Robbie Basho archives

Chuck Johnson: August 2, 2015 Union Pool – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

Chuck Johnson

2015-08-02

Union Pool

Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Tracks

01 Corvid Tactics

02 On A Slow Passing In Ghost Town

03 Silver Teeth in the Sun

04 [untitled]

05 [banter]

06 A Slender Thread>Dissevered

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Chuck Johnson, visit his website, and buy Blood Moon Boulder from Scissor Tail Records here and his other records here.

  

Chuck Johnson on Tour

 Ok you lucky bastards in the following towns...go listen to some music!!

July 5 – Milwaukee, WI @ Acme Records (with Jon Mueller)
July 6 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club (with Paul Metzger and Palmer/Sowell/Helgeson Trio)
July 7 – Madison, WI @ Bright Red Studio
July 8 – Chicago, IL @ Elastic Arts (with Zelienople, Marielle Jakobsons)
July 10 – Portland, OR @ Xchurch (solo set and with Terrane, Marielle Jakobsons)
July 11 – Seattle, WA @ Debacle Fest, Columbia Theater (solo set and with Terrane)
July 28 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
July 29 – Asheville, NC @ Mothlight (with Tashi Dorji/Shane Parish Duo)
July 30 – Charlottesville, VA @ Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
July 31 – Silver Spring, MD @ Pyramid Atlantic
Aug 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Random Tea Room (with Eric Carbonara)
Aug 2 – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
Aug 3 – TBA
Aug 4 – Hudson, NY @ Half Moon (with Alexander Turnquist and Pigeons)
Aug 5 – Easthampton, MA @ Flywheel (with Glenn Jones)
Aug 6 – Ithaca, NY @ TBA (with Powerdove)
Aug 7 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Acoustic Music Works
Aug 8 – Columbus, OH @ It Looks Like It’s Open (with Mike Fekete)
Aug 9 – Lexington, KY – TBA
Aug 10 – Louisville, KY @ Dreamland
Aug 11 – Nashville, TN @ Portland Brew
Aug 12 – Knoxville, TN @ The Pilot Light
Aug 13 – Atlanta, GA @ Mammal Gallery
Aug 14 – Raleigh, NC @ Neptune’s
Aug 15 – Washington, DC @ Babe City (with Jesse Sparhawk)

TOMPKINS SQUARE 'IMAGINATIONAL ANTHEM' VOL. 7

TOMPKINS SQUARE RELEASES THE 7th INSTALLMENT OF 'IMAGINATIONAL ANTHEM', THE ACCLAIMED ACOUSTIC GUITAR SERIES, FEBRUARY 17, 2015

From Tompkins Square's Press Release:
'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 7' is compiled by 20 year old guitarist Hayden Pedigo, from Albuquerque, NM. Hayden has recently been featured in Vogue and The FADER behind his own recent album release, 'Five Steps'. Hayden's selections represent a mature and balanced cross-section across the modern solo acoustic guitar spectrum. As with previous volumes, this one truly represents the state of the art - an area of evolving musical expression that is very vibrant and healthy indeed.

Track Listing :

1.On a Slow Passing Through a Ghost Town-Chuck Johnson
2.Culverts-Sean Proper
3.Enchiridion-Norberto Lobo
4.Trees Return to Soil-Simon Scott
5.Sea Retreat-DBH
6.Araucaria-Jordan Norton
7.The Great North American Wilderness-Kyle Fosburgh
8.Something, or Oil Paintings-Christoph Bruhn
9.USA Self-Michael Vallera
10.Red Bud Valley-Dylan Golden Aycock
11.0/3-M.Mucci
12.Shadow Study at 6 am-Mariano Rodriguez
13.Olympic Peninsula Blues-Andrew Weathers
14.My Grandfather's 12 Gauge-Wes Tirey

Visit Tompkins Square

Miniatures: A Chef's Life (Seasons 1 and 2) by Chuck Johnson

Chuck Johnson: May 26, 2013 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

Chuck Johnson
2013-05-25
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard + Schoeps MK41>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2 >> Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, adjust levels, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 3.0 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( 8 )

Tracks
01 Swallow the Sun>
02 Albion Source
03 Caldera Wires
04 Vastapol
05 On A Slow Passing In Ghost Town *
06 Crows In the Basilica
07 Mine Creek
08 The Stars Rose Behind Us

If you enjoyed this recording, please support Chuck Johnson, visit his website and purchase Crows In the Basilica from Three Lobed Recordings [HERE]

Chuck Johnson - Crows in the Basilica

Needle drop.

The soft crackle of dust in the groove.  Earthy tones emanate from a platter carelessly dodging 33 1/3 RPM.  Precision picking more solid than the thirty year old strobe that needs constant adjusting.

A guitar and a man visit the past: with a nod to a Seeger and Roscoe Holcomb, strings ringing on a parlor guitar.

Four second break.

Earthy tone and thumping bass: the platter gathers speed for the bridge, slows, steadies on the mark, holds.

Pounding thumb paired perfectly with ringing arpeggios.

Dust  crackle.


The new album by Chuck Johnson, Crows in the Basilica is one of those rare experiences where you ask yourself, haven't I been here before? It's a sense of --- not déjà vu.  More of a returning home, grown, wiser. That is the American Primitive that Johnson plays.

Johnson is the rare player that can play with precision and passion.  What did Robbie Basho say: soul before technique?  Well I don’t know which of the two came first for Johnson,  translation of authentic soul into his musical pieces or mastery of his technique.  Clearly both are on display in this latest release.  Melodies and progressions that sound at once fresh and well worn.


                                            Served up for your ears
                                                        as though they've been waiting
                                                                       for this aural delight for years.


The American Primitives aren’t really a lot that strive for a timeless melody.  When you look at the roots of many of today’s practitioners, they hail from the noise and avant-garde realms that Fahey was haunting at the end of his career.  This has had an influence on this recent resurgence of guitar soli.  And that’s fine, but I like just a bit of melody.


A morsel of melody.  A dash of dissonance.

Johnson navigates a fine line.  Songs of beauty, mystery, and discord circle back to beauty.

Always familiar.  Upon first listening to these works an old favorite is revealed.

Dust  crackle.

Auto-return.


Johnson has a way of compelling the abstract leanings of solo guitar to dip a toe in the pool of sweet melody.  Solo guitar has a latent tendency to stay on the fringe of melody.  It’s what makes it so uniquely great as well as sparsely liked or understood.  Johnson is one of those artists that is able to get non-believers to take notice and more than satisfy those of the new AP crowd.

Ha!

And if we are indeed becoming a crowd that is very interesting, isn’t it?

Chuck Johnson is in the vanguard.

Listen.

Enjoy.

Visit Chuck Johnson on the web

Buy Crows in the Basilica

      

Chuck Johnson - Live on WFMU, May 27, 2013

Click on the pic to visit Doom & Gloom from the Tomb for this goodie!  As usual, Tyler doing a great job!!
   

A Robbie Basho Tribute Concert and Documentary Film Benefit

Berkeley Arts presents

A Robbie Basho Tribute Concert and Documentary Film Benefit

When: May 8, 2013 8PM
Where: Berkeley Arts, 2133 University Ave. Berkeley, CA
Cost: $10-20 Suggested donation

Details
Berkeley Arts presents a concert in tribute to the late guitarist and Berkeley resident Robbie Basho. The event is also a benefit to raise funds to complete the first ever documentary film about Basho - titled Voice Of The Eagle: The Enigma Of Robbie Basho - currently in the works by London-based filmmaker Liam Barker.

The lineup includes several Bay Area performers whose work has been inspired in some way by Robbie Basho's music, including two guitarists who personally knew Basho: fingerstyle guitarist Rich Osborn and renown improvisor Henry Kaiser.

The concert will include short sets by:

Henry Kaiser
Rich Osborn
Bill Orcutt
Chuck Johnson
Danny Paul Grody
Aaron Sheppard
Andrew Weathers

We think this will be an historic event, and a fitting tribute to Basho's legacy - in the same spirit as the John Fahey memorial concerts that took place at the Freight And Salvage in 2002.

About Robbie Basho
Robbie Basho (1940 - 1986) was a Berkeley-based composer, guitarist, and vocalist and one of the foremost proponents of steel string acoustic guitar as a solo concert instrument. Along with John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Basho was part of the triumvirate of pioneering guitarists on the Berkeley-based Takoma label in the 1960s. Basho went on to record for Windham Hill, and was an important influence on the label’s founder, guitarist William Ackerman. His innovative guitar compositions incorporated American folk, European, and Eastern influences, and he is credited for developing the improvisational “American raga” style.

About the Film
Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a journey into the heart of an artist's lifelong struggle - designed to illuminate and satiate existing fans while serving as a perfect starting point for the uninitiated. Self-funded entirely to date by director Liam Barker, Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho features interviews with Basho's former students, contemporaries and few close friends; interspersed with abstract employment of archive footage and photography of the natural phenomena and localities that informed Basho's work. Basho claimed to paint America with music; the film will attempt to transfigure Robbie Basho with sound and images.

Principal photography began on Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho in October 2012, with the filmmakers shooting (and intermittently battling superstorms) in Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado and California. A Kickstarter campaign is set to launch in spring 2013 to enable the film's continuing production and subsequent post-production costs.

Liam Barker - Writer, Director, Producer, Editor
Justinas Vabuolas - Director of Photography
Robbie Basho Film.com

       

Chuck Johnson: September 7, 2012 Hopscotch Festival

Chuck Johnson
2012-09-07
Three Lobed/WXDU Day Show
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Tracks
01 [intro]
02 On A Slow Passing In Ghost Town
03 Across White Oak Mountain
04 [tuning]
05 A Slender Thread/Dissevered
06 The Flying Spire Don’t Have No Mercy

 

 

Chuck Johnson

Mr Johnson plays the guitar
Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
11.17.11

1) Caldera Wires
2) Vestapol
3) A Slender Thread
4) The Stars Rose Behind Us

 

Chuck Johnson - A Struggle Not a Thought

Chuck Johnson's classical tilt, virtuoso touch and brilliant compositional skills have been unleashed on the solo guitar audience.  The 12-string guitar pieces really are the work of a virtuoso. Chuck Johnson’s picking is clean, exact and pure.  Certainly the production work is equally to be credited here, some of these pieces I feel as though Johnson is sitting right in front of me coaxing these amazing compositions from wood and wire.

These are pieces to get lost in, relatively short trips to another place. Fortunately Johnson doesn't needlessly extend the pieces to the point where the listener just ends up lost. "A Slender Thread" is a gorgeous, gorgeous piece that immediately transported me to a sun kissed meadow with shafts of sunlight cutting through the sky. In the middle of the song I checked the title and it made me wonder what wonderful event was just a thread from happening.

Johnson has a real lyrical touch that is displayed in piece after beautiful piece.  Johnson manages to play everything perfectly and yet emotionally as well.  This is such a strong effort that I actually think the last couple cuts are my favorite.  There are so many releases out there that just kind of peter out as the last few songs play.  Not this one.  This is far and away my album of the year so far.

A very small detail I noticed while browsing his bandcamp page was a tag list that included "ackerman," could that be William Ackerman?  I certainly hope so, I love to see Ackerman getting his long overdue proper respect.



The excellent blog Work and Worry interviewed Johnson last summer and I was struck by his very thoughtful and dead-on description of the term "American Primitive."

The aspects of that term that I relate to suggest a practice of making music that liberates the guitar from an accompaniment role, with a decidedly American attitude of making the rules up as you go.

And he goes on, you really ought to read the interview, very good stuff.

I hope you will head over to Strange Attractors Audio House and buy the LP or CD of this release.  And be sure to visit the Bandcamp page for digital sales.  And visit anyway as Johnson is offering a free d/l of "What a friend we have in Jesus/Kensington Blues" that is not on this release.

Visit Chuck Johnson HERE

Beyond Berkeley Guitar

This release is the follow up to the 2006 Tompkins Square release of Berkeley Guitar. This time Sean Smith expands the concept with more guitarists from a wider region geographically as well as musically.

I have to admit that I wasn’t too impressed with this disc the first time I gave it a spin. Or the second or third. But the compositions have grown on me. I suppose that I was taken a bit off-guard by the expansion of styles and Smith notes the danger of such an endeavor. I’m very partial to the Takoma style and I don’t have the background that many of these artists have in electronic music. They are obviously coming from a different place than I am musically. And I’m sure that affects what I hear. To me, the electronic/solo acoustic connection is a mystery.

Anyway, the CD starts off great with the promising young Aaron Sheppard. I found Sheppard on MySpace some time ago and was reminded of him by Mike Fekete recently. They met during Fekete’s latest tour through the area. Sheppard is a guy I will be keeping my eye on and I’m looking forward to a Gnome Life release.

“Dream of a Distant Summer” starts as a quiet piece that builds in intensity until the notes are like the blinding Sun as it shimmers on a rippled pond. Richard Osborn has great chops, but the improvised composition begins to fall apart near the end. Nonetheless I’ve come to enjoy this piece.

Trevor Healy deftly veers the feel back toward Takoma-country with his 12 string work. This one is strong on melody and Healy takes his time. Like I said, merely veering towards Takoma, this isn’t Kottke.

Chuck Johnson completes the return with a very nice Takoma-style performance full of pertinent pauses and nuances that really make this piece work.  Tompkins is offering this as a free mp3 downlod.  "A Struggle, Not A Thought"

Sean Smith checks in with cut #5. As is usual with Smith, he doesn’t disappoint. Modern American Primitive as I have come to expect from Smith. This one lasts eleven plus minutes but you don’t notice it.

Lucas Boilon’s “Studies Of The Oak As Pertaining To Drudic Rites Of Passage” is almost longer in title than the piece itself. However, Boilon’s playing turns out to be a rather compelling performance recorded in his living room.

And wrapping things up is Ava Mendoza. I applaud the intention by Smith but I just don’t see how this piece of music fits into this concept. It’s jazz. Now, before anyone gets bent out of shape that I’m not gushing over Mendoza’s inclusion in this project (as many are) and suggests something foul: I have taken lessons from three very good guitarists over the last few years. Two of them women, specifically: Mary Flower. So don’t even…ok? I just don’t think it fits into the concept, no reflection on her playing or style.

That wraps it. If you are looking for old-school Takoma playing, look elsewhere. If you want to expand your listening and discover some new musicians, look no further.
 
I highly suggest that you pop over to Work and Worry this week. They have scored an interview with each and every one of these artists and will be running one a day all week.