ELOUISE - DEEP WATER
2016 - Landslide Sound & Broken Bellow Music
I read somewhere that this album should be listened to very loud and through headphones. If you follow that advice don't do so when alone. You will find yourself wondering what that slight movement was out of the corner of your eye and was there also a movement from that shadow under the settee; maybe even removing the phones to check if you had really heard a loud creak over the music? Don't worry though; there's nothing there, it's just that overwhelming spookiness of Elouise ingratiating itself into your sub consciousness and you just know you have to get used to that because you can't help but play this tremendous album over and over again!
I was surprised to read that they have been labeled as a band that has extended the scope of bluegrass, albeit with the generic sub title of 'Blackgrass.' This incredible album seems to me to include very little bluegrass, instead harking back to the far off days of some of the old time hillbillies who produced such a deep, dark powerful, forbiddingly spooky music, such as early Dock Boggs who epitomized that both haunting and haunted sound. Of course there is very little that has ever matched the power of those originals, despite the assistance of modern day recording equipment and techniques, but Elouise certainly come very close to it with their extending of that dark spookiness.
This talented musical collective consists of Elouise Walker on vocals, bandoneon and button accordion, John Chamberlin plays six string banjo, drums, electric and acoustic guitars, marxophone, slide guitar, Richard Dembowski, harmonium, six string banjo, electric bass, guitar, vocals, piano, electric guitar, harmonica, Michelle Beauchesne on cello and William Bongiovanni plays double bass. Other musician friends were drafted in to play brass, mandolin and steel guitar, whilst the recording was produced by Elouise Walker and John Chamberlin. From the considerable list of instruments above potential listeners can be forgiven for thinking the recording is drenched in a variety of instrumental sounds but the fact is this is an incredibly sparse album with instruments used to add colour and atmosphere rather than to drown these varied songs! The tempos range from funereally slow to a very sedate mid tempo and yet within that narrow area there is tremendous variety, nothing upbeat or up tempo but still varied and beautiful, despite the pervasive darkness.
This incredible album takes deep dark old time hillbilly, gospel and blues (race music) to a depth of sinister unearthliness that has not been heard or even imagined for many decades and yet running counter to that it is also a recording of dark beauty. A case in point is album opener, I'll fly away, a gospel song written originally the best part of a hundred years ago by Albert Brumley, although he probably wouldn't have recognized this version but would undoubtedly have appreciated it. An ages old sounding dark spooky acoustic 'blues' guitar gets things going before Elouise's equally spooky vocal comes in, soon joined by cello, violin and thudding percussion on what in many ways has the feel of a deep dark blues that echoes the eerie atmosphere of old timers such as Dock Boggs. The song, without ever taking off, gradually builds and deepens the dark atmosphere; in fact it is a song on which the atmosphere takes precedence over the lyrics despite the excellent vocals. On the Elouise Walker penned title track, Deep water, the harmonium provides the introduction accompanied by the cello on an incredibly deep, dark spooky song before being joined by a gently chiming guitar and bass with the violin eventually adding to the mix. Elouise's feminine but character laden deep bluesy vocal adds to the scary atmosphere that evokes the old 'flood' songs that were written and performed by artists such as Charlie Patton when singing about the great Mississippi floods of the early 20th century. It is a hugely atmospheric and intensely spooky tale that manages to catch the intensity of the flood songs of all those decades ago without ever having to go fast or use a heavy instrumentation. Saturn bar gets off to a spooky New Orleans 'funeral' start with the brass echoing a street procession, joined by a clanking acoustic guitar and banjo, thudding bass and percussion and Elouise's spooky doom laden vocal that will make any listener think this is not a lady to mess with, or even meet! The band manages to create a spookily sinister and intense atmosphere that I wouldn't have thought possible in this day and age on a song written by Elouise Walker and Richard Dembowski. A chiming guitar is at forefront of Hurricane with the mournful cello, bass and percussion gradually creeping up and almost, but not quite, overwhelming the guitar, with Elouise's treated vocal enhancing the dark, but melodic, gloom. The percussion gradually dominates as the song slowly builds in depth and dramatic intensity with the cello intervening at times just to darken things more! The song slowly but dramatically builds in intensity and spookiness until eventually just cutting off on another tremendous tale, this one written by Elouise Walker and John Chamberlin. The lovely gentle acoustic and steel guitar sound on Richard Dembowski's I'll be good to you is a shock after the intensity that preceded it and with Richards warm melodic lead vocal on another beauty of a song adds a little lightness to the album. The 'gentility' of this seemingly mellow country song is not false and there isn't darkness around the corner, just plain and simply an excellent song beautifully played and sung that alleviates the darkness that has led us to this point. Final mention on an album of twelve songs and one instrumental that are all worthy of mention goes to Elouise Walkers' East Jesus with the banjo accompaniment for Elouise's treated vocal eventually joined by bass, percussion and cello on another song that if stripped down to its bare essentials, banjo and voice, would in all probability qualify as a deep rural blues. The song and indeed the whole album has much of that feel in it but this takes blues to a hitherto unexplored area of music. It is rare that any album can have maintained the level of dark spookiness that this extraordinarily talented collective create without actually caricaturing the genre but this band most certainly manage it.
This is without doubt one of the highlights of the year for me. I've mentioned just a few of the songs above but there is so much that has great originality and uniqueness that despite the ridiculous length of this review I could go on for even more pages, but don't worry, I won't! Suffice to say that you have never before heard a recording of Amazing grace that even gets close to Elouise's version and as for Silent night ..........! Buy a copy of the album and listen through headphones on a dark gloomy winter night when you're on your own if you must, but if you listen in bright daylight when you have company the dark atmosphere will still wrap itself around you, but despite the darkness there are oasis of light and a huge amount of great musical beauty, harsh beauty though it may be on occasions.
http://www.elouisemusic.com/
I read somewhere that this album should be listened to very loud and through headphones. If you follow that advice don't do so when alone. You will find yourself wondering what that slight movement was out of the corner of your eye and was there also a movement from that shadow under the settee; maybe even removing the phones to check if you had really heard a loud creak over the music? Don't worry though; there's nothing there, it's just that overwhelming spookiness of Elouise ingratiating itself into your sub consciousness and you just know you have to get used to that because you can't help but play this tremendous album over and over again!
I was surprised to read that they have been labeled as a band that has extended the scope of bluegrass, albeit with the generic sub title of 'Blackgrass.' This incredible album seems to me to include very little bluegrass, instead harking back to the far off days of some of the old time hillbillies who produced such a deep, dark powerful, forbiddingly spooky music, such as early Dock Boggs who epitomized that both haunting and haunted sound. Of course there is very little that has ever matched the power of those originals, despite the assistance of modern day recording equipment and techniques, but Elouise certainly come very close to it with their extending of that dark spookiness.
This talented musical collective consists of Elouise Walker on vocals, bandoneon and button accordion, John Chamberlin plays six string banjo, drums, electric and acoustic guitars, marxophone, slide guitar, Richard Dembowski, harmonium, six string banjo, electric bass, guitar, vocals, piano, electric guitar, harmonica, Michelle Beauchesne on cello and William Bongiovanni plays double bass. Other musician friends were drafted in to play brass, mandolin and steel guitar, whilst the recording was produced by Elouise Walker and John Chamberlin. From the considerable list of instruments above potential listeners can be forgiven for thinking the recording is drenched in a variety of instrumental sounds but the fact is this is an incredibly sparse album with instruments used to add colour and atmosphere rather than to drown these varied songs! The tempos range from funereally slow to a very sedate mid tempo and yet within that narrow area there is tremendous variety, nothing upbeat or up tempo but still varied and beautiful, despite the pervasive darkness.
This incredible album takes deep dark old time hillbilly, gospel and blues (race music) to a depth of sinister unearthliness that has not been heard or even imagined for many decades and yet running counter to that it is also a recording of dark beauty. A case in point is album opener, I'll fly away, a gospel song written originally the best part of a hundred years ago by Albert Brumley, although he probably wouldn't have recognized this version but would undoubtedly have appreciated it. An ages old sounding dark spooky acoustic 'blues' guitar gets things going before Elouise's equally spooky vocal comes in, soon joined by cello, violin and thudding percussion on what in many ways has the feel of a deep dark blues that echoes the eerie atmosphere of old timers such as Dock Boggs. The song, without ever taking off, gradually builds and deepens the dark atmosphere; in fact it is a song on which the atmosphere takes precedence over the lyrics despite the excellent vocals. On the Elouise Walker penned title track, Deep water, the harmonium provides the introduction accompanied by the cello on an incredibly deep, dark spooky song before being joined by a gently chiming guitar and bass with the violin eventually adding to the mix. Elouise's feminine but character laden deep bluesy vocal adds to the scary atmosphere that evokes the old 'flood' songs that were written and performed by artists such as Charlie Patton when singing about the great Mississippi floods of the early 20th century. It is a hugely atmospheric and intensely spooky tale that manages to catch the intensity of the flood songs of all those decades ago without ever having to go fast or use a heavy instrumentation. Saturn bar gets off to a spooky New Orleans 'funeral' start with the brass echoing a street procession, joined by a clanking acoustic guitar and banjo, thudding bass and percussion and Elouise's spooky doom laden vocal that will make any listener think this is not a lady to mess with, or even meet! The band manages to create a spookily sinister and intense atmosphere that I wouldn't have thought possible in this day and age on a song written by Elouise Walker and Richard Dembowski. A chiming guitar is at forefront of Hurricane with the mournful cello, bass and percussion gradually creeping up and almost, but not quite, overwhelming the guitar, with Elouise's treated vocal enhancing the dark, but melodic, gloom. The percussion gradually dominates as the song slowly builds in depth and dramatic intensity with the cello intervening at times just to darken things more! The song slowly but dramatically builds in intensity and spookiness until eventually just cutting off on another tremendous tale, this one written by Elouise Walker and John Chamberlin. The lovely gentle acoustic and steel guitar sound on Richard Dembowski's I'll be good to you is a shock after the intensity that preceded it and with Richards warm melodic lead vocal on another beauty of a song adds a little lightness to the album. The 'gentility' of this seemingly mellow country song is not false and there isn't darkness around the corner, just plain and simply an excellent song beautifully played and sung that alleviates the darkness that has led us to this point. Final mention on an album of twelve songs and one instrumental that are all worthy of mention goes to Elouise Walkers' East Jesus with the banjo accompaniment for Elouise's treated vocal eventually joined by bass, percussion and cello on another song that if stripped down to its bare essentials, banjo and voice, would in all probability qualify as a deep rural blues. The song and indeed the whole album has much of that feel in it but this takes blues to a hitherto unexplored area of music. It is rare that any album can have maintained the level of dark spookiness that this extraordinarily talented collective create without actually caricaturing the genre but this band most certainly manage it.
This is without doubt one of the highlights of the year for me. I've mentioned just a few of the songs above but there is so much that has great originality and uniqueness that despite the ridiculous length of this review I could go on for even more pages, but don't worry, I won't! Suffice to say that you have never before heard a recording of Amazing grace that even gets close to Elouise's version and as for Silent night ..........! Buy a copy of the album and listen through headphones on a dark gloomy winter night when you're on your own if you must, but if you listen in bright daylight when you have company the dark atmosphere will still wrap itself around you, but despite the darkness there are oasis of light and a huge amount of great musical beauty, harsh beauty though it may be on occasions.
http://www.elouisemusic.com/