Doin' the Olde Curley Maple Shuffle
David Blackmon Does Double Duty
originally published May 14, 2008
Marion Mullinax
Curley Maple
Soft-spoken fiddler David Blackmon has become a familiar presence on Athens stages through his friendship with, and occasional membership in, groups like Widespread Panic, Blueground Undergrass and acoustic bluegrass ensemble 16 Tons. After spending several years primarily as an accompanist, Blackmon’s latest project, Curley Maple, finds him at the lead of something he’s been preparing for since his earliest days as a fiddler. Those were hours spent competing in fiddle competitions and soaking up old songs and stories spun by veteran folk/bluegrass musicians, as well as members of his own family.
“This is really something I’ve been wanting to put together for a real long time,” says Blackmon of the new band. “I’d toured for a good bit with Blueground Undergrass, but, because of family reasons, I needed to be around home more than I was. I had the idea in my head of doing old Appalachian tunes, Irish tunes, old-time folk songs and things like that. I come from a bluegrass and improvisational background, but I started out playing these old-timey songs in fiddle competitions and forums like that. The timing just felt right to do something like this, and give it our full attention.”
Named for both a tone wood familiar to stringed instrument buffs and an Appalachian Trail hiking shelter, the strictly acoustic Curley Maple is the kind of group that doesn’t need an elaborate stage setup, mammoth amps or even electricity to sizzle. According to David, he and wife/group multi-instrumentalist Noel Blackmon share a similar yen for old-time reels, waltzes, ballads and other such pieces currently comprising the Curley Maple repertoire.
Noel, herself, has become a musical fixture around town with such projects as Calliope Fair and the folk-music potluck group Short Road Home. The string band-style rhythm section of mandolinist/vocalist Christian Lopez and bassist Chris Enghauser (Sara Evans, Roy “Futureman” Wooten) rounds out Curley Maple’s cast of players.
“My wife and I are on a similar wavelength as she has a very keen interest in this type of music, as well,” confirms Blackmon. “Christian Lopez is a great picker who’s basically a walking encyclopedia of old folk songs and that kind of thing. I got to know Chris Enghauser through playing alongside a mutual friend, Seth Hendershot, in Blueground Undergrass. Everybody is this band is real easy to work with. There’s no big egos or anything like that here.”
At present time, Curley Maple is compiling a stock of home recordings, some of which may very well turn up on the group’s upcoming first release that should arrive sometime this summer, according to David. Songs that are making the rounds include driving instrumentals like “The Coo-Coo’s Nest” and the steady ballad “Shawneetown,” two that, finally, allow an uncluttered, acoustic forum for David’s fiddle smarts and the group’s knack for hair-raising vocal harmonies. Blackmon isn’t kidding when he says he’s virtually spent a lifetime up to now preparing for a project like this. Aside from other assorted accolades, Blackmon was a champion stringband fiddler during his teenage years, spent in the then-sleepy North Georgia town of Ellijay - also the childhood home of Athens’ feisty Redneck Greece and area singer/songwriter Eric Sales.
“Before I even started playing that much, I learned a lot from (Ellijay-area) musicians like the Hoyle Family,” Blackmon remembers. “I was in an award-winning stringband with Al Hoyle, who is now the mayor up there, and learned a lot from him, his brother, Eddie, sister, Lisa, and their father, Max, who is another virtual encyclopedia of Appalachian and old-timey music. Man, I soaked up a lot from those people. They’re all incredibly talented players who made a big impression on me back then.”
While David confirms that Curley Maple is his primary focus right now, he’s also glad to see more performances on the schedule from 16 Tons. The multimember pickin’ group, also featuring bassist Rich Mullinax, banjo player Andy Martin, guitarist Caitlin Jones, mandolinist Bryan Varin, guitarist John Evans and vocalist/harp player Brian Connell has been on a recent hiatus, due to members’ commitments to other bands and careers. However, the assembled Tonnage will be returning to the familiar confines of the Melting Point to share a double bill with Curley Maple Friday night. Blackmon will be pulling double duty that evening, as will likely several other members of the immediate Curley Maple family.
“It’s a lot of fun to get together with those guys,” says Blackmon of 16 Tons. “Rich, who plays bass, is one of my closest friends, and that group is just full of talented people. I’m looking forward to this show; I think the two groups are a good fit. I’m not full time with them (16 Tons), these days, though. I want to see where Curley Maple goes since it’s something I’ve been planning and wanting to set in motion for some time. I’m just thankful it’s finally coming to fruition.”
WHO: 16 Tons, Curley Maple
WHERE: The Melting Point
WHEN: Friday, May 16
HOW MUCH: $10
Striking Mechanism
New Experimental Label Debuts in Athens
originally published May 14, 2008
Jonathan Chen
Maybe you just have to really understand the rules before you can break them. That seems to be the case with the artists featured on Quartet Solo Series, the first release from the new experimental label Striking Mechanism. Each featured performer is classically trained with a stellar resume in performance and composition, but the works here are anything but conventional.
"As classical musicians, we're pretty willing when we improvise to just throw all that out the window as much as we can," says label founder and featured artist Jonathan Chen. "Some people might argue that that's not possible, but generally speaking, we can be pretty willing when we really want to do something different than playing covers of Mozart and stuff like that."
There will definitely be no covers at ATHICA tonight. Instead, the four artists featured on the Quartet Solo Series will each perform a 20-minute set of his/her own experimental work. Chen, who has a master's degree in violin performance, will perform a set consisting of creating feedback through various acoustic spaces and altering it through electronics. "The resulting sounds can vary from being uncannily similar to woodwind or brass instruments, to sounding like a car without its muffler," says the official press release.
Andrew Dewar’s set will consist of a work for solo soprano saxophone exploring "the harmonic spectrum and polyphonic possibilities of a single cross-fingered trill through a slow, gradual shift in the performer's embouchure and the seal pressure of the instrument's keys." You don't have to know what that means to appreciate that this will not be a traditional sax solo. Likewise, Marina Peterson will playing her cello in ways you may have never seen before - making use of crumpled paper, clothespins and other objects applied to the strings to alter the sound. Finally, Phillip Schulze joins us from Germany to perform abstract yet compositional electronic improvisations. This is an exploration in sound more than song, but if you're eager to hear something different, then ATHICA is the place to go.
Athens is the official new home for the Striking Mechanism label since Chen moved down here from Chicago in October. He admits the label is still in its formative stages, but was eager to provide an outlet for unconventional musicians to share and distribute their works. "It's just a way to start and represent artists that aren't as noticed in the commercial framework," he says.
Striking Mechanism isn't limited to just sound or music, either. On www.strikingmechanism.com, Chen features experimental video collections submitted from around the world. His latest project, actually launched initially in 2006, calls for artists to submit videos that are either one, two or three seconds in length. It's startling how diverse and innovative these short pieces are, and Chen hopes to release the collection on DVD in the future.
For now, though, the focus is on the Quartet Solo Series. Although the label was Chen's innovation, the first release was really a collaborative effort between Chen and the other musicians whom he met while studying at Northwestern University and Wesleyan University.
"It was really Phillip Schulze's idea to have the first initial releases be solo releases," says Chen. "The thought there was that it would be really focused." Although all the artists are compiled on one physical CD, the spotlight is on each artist independently. "The way I wanted to think of it is as if there were four separate short albums on a CD," Chen explains. Some of the artists have several tracks on their section of the record while others, including Chen, have just one long track.
Chen moved down to Athens at the insistence of his girlfriend, who got her MFA from the University of Georgia. Although he's still new to town, he's been impressed with how eagerly the students and local musicians alike have taken to his experimental projects.
"It's been an extremely open-minded city," says Chen. "I think that's just kind of the intellectual curiosity that people in Athens generally have."
Even for those rock artists who aren't classically trained, Chen has found that the willingness to experiment in sound is driven more by attitude than education.
"My experience with rock musicians in Chicago is that sometimes they tend to be more open-minded than people who have a lot of training behind them, whether it be jazz or classical… Really everything comes down to attitude in a lot of ways. There are people who are really educated, and people who are uneducated, and anyone can have the attitude that nothing new is ever done, and that's when the danger comes in."
Chen says that sometimes having an intimate knowledge of the history of music can feel like a hindrance, because some musicians risk feeling like everything's already been done before them. "When in fact," says Chen, "there may be subtle differences between what you do today and what was done in 1960, for example, and that subtle difference might matter and might be interesting."
Of course, that education can also play a huge part in awakening the creative mind to a new world of sonic exploration. Tonight's performance should be an eye-opening experience for those musicians who feel bound to the rigid guidelines of classical performance, and for the traditional rock musician as well. Even though Chen and the other artists are students of music, he says that an experimental performance doesn't necessarily demand a higher level of understanding or appreciation than any other concert.
"I can go to an experimental show and just have a beer and hang out like anything else," says Chen. "I'm not doing complex math or something while listening to it, or necessarily analyzing it. In a way, I either like it or I don't… and I'd like to think that other people would listen in a similar way."
In addition to the solo performances taking place during the CD release concert on Saturday, May 17, there will also be a free meet and greet with the Striking Mechanism artists on Sunday, May 18 from 2–4 p.m. This will also include a "composition demonstration and collaborative performance."
WHAT: Striking Mechanism CD Release Concert
WHERE: ATHICA
WHEN: Saturday, May 17
HOW MUCH: $6 (suggested donation)
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