TUI - PRETTYLITTLE MISTER
2019 - Self released
Versatility doesn't even begin to describe the talents of Jake Blount and Libby Weitnauer, the duo who formed Tui in 2018. Jake is a multi-instrumentalist, playing banjo, fiddle and vocals, and a guest lecturer in music history as well as having played with Tatiana Hargreaves and the hugely talented 'up and coming' Moose Whisperers. Libby has several degrees in classical violin, possesses a gorgeous, hugely evocative voice and is as fine a 'fiddle' player as anyone could wish to hear. Both have absorbed a variety of influences from numerous genres and artists and have used those influences to bring an incredible freshness, vitality and originality to 'old time' music
Like Jake and Libby those other like minded artists they've worked with treat experimentation with old time music as part of their musical makeup, not to such a degree that the songs are far removed from the originals but simply in a modern updating that whilst bringing a lovely freshness to the songs, does follow the tradition. It would be nice to think that having absorbed many influences and worked with a variety of people Tui will now be a going concern who will build a catalogue of sublime recordings starting with this stunner of an album!
It seems strange that such a highly trained and disciplined young couple are able to play with such freedom and abandon on these old songs and fiddle tunes, to such a degree that it is one of very few modern day albums that could have been recorded many decades ago but cleaned up with modern technology. It is not only their skill that is on show here but the depths to which they have immersed themselves in this music, creating a recording that stands in a very limited company as a classic recording of old songs, but one in which there is no suppression of modernity; it's just that they have a natural affinity with the music that cannot be faked, creating a recording that can genuinely be said to be timeless.
There are six instrumentals on which Jake and Libby are able to show their skills, fire and passion with occasional percussion adding a little colour. On the seven vocal tracks Jake takes four leads and Libby three with both more than justifying my wish that there had been more vocals on the album, although the instrumentals are just as essential! Just being greedy I suppose. The album opens with the classic Old Buck, a fiddle and banjo driven instrumental, with a little percussion adding more texture to the tune. That is followed by Sugar Babe, a song that arguably defined the term 'that old weird America' with the original 1920s version by Dock Boggs being as eerily sinister as any song has ever been. Jake with his lead vocal doesn't try to take old Dock on, instead bringing his own sense of style to the song that starts with dominant banjo and percussion with eerie fiddle starting in the background and gradually coming to the fore with the banjo and Jake's excellent vocal. Next we have Libby Weitnauer's beautiful lead vocal on Went up on the mountain, with Jake adding harmonies and instrumental support from fiddle and banjo. As with its predecessors this could easily be an 80 year old recording that has been cleaned up, such is the immersion of this pair into the music. They are not merely copying but have a deep and natural feel for everything they play. Old Aunt Jessie get up in the cool is a song I have never heard before but Tui provide a performance that has a real back porch feel thanks to the repetition of the fiddle playing that actually creates an eerie otherworldly atmosphere, again with an excellent vocal from Jake on a song on which vocals are not the dominant factor. Libby's vocal has an eerie feel on the 'classic' Make me a pallet, even if she hadn't had the fiddle and banjo accompanying her, with Jake's vocal interventions on the chorus heightening the old time 'hillbilly' atmosphere. My guess would be that this, and many of the other tracks, was recorded on a front porch in an old lost 'holler' after a hard days ploughing perhaps a hundred or so years ago, even though it wasn't!
Pretty Little Mister is one of those new albums that I just can't stop listening to. The sheer craft of the two musicians allied to the drive and total commitment they have to that craft brings such an incredible freshness to these songs and instrumentals, even those that have similar arrangements to the originals. As someone who listens to a lot of old time music, be it the originals or a modern day take on it, I think I can safely say that if those old timers who first recorded these songs could hear Tui they would be very, very impressed. I'm just as sure this is an album I will be playing a lot between now and doomsday!
https://www.tuiband.com/
Versatility doesn't even begin to describe the talents of Jake Blount and Libby Weitnauer, the duo who formed Tui in 2018. Jake is a multi-instrumentalist, playing banjo, fiddle and vocals, and a guest lecturer in music history as well as having played with Tatiana Hargreaves and the hugely talented 'up and coming' Moose Whisperers. Libby has several degrees in classical violin, possesses a gorgeous, hugely evocative voice and is as fine a 'fiddle' player as anyone could wish to hear. Both have absorbed a variety of influences from numerous genres and artists and have used those influences to bring an incredible freshness, vitality and originality to 'old time' music
Like Jake and Libby those other like minded artists they've worked with treat experimentation with old time music as part of their musical makeup, not to such a degree that the songs are far removed from the originals but simply in a modern updating that whilst bringing a lovely freshness to the songs, does follow the tradition. It would be nice to think that having absorbed many influences and worked with a variety of people Tui will now be a going concern who will build a catalogue of sublime recordings starting with this stunner of an album!
It seems strange that such a highly trained and disciplined young couple are able to play with such freedom and abandon on these old songs and fiddle tunes, to such a degree that it is one of very few modern day albums that could have been recorded many decades ago but cleaned up with modern technology. It is not only their skill that is on show here but the depths to which they have immersed themselves in this music, creating a recording that stands in a very limited company as a classic recording of old songs, but one in which there is no suppression of modernity; it's just that they have a natural affinity with the music that cannot be faked, creating a recording that can genuinely be said to be timeless.
There are six instrumentals on which Jake and Libby are able to show their skills, fire and passion with occasional percussion adding a little colour. On the seven vocal tracks Jake takes four leads and Libby three with both more than justifying my wish that there had been more vocals on the album, although the instrumentals are just as essential! Just being greedy I suppose. The album opens with the classic Old Buck, a fiddle and banjo driven instrumental, with a little percussion adding more texture to the tune. That is followed by Sugar Babe, a song that arguably defined the term 'that old weird America' with the original 1920s version by Dock Boggs being as eerily sinister as any song has ever been. Jake with his lead vocal doesn't try to take old Dock on, instead bringing his own sense of style to the song that starts with dominant banjo and percussion with eerie fiddle starting in the background and gradually coming to the fore with the banjo and Jake's excellent vocal. Next we have Libby Weitnauer's beautiful lead vocal on Went up on the mountain, with Jake adding harmonies and instrumental support from fiddle and banjo. As with its predecessors this could easily be an 80 year old recording that has been cleaned up, such is the immersion of this pair into the music. They are not merely copying but have a deep and natural feel for everything they play. Old Aunt Jessie get up in the cool is a song I have never heard before but Tui provide a performance that has a real back porch feel thanks to the repetition of the fiddle playing that actually creates an eerie otherworldly atmosphere, again with an excellent vocal from Jake on a song on which vocals are not the dominant factor. Libby's vocal has an eerie feel on the 'classic' Make me a pallet, even if she hadn't had the fiddle and banjo accompanying her, with Jake's vocal interventions on the chorus heightening the old time 'hillbilly' atmosphere. My guess would be that this, and many of the other tracks, was recorded on a front porch in an old lost 'holler' after a hard days ploughing perhaps a hundred or so years ago, even though it wasn't!
Pretty Little Mister is one of those new albums that I just can't stop listening to. The sheer craft of the two musicians allied to the drive and total commitment they have to that craft brings such an incredible freshness to these songs and instrumentals, even those that have similar arrangements to the originals. As someone who listens to a lot of old time music, be it the originals or a modern day take on it, I think I can safely say that if those old timers who first recorded these songs could hear Tui they would be very, very impressed. I'm just as sure this is an album I will be playing a lot between now and doomsday!
https://www.tuiband.com/