Of Time & Rivers Flowing

Album review

Of Time and Rivers Flowing is a concept that would work for everything from an evening to a lifetime of music. Composer, instrumentalist and writer Mason Williams went sailing on the idea in the '80s, producing a studio album in the first-half of the decade as well as a series of live events. Songs about rivers are all a bandleader needs for such an event to flow and there are plenty of those. If the ensemble of musicians is sufficiently skilled, selections from a wide variety of genres is possible, it certainly being quite difficult to find a style of music that does not include selections about rivers. The 14 pieces chosen for the 1984 LP include folk, classical and Tin Pan Alley standards. The live performance of this event included more than twice as much material, dipping into rock & roll standards such as "Proud Mary." The sort of edgy diversity associated with genre-hopping is a natural result, the barriers that often prevent combining such styles getting washed away like a child's mud dam. Williams and associates, such as the fine studio guitarist Rick Cunha and pianist Art Maddox, do not play with the sort of ironic detachment associated with, for example, the New York City downtown sound, however. These are journeymen professionals, gracefully interpreting material based on thematic similarities, not deconstructionists getting their kicks by hopping from a Viennese waltz to a bluegrass hoedown. Some listeners may find the aquatic theme overly sentimental or stiff as a result; at LP length, it certainly lacks some of the grandeur achieved by the fuller program available on a DVD pressing involving a somewhat different group of musicians.
© Eugene Chadbourne /TiVo