Boney Earnest's Suburban Hilltop Tent Revue

Tuesday, June 13, 2006 ... 9:38 AM

Good news for autumn listening: According to Katie Hasty over at Billboard, Nina Nastasia's new record will fall into American stores on September 12.

This summer I'm listening to Trailer Bride, Honeyboy Edwards, John Hartford, Sam & Dave, Neko Case (yeah, still -- it just gets deeper), and the new Tim Easton record, which fizzles on its political attacks, but successfully emanates the same swollen July feeling as the smell of hot car vinyl. That's good. It's carefully and subtly textured, and builds slow as a storm. His closing off-the-cuff reading of the Doc Watson arrangement of "Sitting On Top of the World" captures Easton's spooky buzzing tension as well as any of his recordings. Tim's in town tomorrow night with Joe Rathbone, and you bet Betsy and I will attend. Can I corner him for a Tent Revue exclusive chat? Probably not, but I'll give it shot.

Meanwhile, I fell into a little bit of cash last month, so I've dived into conspicuous consumption, bringing home a 24-inch calfskin-head Ludwig bass drum from, apparently, the 1930s; a 1961 Silvertone tube amplifier; a musical saw kit; and my very own Telecaster guitar with a Bigsby vibrato. Now I have only to learn how to play these things, in addition to the lap steel, banjo, resophonic guitar, and acoustic bass I already own. I ought to borrow a flat-bed truck and lug it all down to the crossroads some night, so I have more time for weblogging.

I'll have been on the web for two years in July. As on any roadtrip, I run out of things to say for long stretches and just sit and listen to the music. Thanks to everyone who's still clicking on the bookmark after all these months.

Brendan

2 Comments:

Congratulations on your new musical saw! Which one did you get?

For a bit of saw inspiration I recommend www.MySpace.com/SawLady

Best,

Michelle

By Anonymous, at 6/14/2006 9:17 PM

After some looking around, I bought the full probably too-expensive kit from musical-saw.com. I've been messing with it the last few weeks but haven't tried to bow a real melody yet. Man, it's such a hair-raising sound, no matter what you do with it.

I heard the Saw Lady on Prairie Home Companion a few years ago, playing Ave Maria, which was I think the first time I became conscious of the instrument. The saw comes up in a lot of music I love, so I might one day get around to writing a long post about it.

By Brendan, at 6/15/2006 1:13 PM