Funk Plus One

March 10, 2018 10:09 PM

Join Chris Funk of the Decemberists as he tours the country with us looking for the newest sounds of American music. • Keeping Hawaii’s Slack Key Guitar Music Alive • Portland’s Godfather of Soul • A Rock Star’s Unlikely Renaissance • The Lost Art of Playing Glass • A Master of Forgotten Music • Enchanting the Internet With Funk and a Fiddle
posted by MovableBookLady (8 comments total)

Worth the visit for the slack key alone. Back to see the rest now. Thanks!
posted by cccorlew at 11:08 PM on March 10, 2018

I used to work with a guy who had built himself a glass armonica, out of estate sale glassware and PVC pipe and a frame. The whole thing fit in a road case, and he was getting gigs around town. Despite the fact that leaded glass is not really a thing anymore, he said that he had someone come up to him after almost every show and seriously ask, you know this thing is killing you, don't you?
posted by thelonius at 1:04 AM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Slack key is pretty sweet. Here's some from Ledward Kaapana.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:20 AM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

George Winston, one of the leading proponents of New Age music of the 1980s-2000s, (he calls it "folk piano") was strongly influenced by slack key and has published many albums by slack key musicians. His webpage is a good introduction.
posted by blob at 7:15 AM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Great find.

I was really liking Gaelynn Lea's take on "Red Haired Boy" at 3:28 in the Funk Plus One video, so I went looking for more of her stuff. Here's another version of it on her her Youtube channel, and here's a seriously cool version of "Swallowtail Jig."

Thank you for posting this - I'm glad I found her music!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:54 AM on March 11, 2018

Also, today was not the day I was expecting to learn interesting things about Kip Winger, but here we are.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:11 AM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

interesting things about Kip Winger

That's funny, I was telling someone about that the other day (the connection being, I was telling them about going to see The Dixie Dregs reunion tour; the drummer played in Winger)
posted by thelonius at 11:27 AM on March 11, 2018

Jerron Paxton looks like he's having more fun than humanly possible. This is good.

The glass one is neat, but it did spend a bit too much time on the 'armonica while all the interesting noises came from the Cristal Baschet. If you can track down early recordings from Lasry-Baschet you're rewarded with a mix of delicate classical and folk pieces mixed with experimental high weirdness, including some faintly creepy sounds that may just be familiar to folks who suffered through UK schools television.
posted by scruss at 12:13 PM on March 11, 2018 [2 favorites]