Stout's light soprano sound is as cool, crisp, and multifaceted as a Finger Lakes Reisling. Good Luck Child catches every nuance and range of her voice, from mellow to ringing tones. Her songs are modern, while firmly rooted in the cool urban jazz of the '40s and '50s.
For her first recording, Stout is joined by a range of local musicians, including Charlie Shaw, Johnny Dowd, Dana Paul, and Jan Nigro. Good Luck Child features 12 original compositions, including a musical setting of Emily Dickinson's poetry in "Emily's Muse."
Rarely has the subtlety of Dickinson's poetry been so well musically supported. This modern take on a literary art song leads into the pure country sound of "Blue Blue Water." Stout's lyrics are clear and comprehensible. She has something to say and we can catch every word in these tasteful arrangements. The songs collected here show that Stout is comfortable in her voice, flexible from piece to piece, and yet focused.
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Rat Race
Ever since the end of the 20th century (the days of the Highwoods, the Tompkins County Horse Flies, and the Fat City String Band), Ithaca as been one of the northernmost outreaches of Southern mountain old-time music. Turning the corner on a new century, a new generation of fiddle, bass, banjo, and guitar players are making their mark. Now we have The Rabble Rousers String Band, and they've just released Rat Race, a solid recording of traditional arrangements and original songs.
Bret LeBleu, Steve Selin, Darin Trass, and Jason Zorn perform early 20th-century old-timey songs and original pieces with a heavy dose of rural influence. This is straight-ahead, driving Southern fiddle music. The Rabble Rousers' connection to the old-time lineage is clear from their arrangements of such standards as "Shortenin' Bread" and "Indian War Whoop." Their ability to take that tradition and move within shows in seven original song tunes by Trass and Zorn. Trass, particularly, has a solid and irreverent touch with songs like "Fremont Blues," a slow two-step with the lyric, "I've got the devil on line one, while God waits on hold."
Rat Race has a heavy dose of rural influence, but reaches out to the old-time music lover living in town. These songs bridge the gap from the mountains to the city. The journey is a whole lot of fun.
William Aaron
I'll Pick Sunset Time
I'll Pick Sunset Time is an apt title for a debut CD from keyboard singer William Aaron of Hammondsport, N.Y. This is twilight music, sophisticated in a suburban sort of way. Aaron's piano-based music is romantic "adult soft rock." These songs would be well placed at art openings and winery events.
Aaron says he came of age musically in the late 60s, at a time when "songs were created that became lodged in your memory forever." There is a good-sized dose of middle-aged angst in songs such as "Always Alone" and "The Sinking Man."
"You're So Good for Me" is the slowed down, distilled warmth of the end of an evening. After 11 sensitive songs on the side of new age pop, "Road Trip" lifts you up and makes you want to dance.
I'll Pick Sunset Time features background work from some extraordinary musicians, including Annie Burns, Steve Codner, Scott B. Adams, and Eric Aceto. The mix is a smooth melange of horns, piano, percussion, woodwinds, and strings. There is little in the way of emotional highs, but Aaron's pop/jazz blend is pleasant and easily accessible.
The Zobo Funn Band
Live at the Haunt, 1980
Live at the Haunt: January 28, 1980 starts with the wail of electric guitars, keyboards, and horns - and a welcome mentioning two "final gigs," one at the Strand Theatre. I moved to Ithaca in 1989, amidst the passionate (and futile) effort to "Save Our Strand," and to the legend of the Zobo Funn Band and the ecstatic dancers who would follow them from gig to gig. Nine years after Ithaca's own creative rock/jazz fusion jam band was history, Zobo Dancers were still to be seen swaying and whirling to improvisational music.
Flash forward to the present, and the release of a live recording nearly a quarter century old. Live at the Haunt is not an historical curiosity. The music is as fresh and energetic, as wildly creative and unique as the day it was played.
The six original band members are now flung from coast to coast, leaving only drummer Michael Wellen still in Ithaca. The recording is dedicated to principal songwriter Jeremy Werbin, who passed away in 1997 from complications of diabetes. On Live at the Haunt, Werbin's pieces are the most catchy to this reviewer's ear. There is no way to sit still during "Dancing to the Sauna Bath Suite."
If you were there in 1980, you'll remember the improvisational flights with notes soaring and sweeping like barn swallows, spinning fans into an altered reality. If you missed the Zobo magic, give a listen to this album, a particular Finger Lakes fusion which carries on today.
Profits from sales of this CD will be donated to embryonic stem-cell and diabetes research.
