In this issue: The Arctic Splendor of Hedningarna's "Karelia Visa" and "The King's Record Collection: The Original Versions of Songs Later Recorded by Elvis Presley," volume one
I got a great deal of positive feedback regarding Issue #1. Thank you to all concerned. Now I'm going to leave the straight and narrow of classical music behind in favor of the twisting paths and unexpected vistas of world music and rock 'n' roll! Be on the lookout for our next issue, in which we will take on the crystalline perfection of Bach's Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord and the Drama and Delight of Iran's Kurdish musical family, the Kamkars.
HEDNINGARNA, KARELIA VISA, Northside Records
"World music" is a compromise term used to label what is in fact the bulk of the music made by human beings. It is a definition by negatives. It means "everything but mainstream western music, i.e. classical, rock, country and jazz." British reviewers include American blues, gospel and Cajun music under the rubric of world music, which, when I saw it for the first time, made me feel "foreign."
When once asked to give a pithy definition of world music, I replied, "World music is the folk music of other folks." This is not accurate, since much of "world music," especially from the middle and far east, is actually classical music, i.e. "art music," and not the kind of popular, traditional and relatively unreflective music that should be labeled "folk." Furthermore, an increasingly large percentage portion of world music is really westernized pop music that draws upon non-western traditions, e.g. all the North African performers who put the honorific "Cheb" (which means "kid") before their name. Still my definition does capture something of what makes world music interesting: it is "other," and it is closer to its roots in tradition than most western music.
For my purposes I divide world music into three broad and rough categories: traditional, which means, played straight; arty, which means, elaborated upon, fused judiciously with elements not from the tradition; and worldbeat, which is the kind of New Age-y stuff like Deep Forest which is so swirled with other things and made palatable to the general western listener that it's often no more than a form of smooth jazz. Some whole traditions have been bastardized to the point where they are today almost nothing but worldbeat, e.g. contemporary flamenco. I stick pretty much to the arty band of the spectrum, music that is still deeply rooted a tradition but isn't afraid to go beyond it in an appropriate manner.
One of the centers of arty world music today is Scandinavia. All sorts of young groups have sprung up in the last 15 years or so that have recovered the old folk tunes and learned to play the old folk instruments - with a twist. Finland has given us the string band, JPP and the helium-voiced singers, Varttina. Norway has given us guitarist and master arranger Knut Reiersrud and fiddler Annbjorg Lien. Sweden has given us the darkly intense string trio Vasen and the gothic band Garmarna.
The band Hedningarna represents a collaboration of Swedes (the male instrumentalists) and Finns (the female singers). "Hedningarna" means "heathens," and this is no mere conceit. There's always something primally pre-Christian about their music. "Karelia Visa" is the band's fifth album (sixth if you count the compilation of their first three albums for American release, "Fire"). Karelia is the area where Finland and Russia meet. A big chunk of Karelia was grabbed from Finland by the Russians after WWII; this is the area that our musicians visited with their visas. While there, they found that the Finnish heritage had survived, and they returned with a collection of archaic "runosongs," which they both play and play with.
Hedningarna makes music that is eerie, tribal and strong. The women usually sing in unison or close harmony with no vibrato. They sound a bit like the Bulgarian women singers who were such a hit a few years ago, but much less shrill. Perhaps the best comparison for the general listener would be to American Indian singing. The two Finns sound as if they are chanting, even when they are singing, although they lack the smoky, muffled quality of American Indian chants. They sound strident while remaining ever feminine.
One of the best things about exploring world music is learning about the instruments. The three Swedes play an amazing variety of fiddles, harps, lutes, bagpipes, mandolins, etc. Among my favorite instruments, used by other Scandinavian groups too, is the keyed fiddle, or nycklaharpa. The keyed fiddle looks like a mutant viola. It is played with a bow, but held in front of the chest by strap, like a guitar. Instead of stopping the strings with the fingers like a violin, the strings are stopped by means of long keys that hang below the neck. (BTW, a violin and a fiddle are the same material object, except for the bow.) In addition there are "drone" strings that remain open and which constantly sound the same note. The overall effect is like crossing a fiddle with a bagpipe.
Hedningarna takes their ancient songs and instruments and then add a few surprises: things like the tambourine, which has no business in traditional Scandinavian music and the Australian didgeridoo (a hollowed out log that one sounds like a trumpet and which makes a low, unearthly noise). They use sound samples, although less noticeably here than on their earlier albums, and they are not afraid of amplification and other "unnatural" acoustics. Hearing Hedningarna is like walking into an icy cave and stumbling upon a worship service for the Norse gods. In fact, one of the songs is about a Norse god.
This music is not for everyone, needless to say. Fortunately, for a limited time, "Karelia Visa" is on listening stations at Borders, so you can hear as much as you want before buying. You can also download Real Audio samples from here.
BTW, while you're at Borders, check out Virginia Rodrigues' debut album of Brazilian songs "Sol Negro" and Emma Shapplin's collection of classical arias and hymns - with added percussion and synthesizers - "Carmine Meo."
Various Artists, THE KING'S RECORD COLLECTION: THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS OF SONGS LATER RECORDED BY ELVIS PRESLEY, volume one, Hip-O Records.
We're all of us so deluged by various forms and off-shoots of rock 'n' roll all of the time, that it easy to lose track of how new and vital the genre once was. That is why I constantly go back to the founders of rock 'n' roll for regeneration: Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddly and of course the King himself, Elvis Presley.
These creative talents did not invent their music out of thin air, each of them represents a unique fusion of earlier forms. And none of them drew on a wider set of influences than Presley. If you want a true perspective on early rock - and thus on the music that surrounds us today - you need to dig into these influences. Men like Professor Longhair, Louis Jordan and Tennessee Ernie Ford, to name a few who are not on this album.
Elvis Presley could not read music or play an instrument (except, crudely, the guitar). His synthesis was based on what he heard and involved very little theory or even experimentation before live audiences. He took his own sense of life, his magnificent voice (and if you doubt that Presley had a great voice, listen to "It's Now or Never"), his energy and his showmanship and fused things that no one would have thought could go together.
Things like Bill Monroe's hillbilly country number "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and journeyman bluesman Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right." Things like the jazzy, bluesy boogie-woogie of Little Junior Parker's "Mystery Train" and Carl Perkins' rockabilly classic "Blue Suede Shoes." (Yes, these are on the album!) Out of this cauldron emerged the form we know as rock 'n' roll.
You will probably be familiar with three or four of Elvis' version of these songs - more, if you're of a certain age and background: for example, The Drifters' "Money, Honey" and Lloyd Price's "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy." An album of Presley's earliest work at Sam Phillips' Memphis studio, called "The Sun Sessions," contains half of Elvis' versions on one CD.
One song that everyone knows Elvis' version of is Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog." "Hound Dog" is one of the handful of songs on this album which are, in this humble reviewer's opinion, clearly better in the original version than in Elvis'. For one thing, Big Mama is singing to a man, not a Basset Hound, and she's telling him to pack his bags and get the hell out: "You can wag your tail, but I ain't gonna feed you no more." Big Mama is a big-voiced woman backed up by a crack band led by Johnny Otis, playing the drums as if they were tom-toms. It was writing-and-production team Lieber and Stoller's first hit, reaching #1 on the R&B charts and #7 on the pop. Apparently inspired by a parody version he heard in Las Vegas, Elvis took this powerful, bluesy number and sped it up to the point of idiocy. It becomes a teenager's chanted foolishness. Oh, well, it's still fun.
"Hound Dog" is symptomatic of a couple things that are not quite authentic about "The King's Record Collection." For one thing, it's not clear that Elvis had heard a copy of Big Mama's original before recording his version of the song. Nor did he base his version of "Good Rockin' Tonight" on the version performed by Wynonie Harris that appears on the album. It's clear from variations in the lyrics that Presley used Roy Brown's original version. (Harris' version is better than Brown's, though.) Furthermore, Elvis' version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" is based not just on the original by Big Joe Turner, but on the more popular cover by Bill Haley. In this case, since it would have been impractical to include both versions, I suppose it was up to the producers' discretion which they used, and Big Joe's version is not to be missed. Perhaps these are quibbles, but I believe in truth in labeling.
There are a total of 14 tracks on this 40 minute album, so make sure you don't overpay. The recording quality varies quite a bit, since the average age of these recordings is close to 50 years, but I find that every song on the album is tolerable on the headphones. If you are interested in the history of American popular music and don't already have this stuff in your collection, I can't recommend this album too highly.
CDNow sound samples are available here.
See you next time!