Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Digital Download
Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
In 2004, Norman Blake concluded an interview with CMT by saying, "Long ago, I decided I had no future trying to be a guitar gun. I never did like it in the first place...I always liked music more than technique." That's saying a lot for a man who has been playing professionally since the '50s with Mother Maybelle, June Carter Cash, and Anita & Helen Carter, among others, and he's played on iconic records by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and John Hartford, to name just three. On Wood, Wire & Words, his first recording of all-original pieces since 1974's Fields of November, Blake makes plain the statement above. This set is solo save for one track: the fine country-gospel number "There's a One Way Road to Glory," co-written with his wife Nancy Blake, who also sings harmony on it. He plays his signature Martin 000-28B and a 1928 Martin 000-45. Blake's singing voice is slightly weathered but still expressive and soulful in its trademark understatement. His guitar playing, as usual, is unassailable and deliberately slower; it effortlessly fits these well-crafted songs that are rooted deeply in the Southern soil. There are two tracks he cut previously: "Savannah Rag" is played in a fingerpicked style this time around, and "Chattanooga Rag," previously recorded on a six-string banjo, is played with bare fingers. But it's his story songs that resonate most. "Keeper of the Government Light on the River" is about a man who could support a family for $15 a month. "The Incident at Condra's Switch," a tale about a train robbery, is one of several excellent outlaw ballads on the record. It tells of an older, wilder, and more easily understood America. Outlaw ballad "Black Bart" unfolds gradually. The first-person narrative is replete with scenic imagery, personas, archetypes, and an outlook that ironically bridges the nation's from past to present. Another one, "Joseph Thompson Hare on the Old Natchez Trace," is about a gunslinger who traveled from the Northeast to the Deep South only to find himself at the end of a hangman's noose in Baltimore. The set's most compelling cut, however, is one from the time of the Mexican Revolution. "Farewell Francisco Madero," with its lilting mariachi intro, gets transposed it into a more conventional, minor-key folk ballad, but Blake's lyrics are riveting; his delivery is haunted and beguiling, making the distance between place and time melt into the ether: all that's left is now. "Grady Forester's Store and Cotton Gin" is autobiographical. Again, Blake's words erase the intervening years and take the listener directly back to that period and the inside of his experience. For Blake's fans, Wood, Wire & Words sounds like the album he's wanted to make for decades. For those who love American folk music but are unfamiliar with his work, there has never been a better argument for making this a starting place and moving backward.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From $10.83/month
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist - Nancy Blake, FeaturedArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Unknown, Composer - Norman Blake, MainArtist
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Album review
In 2004, Norman Blake concluded an interview with CMT by saying, "Long ago, I decided I had no future trying to be a guitar gun. I never did like it in the first place...I always liked music more than technique." That's saying a lot for a man who has been playing professionally since the '50s with Mother Maybelle, June Carter Cash, and Anita & Helen Carter, among others, and he's played on iconic records by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and John Hartford, to name just three. On Wood, Wire & Words, his first recording of all-original pieces since 1974's Fields of November, Blake makes plain the statement above. This set is solo save for one track: the fine country-gospel number "There's a One Way Road to Glory," co-written with his wife Nancy Blake, who also sings harmony on it. He plays his signature Martin 000-28B and a 1928 Martin 000-45. Blake's singing voice is slightly weathered but still expressive and soulful in its trademark understatement. His guitar playing, as usual, is unassailable and deliberately slower; it effortlessly fits these well-crafted songs that are rooted deeply in the Southern soil. There are two tracks he cut previously: "Savannah Rag" is played in a fingerpicked style this time around, and "Chattanooga Rag," previously recorded on a six-string banjo, is played with bare fingers. But it's his story songs that resonate most. "Keeper of the Government Light on the River" is about a man who could support a family for $15 a month. "The Incident at Condra's Switch," a tale about a train robbery, is one of several excellent outlaw ballads on the record. It tells of an older, wilder, and more easily understood America. Outlaw ballad "Black Bart" unfolds gradually. The first-person narrative is replete with scenic imagery, personas, archetypes, and an outlook that ironically bridges the nation's from past to present. Another one, "Joseph Thompson Hare on the Old Natchez Trace," is about a gunslinger who traveled from the Northeast to the Deep South only to find himself at the end of a hangman's noose in Baltimore. The set's most compelling cut, however, is one from the time of the Mexican Revolution. "Farewell Francisco Madero," with its lilting mariachi intro, gets transposed it into a more conventional, minor-key folk ballad, but Blake's lyrics are riveting; his delivery is haunted and beguiling, making the distance between place and time melt into the ether: all that's left is now. "Grady Forester's Store and Cotton Gin" is autobiographical. Again, Blake's words erase the intervening years and take the listener directly back to that period and the inside of his experience. For Blake's fans, Wood, Wire & Words sounds like the album he's wanted to make for decades. For those who love American folk music but are unfamiliar with his work, there has never been a better argument for making this a starting place and moving backward.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 12 track(s)
- Total length: 00:49:01
- Main artists: Norman Blake
- Composer: Unknown
- Label: Western Jubilee Recording Company
- Genre: Country
(C) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (P) 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released by Plectrafone Records.
Improve album informationWhy buy on Qobuz?
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalog with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets, and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.