review of Dave Carter's & Tracy Grammer's CD "Drum Hat Buddha"
Kevin McCarthy
Buddha".
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A Review of the CD
"Drum Hat Buddha"
by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
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"Drum Hat Buddha"
by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
copyright 2001
Signature Sounds Recordings - SIG 1266
P.O. Box 106
Whately, MA 01093
ph: (800) 694-5354
http://www.signature-sounds.com and
mailto:in...@signature-sounds.com
Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
P.O. Box 13766
Portland, OR 97213
http://www.daveandtracy.com and
mailto:da...@daveandtracy.com or mailto:tr...@daveandtracy.com
This review is written by Kevin McCarthy, 5/01
mailto:celti...@surfnetusa.com
"Kevin's Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews"
http://www.surfnetusa.com/celtic-folk/index.html
First run through: intriguing, maybe a little different. Second go
around:
a delectable, multi-layered release, glowing with power, beauty, insight
and subtlety. The experience to be had: climb aboard and travel familiar
territory with Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, but look for previously
undiscovered passageways. For Carter and Grammer releases are change
agents
for those willing to journey baggageless. The end result is an altered
vision, seeing the old and the new in a deeper and more appreciative
manner.
Carter's songwriting is, as always, superlative. It's as if he doesn't
actually compose but instead takes a form of dictation, in tune with
messages revealed to him through some sort of unique cosmic
consciousness.
Like the great marble sculptors of the past, the final product already
exists--Carter's greatness is his ability to provide nuance and shading
while releasing these gifts from their mortal trappings.
What about those aforementioned differences? Drum and percussion are
more
prominent than in the past, and Grammer also provides a number of
scintillating violin solos and flourishes. The singing is equally
divided
with each artist featured on six cuts.
"Ordinary Man" opens the release. Songs about cookie cutter lives,
fitting
into molds and accepting conventional roles are not new. But the
difference
is when Carter writes and Grammer sings:
"...'go home, go home,' the mayor cried when Jesus came to city
hall, 'cause
this is an ordinary town and the prophet stands alone
this is an ordinary town and we crucify our own
and every highway leads you prodigal again
to the ordinary houses you were brought up in..."
In "Disappearing Man," Carter so delicately and uniquely describes a
couple's divergent feelings as, again, Grammer sings:
"...in the dark, in the dawn, with your wedding dress in tatters
you reveal the yearning desert in the country of your skin
how you ache for the fawn and he says it doesn't matter
but it does, and he's gone, and you know that he won't be back
again..."
Grammer sings of the attraction of differences in "236-6132":
"...'cause he feints and fades from view like a fighter ducks a
glove
though I play the highway kind and he the china dancer
If I was afraid to break and bleed
I would find someone much easier to need..."
"I Go Like the Raven," with a Grammer-led violin rhythm that would get a
corpse a twitchin', precedes "Highway 80," the usual nod to road songs
included on all Carter-Grammer releases.
"The Gentle Arms of Eden" and "Merlin's Lament" both feature lyrics that
will elicit tears. Sweetly yet cannily depicting evolution, Carter's
mantra-like chorus in "The Gentle Arms of Eden," goes:
"...This is my home, this is my only home
this is the only sacred ground that I have ever known
and should I stray in the dark night alone
rock me goddess in the gentle arms of Eden..."
In "Merlin's Lament," Carter sings:
"...and joy my love was a dancin' spring, and life from the touch
of her lips
and a brook ran mad to my cave downstream from the miracle hills
of her hips
she will not come back, she will not come back,
though the stars hang their tears in the trees
and tireless Orion lies spent in his tracks
she will not come back, she will not come back
she will not come back to me, she will not come back to me"
As with "Farewell to Bitterroot Valley," the last cut on their 2000
release
"Tanglewood Tree," Grammer closes with a soft, soulful offering, "Gentle
Soldier of My Soul." A perfect landing indeed.
How do you top "Tanglewood Tree," the most-played folk release of 2000?
Drum Hat Buddha.
Carter, on vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonium, mandolin and organ; and
Grammer, on vocals, violin, mandolin, guitar and percussion, are backed
by
Lorne Entress on drums and percussion; Donny Wright on electric and
acoustic bass; Eric Park on accordion; Billy Oskay on violin and
harmonium;
Nancy Ives on cello; Tim Darby on slide resonator guitar and Claire Bard
on
backing vocals.
Track List:
* Ordinary Town (2:48)
* Tillman Co. (3:25)
* Disappearing Man (3:48)
* The Power and Glory (2:43)
* 236-6132 (3:01)
* 41 Thunderer (5:00)
* Gentle Arms of Eden (3:02)
* I Go Like the Raven (3:34)
* Highway 80 (2:20)
* Love, the Magician (4:15)
* Merlin's Lament (3:32)
* Gentle Soldier of My Soul (3:26)
All songs written by Dave Carter.
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================================================
Kevin McCarthy
mailto:celti...@surfnetusa.com
Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews
http://www.surfnetusa.com/celtic-folk/index.html