Elephant Micah - GENERICANA - VINYL LP

Elephant Micah - Genericana [VINYL LP] date 08/03/2018

The raw inspiration for Vague Tidings, Elephant Micah's third effort for Western Vinyl, comes from a DIY tour of the 49th state. It was a trip that went off the beaten path-sometimes a bit too far for comfort. Now, over a decade later, listeners find songwriter-producer Joseph O'Connell stationed at a creaky spinet piano, singing about the Alaskan sky. Throughout, his lyrics take a new angle on a pet theme human encounters with the natural world. Vague Tidings places these encounters in the American West and, at times, in it's sci-fi corollary, outer space. It's imagery draws from the allure of Alaska, the idea of Western prosperity, and the human relationship to wilderness more broadly. Often, O'Connell sings about the goal of capturing and commodifying nature. In poetic sketches of resource extraction industries and dark sky tourism, frontier lust runs amok. Pipelines catch fire and stars disappear, all to the tune of a stark, uncanny Americana. It was 2006 when O'Connell received an unexpected invitation to gig in Alaska. Details were sparse, but the idea was seductive. He grabbed a guitar, boarded a discount flight in Indianapolis, and piled into an old RV in Anchorage with an assortment of other young folkies. What followed was somewhere between a concert tour, a camping trip, and an extended jam session, all taking place under the legendary midnight sun. By necessity, the venues were non-traditional-a public library here, a health food store there-and half the playing went unobserved by any audience at all. For a couple weeks, O'Connell immersed himself in Alaskan life he cheered on the Homer 4th of July parade, drank from rivulets on the Matanuska Glacier, and, in a terrifying turn at the end of the trip, got stalked by a black bear at Hatcher Pass. InchI started to wonder at some point,Inch he recalls, Inchwhether this kind of tour was a little too risky for

In his brief life, cornetist Bix Beiderbecke cultivated a unique and personal Inchvoice.Inch His pioneering use of introspection and understatement, the boldness of his harmonic language, his tone itself, all would echo far downstream in the course of jazz history. His death in 1931 at age 28 has led generations of admirers to wonder what might have been had he lived longer. Here, Andy Schumm (cornet), today's foremost interpreter of the InchBix soundInch, and an all-star group provide a tantalizing glimpse into the realm of Inchwhat if.Inch The band includes Ewan Bleach (reeds), Andrew Oliver (piano), Martin Wheatley (guitar), Tom Wheatley (bass), and Nicholas Ball (drums). 12 tracks, 54 minutes. Album Tracks 1. You're Lucky to Me 2. Why Can't You Behave 3. Memphis in June 4. Moten Swing 5. Rain 6. The Things That Were Made for Love 7. Judy 8. I Never Knew 9. Out of a Clear Blue Sky 10. The Nearness of You 11. San 12. Weary Blues