Magic Tuber Stringband: When Sorrows Encompass Me ‘Round | [Feeding Tube Records; June 25] | ★★★★
Courtney Werner’s layered violin drones go on for over five minutes at the start of the new cassette by Durham’s Magic Tuber Stringband.
They’re hardly ever static notes, though. They shift and shudder as if alive, changing their hue and density, driven by the bright flash of overtones as they subliminally trace the soon-to-be-revealed melody of the song.
The moment is unique on the album—after a short pause, Werner and guitar/banjo player Evan Morgan play a new, but ageless fiddle tune—but it is a fitting invocation. At every moment, the album seems to breathe with the vivacity of a million peripatetic creatures constantly alighting in different directions.
On their last album (2019’s Wayward Airs for Earthbound Vagrants), the duo seemed to alternate between two distinct approaches: abstracted improvisations and old-time fiddle tunes. Here, those two modes seem much more closely enmeshed, with those abstracted textures buttressing the endlessly enjoyable songs they write.
In “Waltz for Things with Wings,” Werner sighs and shimmers around Morgan’s stately waltz, giving it extra vibrance. When things pick up in the middle section, the two gently intertwine as the song picks up speed.
Something similar happens in the hypnotic “Teo’s Farewell,” which careens forever forward in a shifting locked groove, peaking when Morgan pulls out a jaw harp and starts tapping his guitar with a mallet. More abstract moments become grounded with the sounds of wood thrushes or campfires or Werner’s voice singing a Tommy Jarrell song.
When they do go more traditional, as in the Morgan-sung ballad “Once I Was a Falling Star,” the results are just as beautiful. I think I could listen to their closely harmonized instrumental counterpoint for a long time. Throughout, they fill every nook of their songs, showing just how much life two instruments can contain.
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