Red Wing" -- though long since absorbed by tradition, it began its life as a pop song in the early 20th century -- so stark and gloomy as to make one forget just how dopey the lyrics are. Even so, what a melody, all the more attractive for the way Robertson manages to turn it inside out without killing it. In another sit-up-and-take-notice moment, he gives "You Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" -- always emotionally and rhythmically dead-on -- the one-man-band treatment.
Songs for the Masses is for neither the masses nor the timid. But if you're up for a walk through the lonesome valley that stretches across the moonless landscape of the old, weird America, Robertson will show you the way."
Hunter Robertson, who now resides in Vermont but who has lived in the United Kingdom, Greece and France, has produced that kind of record. The sole performer, he employs the banjo (along with the occasional fretless, gut-string or gourd variation) as his principal instrument, though 12-string guitar, electric guitar, kazoo and percussion also show up, if less often. There are 14 songs and instrumentals, approximately half of them traditional, the rest originals indistinguishable from traditionals.
Robertson sings in a rolling rumble that will likely put you in a couple of minds: Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart in one, in the other the sort of field recording in which an ethnomusicologist is seeking to document an instrumental style and the singing, rough as a cob, is simply -- at least from the immediate academic perspective -- extraneous. Contributing to the latter psychic impression is Robertson's sometime habit of burying his vocal into the mix, if "mix" is not too fancy a word to denote the almost skinless sound; sometimes, if one were a superstitious soul, one might imagine a 200-year-old ghost was accidentally captured on the tape as, otherwise inaudible, it sang to Robertson's playing of an old tune. All of this, by the way, is perfectly fine by me.
The banjo playing -- as exquisite as it is eccentric -- has the creaky ambience of a haunted house. "Banjo Medley" is 5:37's worth of four venerable tunes played clawhammer style, the last of them a Greek folk piece that feels in no way out of place. The African-American spiritual "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed" has Robertson's growled lyrics set on top of a fierce, doom-laden 12-string groove. It is damned scary.
'Til now, I have not heard a version of "Red Wing" -- though long since absorbed by tradition, it began its life as a pop song in the early 20th century -- so stark and gloomy as to make one forget just how dopey the lyrics are. Even so, what a melody, all the more attractive for the way Robertson manages to turn it inside out without killing it. In another sit-up-and-take-notice moment, he gives "You Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" -- always emotionally and rhythmically dead-on -- the one-man-band treatment.
Songs for the Masses is for neither the masses nor the timid. But if you're up for a walk through the lonesome valley that stretches across the moonless landscape of the old, weird America, Robertson will show you the way."
- Jerome Clark writing for Rambles.Net
The Old-Time Herald review
"When you live far away from most other musicians, say on Crete, you
will probably develop your own styles and write your own songs after
wearing out all the recordings you brought with you. On this album, the
artist composed about half the songs and tunes; the rest are
traditional. His voice is distinctive, sounding like an old blues
singer, filtered through a rock musician such as Eddie Vedder. The
banjo playing is solid clawhammer with a light, sure touch. Not
traditional old-time music as I know it, but eclectic and distinctive."
Musical Traditions review
~ "Hunter's delivery is raw and archaic. I don't know what the masses say, I guess they take it rather indifferently, but so mustn't we." - FolkWorld (Germany)
~ “I like your tunes very much... I won't say they're "the real stuff", 'cause this is a quite ungrounded cliché. It's that mixture of rawness and tenderness and the feeling that you love on different levels whatever you are engaged in when playing.” - Low Down Nick
~ "Hunter Robertson's banjo-driven score is apt accompaniment for doc's emotional highs and lows."
- Variety (in reference to the score for The Ostrich Testimonies, directed by Jonathan VanBallenberghe)
~ "That's some
dirty stompin downhome stuff!
Damn." - A.S.
~ "Reminds me of a modern Dock Boggs with a kazoo and a drum!" - D.L.
~ "Reminds me of a modern Dock Boggs with a kazoo and a drum!" - D.L.
~ "...you
have plenty of talent! “Sings Songs” is a beautiful
record,
honest and true to the spirit of deep blues, but at the same time so
full of you, your emotions and personal experiences evident in rhythmic
and melodic nuances of your playing. From banjo, through
guitar,
to plucked opus (which is new to my ears), I like it all. Some people
say that you need to look into the future to keep things interesting. I
see it in a different way. Digging deeper is interesting and it is
exactly what you do. Congratulations!"
~ "...some
fine pickin—clawhammer, gut-string fretless, &
tin-can banjo,
12 string guitar, old-school sounding vox + kazoo too!
Excellent. Sounds ancient. Play!"
-
Kimberly, WRUV's Folk Music Director
~
“…sounds like what oldtime music would sound
like if it was played by Tom Waits or Captain Beefheart. Great
stuff.” -
T.D.
~ "hunter takes me away
in his world of dark ,hard stomping blues,wailing banjo tunes,with his
husky deep voice tom waits would be jealously.far and away the best of
old-time,raw,wild and melancholic ......"
~ "Banjos are capable of a wide
range of styles and moods and I enjoy them all - but the thing that
will grab me every time is a haunting melody supported by a banjo that
is full of conviction and growl. With a range of old time clawhammer
and finger styles and low gravelly vocals, Hunter Robertson Sings Songs
for the Masses fills my need for moving, haunting banjo perfectly.
The songs have the feeling of old field recordings in that most are one take tunes without the sterile touch of heavy post production mixing and over dubbing. Just Hunter, his instrument, and his voice.
His version of "Redwing" is the first, and only, that I have heard that matches the mood of the music with the subject of the lyrics, and it changed forever how I think of the song. "You Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" breaks out the slide and demonstrates that the banjo can sing the blues with the best of them. Throw in some gut-stringed fretless, a little 12-stringed guitar, and a smattering of kazoo and opus and the result is a great CD that breaks a lot of people's idea of what "banjo music" is."
The songs have the feeling of old field recordings in that most are one take tunes without the sterile touch of heavy post production mixing and over dubbing. Just Hunter, his instrument, and his voice.
His version of "Redwing" is the first, and only, that I have heard that matches the mood of the music with the subject of the lyrics, and it changed forever how I think of the song. "You Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" breaks out the slide and demonstrates that the banjo can sing the blues with the best of them. Throw in some gut-stringed fretless, a little 12-stringed guitar, and a smattering of kazoo and opus and the result is a great CD that breaks a lot of people's idea of what "banjo music" is."
- Yopparai Kyabetsu. Check out Yopp's videos
of his homemade banjos.
Radio Play
WRUV (VT), KSKA (Alaska), Radio Sfera (Poland), VPR (Vermont Public Radio), WBKM (VT), CKUT ( CA), WJFF (NY).Press Photographs:
Right click on Download and "save
target as..." to get the full size version.
Download Photograph by JP Candelier
Download Photograph by Dominic Turner
Download Design by Hunter Robertson
Bio and Quote Sheet
Download Word Document
Sample Poster
Download Design by Hunter Robertson