Towards the end of last year, KLOF Mag’s Glenn Kimpton reviewed ‘A Village of Many Springs‘ by North Carolina acoustic guitarist Blake Hornsby. In that review, he drew the spotlight on Bury My Soul in the Linville River, the longest track on the album at over 23 minutes.
“…the real pièce de résistance must be the final song, Bury My Soul in the Linville River, an evening raga apparently based on an Indian piece called Yaman that spans a whole side of the cassette release. Here, Blake brings in accompaniments in the shape of tabla, electric violin and shruti box, with him playing guitar and tamboura. The violin, provided by Sam Fanthorpe, is overlaid and joins Gaia Lawing’s shruti to create a lovely soothing drone in the background. Nearly halfway in, Jonathon Sale’s tabla kicks in to change the shape of the raga, giving it a more persistent rhythm that the violin steps up to join and the guitar gamely stays with. Blake’s guitar heads into more bananas territory in the last third, enjoying a more free and improvised-sounding approach before some tweaked vocals up the weird levels near the end.”
He concludes: “…for all of the free expression that is present across the album, there is a real sense of musicianship and creativity on show, too, and it makes for a quite exhilarating listen. Pull up a chair and allow it to wash over you.”
Curating public domain footage, Blake has now shared an accompanying music video:
Bandcamp: https://monadnocksound.bandcamp.com/track/bury-my-soul-in-the-linville-river
