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Originally Posted 10 26 2014

The Dixie Dewdrop

Uncle Dave Macon Jordan Am A Hard Road

The Dixie Dewdrop
Uncle Dave Macon (October 7, 1870 - March 22, 1952), also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop", was an American farmer, banjo player, singer, songwriter and comedian.

Born David Harrison Macon in Smartt Station, Tennessee, Macon farmed for many years, playing the banjo as a hobby. At age fifty, he joined a vaudeville touring company, putting on a comedy show and playing old-time music accompanying himself on banjo. Immediately popular, within a few years he was in New York City making country phonograph records that became almost instant bestsellers, and at age 56 he was one of the first stars of the Grand Ole Opry on WSM radio in Nashville. Macon continued to perform until his passing in 1952 at age 81 in Readyville, Tennessee. He was inducted posthumously into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966.
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Uncle Dave Macon Jordan Am A Hard Road

Bathtub Music by Anarchestra

Believe Me...You Gotta Love It

With performing roots in free jazz and punk rock, I’d always tended to be disparaging toward so-called ambient music and thought of it as something “you’d listen to in the bathtub” (which I like doing with Afternoon of a Faun, Augustus Pablo, Dark Star, In a Silent Way, and things like that). I was kind of surprised to find myself making music like this.

Bathtub Music is the first cd I made entirely without the conventional meters. Its drum free sonic environment allows the signatures to exist as cycles and undermine the linearity they had tended towards on 4/04. The relative stasis implied by cycles permitted me to approach the phrases as autonomous events rather than elements in a continuum (they could have occurred in any sequence). I was thinking a lot about Messiaen and his desire to make music as physical spaces (stasis) rather than temporal events (linearity). I was intrigued by the way the regularity of the (unfamiliar) cycles contributed to a sense of timelessness in ways unmetered pulses, which we would tend to subconsciously group into fours and threes, wouldn’t have. From that point forward the relationship between these two aspects, particularly the ambiguities generated in their intersections within the odd meters, has always been on my mind when I make music –to me it has become a basic element, just like tempo or key.

I found that the absence of horns and percussion encouraged the absence of narrative I had been seeking (the ostinato played on Basuka in #2 works against this --I suspect I played it for so long in the hope of pushing through the other side of it). Narrative (and its implicit desire for drama) tends to locate the centers of musical interest on the player (whether in a jazz solo or the first violin part in a string quartet) and I was interested in finding ways of making the player disappear.

A performing musician’s work is built on appearing. Ones stock in trade is ones visibility (or willingness to be visible). That’s the context a blue collar musician necessarily inhabits and naturally the skills and musical values one develops over time are based upon that. With the shift in my perceptions of tonality, timbre, and meter came an equally fundamental shift in my attitude toward myself as a performer. Prior to Anarchestra the music I’d made had always been, whether it was the point of it or not, a demonstration of prowess (a willingness to be visible). Making this music seemed to absolve me of that responsibility.

The shop had a high ceiling and it was sort of cavernous, with a big empty sound. I recorded the parts as they sounded in the space, experimenting with distant mic placements, getting reverbs and phase relationships that contributed to the consensus of tonality. The pitches by themselves (stripped of their context within the architecture of the shop) would have generated conflict with one another, but in the generality of the empty space they don’t seem at all “out of tune” (at least to my ears).

I price all of my music at $0.00, but Bandcamp only allows a limited number of free downloads per month. If you see a price it means that the free downloads have been used up for the month. If I set a price lower than the $7.00 default, there won’t be any free downloads ever. If there are more sales there end up being more free downloads. I’m not trying to get anybody to spend money (I loathe capitalism and the comercialzation of everything, especially the arts). I make music, not product. If you end up buying something, at least you have enabled 2 other people to get something for free (which is a good thing). Or check back until it’s free again. Please feel free to duplicate and pass along.

About:

Bathtub Music (30:23) Recorded June 2004 at Railyard 1, Santa Fe, NM Released August 28, 2014

Played on: Bosco 2, Bosco 3, Pharo, 2 Sly for 1, La Bas, McKeytoo, Basuka, Mickey One, Peddlar, Quesera Played by: Alex Ferris

Bathtub Music by Anarchestra Released August 28, 2014

Discography

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Kenneth Rexroth Reads Poetry To Jazz

Why do we do it? No theories. We do it because we like to. It’s fun.

— Kenneth Rexroth

© the Kenneth Rexroth Estate

Originally Published on 8/27/05 4:38 PM

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The mission of Interference Archive is to explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a study center, and public programs including exhibitions, workshops, talks, and screenings, all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements.

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