We recently reviewed While you were Slumbering, the new solo album from Joseph Decosimo, who is based in Durham, North Carolina. Joseph plays in a number of other projects, including Hiss Golden Messenger but is also well-versed in traditional music, especially the fiddle/banjo music from the Appalachian South. Glenn Kimpton reviewed the album and noted the beautiful instrumentation from all involved, adding that Joseph’s ‘unpretentious vocals’ gave the songs plenty of power. He ends, “Seek out While you were Slumbering; it is a special record.”
Across the album, Joseph was joined by a number of guests, including the legendary Alice Gerrard. Matt O’Connell provided sensitive and inventive percussion across the album, as you can see in the video below for The Wild Goose Chase, where he uses two wooden blocks.
Joseph learned the piece during visits with master fiddler and banjo player Clyde Davenport. Davenport was an NEA Heritage fellow and had a vast repertoire of rare old fiddle and banjo music.
Joseph shares: During one of my visits with Clyde, he told me how he learned the tune from one of the great Kentucky musicians of the 1920s 78 era: “I learned that tune just passing Dick Burnett’s house. His front yard wasn’t too big. He was sitting down next to the street, and I was a walking. And half a dozen or more were gathered around him, you know, and he was playing the Wild Goose Chase. I didn’t know what it was. Never heard it before. I never stopped or spoke to nobody. I just went on. That’s where I got that tune at. Wild Goose Chase. That’s a good way to learn them, ain’t it?”
Video by Phil Moore | filmed at Perfect Lovers, Durham, NC
Order While You Were Slumbering via Bandcamp: https://josephdecosimo.bandcamp.com/album/while-you-were-slumbering
You can hear tracks from the album on Lost in Transmisson No 91: