Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

“[tag]Inside Out[/tag]” by [tag]Hans York[/tag] and “[tag]The Dance Goes On[/tag]” by [tag]The Volker Strifler Band[/tag] will remind even the most casual listener of other songs and other artists; this aspect, unfortunately, is not a strength for either recording.

York’s 2005 release “Inside Out” features his primarily modal acoustic guitar work accompanied by bass, keyboards, harp (the multi-stringed instrument, not the harmonica), dobro, drums, udu and other percussion, and recorded sonic loops. Except for Elke Diepenbeck, who also gets credit for vocal arrangements, the other musicians are referred to by their first names of Asita, Daniel, Tom, Fredrik, Orville, Jon, Ralf, Edo, and Bjorn. The music was recorded in Seattle, WA and GroB-Umstadt, Germany.

Diepenbeck has done a fine job of arranging the vocal parts. The overall effect of the vocals, York’s guitar work, the instrumentation, and the arrangements is reminiscent of Paul Simon’s pre-”Graceland” recorded solo output. The second track, “Listen To The Moon,” could have fit quite well with the songs on Simon’s “One-Trick Pony” soundtrack.

And that’s the problem I had with this CD. I never get a sense of “Hans York” in this music. I get a sense of influences, I get a sense that people who like Paul Simon would like this CD, and I get a sense of that aspect utilized as a marketing tool (in fact, it shows up in listeners’ comments on his webpage at cdbaby.com). I half expect “There Goes Rhymin’ York,” “Still York After All These Years,” “Hearts and York,” “One-York Pony,” and “Yorkland” to follow this CD in his discography.

I do expect future recordings from this musician. He has a lot of talent. I hope he is willing to explore other musical paths with his skills. I also hope he uses his accompanists’ surnames on those future CD booklets. Even John, Paul, George, and Ringo had surnames and everyone knew them. Still do.

I would also recommend staying away from song titles like this CD’s “Bored Out Of My Mind.” Even if the song’s lyrics were designed to be ironic, and I did not get a sense of that possibility in any of “Inside Out,” one does not need a visual suggestion or reminder printed on the CD. Unless, of course, the irony was in the listener hearing a collection of boring music. Somehow I doubt it.

“The Dance Goes On” by The Volker Strifler Band is a collection of blues music. Period. In a sense, this CD from 2006 shares the same primary issues as York’s: similarities to what has preceded it and a sameness from song to song.

Is there a genre of music as completely codified as blues? Are there any surprises or new paths within that format? Should there be? Would it still be blues music or something else?

Strifler’s CD does not contain any surprises or new paths. It remains true to the blues format, tastefully played and sonically closer to a Steely Dan recording than a Willie Dixon song from the Chess Records era. “The Dance Goes On,” incidentally, does cover two of Dixon’s songs, “Spoonful” and “Evil.” It also contains an original instrumental titled “Shuffelupagus,” which may be the first known Muppets reference (and a great pun) in the blues genre. It’s not easy being blue.

Volker Strifler sings, plays all guitars, and wrote all of the CD’s songs except for the above-mentioned Dixon classics. He is joined on the recording by Claus Bubik and Don Bassey on bass, Stefan Bollack and Gary Silva on drums and percussion, (Chip) Roland Condon on keys, and a horn section of David Shrader on sax, Carl Bowers on trombone, and Tom Poole on trumpet. The music was recorded in Straubenhardt, Germany and Cotati, CA.

To order “Inside Out” and for additional information, visit www.hansyork.com.

To order “The Dance Goes On” and for additional information, visit www.bluerockit.com.

[tags]cd review[/tags]

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