At the end of last month, Chicago based guitarist and improviser Bill MacKay and Durham, NC-based multi-instrumentalist Nathan Bowles took us on cosmic desert trip with Joy Ride, the first drop of nectar from their new Drag City album Keys.
On I See God, their latest album single, they treat us to the Country gospel songbook of E.C. and Orna Ball of Rugby, VA. This well-known old-time duo were first recorded in 1937 by Alan Lomax’s father, John Lomax at the famous Galax Fiddler’s Convention – I’m sure Nathan Salsburg could share a story or two who is also an archivist at the Alan Lomax Archive – he once described E.C. and Orna Ball as: a pair of singers and musicians who are responsible, to these ears, for some of the most affecting music ever to come out of the Southern Appalachian mountains — or anywhere else, for that matter.
On I See God, Orna’s accordion is replaced by pump organ (alongside voice, piano, percussion, electric organ and requinto), lending a dusty vintage vibe, recalling small church gatherings and that high lonesome sound of the Southern Appalachian mountains.
Bill and Nathan’s harmonies are, according to the Drag City brethren “devout in their raw-boned simplicity, finding something to believe in everything they see, as opposed to the limits and strictures cited by organised dogma.” Halleluja!
Order Keys: https://www.dragcity.com/products/keys