Disfarmer

Performer: Original Soundtrack/Bill Frisell
Engineer: Tucker Martine
Producer: Lee Townsend; Lee Townsend
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Bill Frisell (guitars, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, loops, music box); Greg Leisz (steel guitar, mandolin); Jenny Scheinman (violin); Viktor Krauss (bass instrument, upright bass). Audio Mixer: Tucker Martine. Liner Note Author: Bill Frisell. Recording information: Avast Studio, Seattle, WA (02/2008-05/2008); Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN (02/2008-05/2008). Photographers: Mike Disfarmer; Michael "Mick" Wilson. Disfarmer was an outsider artist who became famous for his Depression-era photographs of families, farmers, and individuals around his hometown of Heber Springs, AK. This 2009 Nonesuch CD by Bill Frisell is the score commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts to accompany a retrospective of the artist's work. Frisell and producer Lee Townsend assembled the guitarist's "country" band for the occasion: violinist Jenny Scheinman, bassist Viktor Krauss, and steel guitarist and mandolinist Greg Leisz. There are 26 cues in this score--sparse, skeletally melodic variations on old-timey parlor music, country blues, and country music, with a few, such as "That's All Right, Mama," done as fusions of hillbilly boogie and square dance music. There's also a version of Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues" that's a showcase for the atmospheric power of Leisz's steel guitar, which adds to the melodic shades of the tune. Most of this set, however, falls into moody, extremely minimal music that is haunting in nature--much like the figure of Disfarmer himself, who scared many of the residents of Heber Springs with his strange and imposing presence.

Down Beat (p.73) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The guitarist works in miniature, while performing mostly original compositions in a quartet that features steel guitars, fiddle, bass and mandolin." JazzTimes (p.60) - "Sometimes Frisell's vivid original melodies segue seamlessly to preexisting songs of the era like 'That's Alright, Mama' and 'Lovesick Blues.'" Billboard (p.44) - "Creatively restless, Frisell is best suited for exploring vast territory and responding with imaginative integrity, which is evidenced on DISFARMER." Q (Magazine) (p.107) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he result is a kind of chamber Americana....As ever, Frisell's playing, all texture and touch, raises matters way beyond the merely atmospheric." Record Collector (magazine) (p.82) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "On this disc there are clear roots in country, rockabilly and blues, as much as the jazz that's his background."

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