Saturday, February 22, 2020

Transcendental Rn'B

Mac Gayden wrote Everlasting Love, which is a strange song. It kicks off normally enough, with a verse leading into the chorus, but then there's a short bridge or middle eight or whatever, and the chorus gets sung again, and the verse effectively disappears, sketched in as backing vox to a relatively long instrumental fade. One verse, couple of choruses, and a big thumping hit down four decades.

Gayden is a curious Nashville cat, his music a mix of Rn'B, country, and hippie mysticism. The suite-like feel of his extended songs owes something, perhaps, to prog. He blamed country music for forcing black musicians off the streets of Nashville, "which used to be an Rn'B river town", a point of view you don't see expressed too often.
That's him playing slide on JJ Cale's Crazy Mama, and the list of sessions he didn't play on is probably shorter than the one of those he did, often using his unique wah-slide technique.

The shortness of the shrift he gets on Allmusic reflects the fact that his participation in Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry is better known than his solo output, which is blister-packed for your convenience here.

The recent-ish Nirvana Blues is something of a disappointment, lacking the experimental freedom that lifted those first three albums into the extraordinary.
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18 comments:

  1. Dave HeasmanFebruary 22, 2020 at 2:37 AM

    Morning Glory - great record; the LP - Skyboat - was a disappointment though.

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  2. MrDaveFebruary 22, 2020 at 2:42 AM

    color me intrigued (that's a shade between subdued mauve and iridescent fuchsia)

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  3. One Buck GuyFebruary 22, 2020 at 2:44 AM

    What he said...

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  4. apaulingFebruary 22, 2020 at 5:14 AM

    Okay Farq, what's it gonna take to get da link? Do I need to send a couple of my friends over or what?

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  5. UnknownFebruary 22, 2020 at 6:22 AM

    For the love of Myra,put up the link already.

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  6. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIFebruary 22, 2020 at 6:36 AM

    I've been a little preoccupied - the cops are swarming over the joint, the pool's taped off as a crime scene, and if I told them I was sleepin' in my den once, I told them a thousand times.

    Here's ya link. I may need to call on youse guys for my alibi.

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  7. FiveGunsWestFebruary 22, 2020 at 10:16 AM

    The goods are safe and out of state

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  8. BillyMacFebruary 22, 2020 at 11:20 AM

    Thanks for introducing me to this guy. And that cute Myra yesterday. Freud and Jung are trying to unimbue the image out of my head. $395 an hour.

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  9. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2020 at 12:01 PM

    Myra heavens to ..............aiii chi blammo....................splat

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  10. One Buck GuyFebruary 23, 2020 at 5:37 PM

    Three songs in of the first album, this sounds great. Speaking of the disrespect of Allmusic, what the fuck is up with the no review, two-star rating of that first album? Thanks for discovering another little treasure...

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    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIFebruary 23, 2020 at 6:07 PM

      I love this guy. Totally individual, owes nothing to nobody, doesn't follow any trend. There's a beautiful piece on Hymn To The Seeker where it's just him on banjo weaving around someone on (what sounds like) clarinet, an improvisation that sounds almost Eastern. He makes the banjo sound weird and otherworldly and beautiful in a way nobody else has. That kind of thing is in the soul, not the fingers. His insistence on doing what he pleases reminds me of Shawn Phillips (Foam-Featured antecedently - another hippie mystic.

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    2. BambiFebruary 23, 2020 at 8:14 PM

      Thank you for these Farquhar. It's a rainy Sunday afternoon in the UK, somehow these tracks still sound wonderful. I've had Skyboat on Vinyl for 30 years, but didn't know there was an earlier album, 1st album is great - playing it now at volume while my neighbor is away for the day.

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  11. geriatrixFebruary 23, 2020 at 9:04 PM

    Right, OK I know you chaps aren't real, that's Farq and Myra. For sure one of you is a 'bot and the other is something else. But regardless, thanks for this one. Never heard of the guy, and it's enchanting. And I feel real stupid talking to a 'bot like this.

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  12. BambiFebruary 23, 2020 at 9:33 PM

    Hey Geriatrix, bet you never got to meet Cody in Th' House O' Foam©, now she was 'something', I miss her - the way she danced around the swimming pool in the sun whenever a funky flute or sax player turned up. Damn it! this long wet winter in the UK is getting to me.

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  13. geriatrixFebruary 23, 2020 at 11:15 PM

    Bambi - OMG another 'bot. Never met Cody, but I do believe that Myrna knotted her pool outfit.

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  14. One Buck GuyFebruary 24, 2020 at 12:31 AM

    "There's a beautiful piece on Hymn To The Seeker where it's just him on banjo weaving around someone on (what sounds like) clarinet, an improvisation that sounds almost Eastern. He makes the banjo sound weird and otherworldly and beautiful in a way nobody else has. That kind of thing is in the soul, not the fingers. His insistence on doing what he pleases reminds me of Shawn Phillips (Foam-Featured antecedently - another hippie mystic."

    Yeah, "To Our Ancestors", which is him and a guy named Mike Miller who co-wrote much of the album with him, apparently. That is a really interesting track, it sounds almost mediaeval and, as you said, slightly oriental. It's also amazing that that track sounds nothing like the songs around it. (It also reminded me a bit of some Dead Can Dance stuff)

    I admit, I'm one for coherent mood so I just finished a disc of all of his country'n'mysticism tracks and I'll make another of his r'n'b material. But it did show that he gave no fucks about whether an audience will want to follow.

    Have some Shawn Phillips on the computer for years but haven't found the time to really immerse myself in that stuff. Will rectify this as soon as possible.

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  15. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIFebruary 24, 2020 at 7:38 AM

    One of the more unexpected Gayden contributions was to Pearls Before Swine - he's all over their albums.

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  16. One Buck GuyFebruary 25, 2020 at 4:42 AM

    So Mac Guyden makes an album that rivals Gene Clark's "No Other" and Michael Nesmith's "Tantamount To Treason" cosmic Americana.

    How come the guy who coined the term "Cosmic American Music", a certain Ingram Cecil Connors III, did so little of it, instead wanting to be the second coming of George Jones?

    And how come that every producer involved in these records is seemingly contractually obliged to call it "my own 'Sergeant Pepper's'..."?

    Anyhoo, fantastic record. I'm a little less hot on some of the other stuff 'cause I'm not a huge fan of the sometimes intrusive orchestration, though there are a number of gems on all of them (well, not the "Nirvana Blues" one…)

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