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Dave Alvin | Public Domain: Songs From The Wild Land

CD, Hightone/Sonic Rendezvous

Tekst: Alex Tobin

Publicatiedatum: 15 januari 2001

"Most of the songs on this CD I found collecting old records with my brother Phil when we were barely in our teens. We searched thrift stores and junk stores, attics and swap meets to find old blues, r&b or country 78s and 45s, or any long out of print reissue album on obscure labels. We were just looking for something that excited us more than the bulk of what was on radio. Little did we know that we were discovering America's folk music."
Step right up, step right up... Former Blaster Dave Alvin is about to take you, the listener, on a trip deep into the American consciousness. Folk ballads, blues laments, gospel spirituals, and mountain music - They're all here on 'Public Domain', a collection of 15 songs (plus the obligatory hidden track) unlikely to be bettered anytime soon.
"Public Domain" means that the songs aren't subject to copyright laws, are no longer the property of the original writer (in cases where the writer is even known). Alvin: "They belong to nobody. They belong to all of us." And indeed the tracks here are often well-known chestnuts, deeply ingrained into the American psyche and softly swaying signposts alongside the collective human highway.
'Shenandoah', opening the record, lets the listener know that this is going to be quite a rewarding journey. Sounding simply timeless and wondrously beautiful, 'Public Domain' offers up gems such as 'What Did the Deep Sea Say', a rollicking song, supposedly sung by Cisco Houston and Woody Guthrie when they'd been drinking a little too much, 'Delia' (An alternate version is better known as 'Delia's Gone', as performed by Johnny Cash on his 'American Recordings' album), and 'Walk Right In', a swaggering yee-haw good time raunch for all. Backed by his usual road band the Guilty Men, along with a few guests (among them the multi-talented Greg Leisz), the musicianship and sound on this album is simply fantastic. Guitars, mandolin, piano,organ, accordion, harmonium, harmonica, and fiddle all brew up a heady melange of pure joy and sophistication. According to Dave Alvin, "our folk songs live in the wild land of our heart." If that's true, then 'Public Domain' is riding down the coronary bypass straight to the soul.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/dave-alvin/public-domain-songs-from-the-wild-land/81/
Meer Dave Alvin op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/dave-alvin