Album Reviews

“Roots” music specialist Marley’s Ghost gets a turbo boost from producer Van Dyke Parks, who turns what could have been just another musical “Antiques Roadshow” into a truly special recorded event.

Marley’s Ghost, a tightly sprung quartet of “roots” aficionados has been together for 20 years, plying their anachronistic, mellifluous, four part harmonies backed by their considerable picking skills (guitars, mandolins, banjos, fiddle, harmonica—you get the picture) at colleges, festivals and small clubs.

The group, comprised of Dan Wheetman (vocals, bass, rhythm, guitar, fiddle, harmonica, banjo, Dobro, lap steel), Jon Wilcox (vocals, mandolin, rhythm guitar, guitar, bouzouki), Mike Phelan (vocals, lead guitar, fiddle, Dobro, bass, lap steel), and Ed Littlefield Jr. (vocals, pedal steel guitar, Highland bagpipes, keyboards, mandolin, Dobro, lead guitar) has issued seven albums, along with five solo albums.

I haven’t heard any of those, I have to admit, but I certainly have heard just about everything Van Dyke Parks has produced and his stamp on this project is delicate, yet unmistakable, taking what could have been a “document” and turning it into an old-fashioned (as in what a meticulously produced record album used to be during the 1960’s and 1970’s), studio tour-de-force-—without interfering with the core music-making.

In the promo blurb, Parks, who also plays a few instruments here, is quoted as saying “…I insisted that they do things to bring enunciation to the parts that they played. We’d double guitar parts with an attack on another instrument using techniques that I’d learned from people like Brian Wilson. I mean, I dragged these guys through the production mud. I’ve never worked harder or had more fun on a record. I never have.” And this is the guy who did Song Cycle!!!!!! Okay, maybe he’s forgetting.

The vibe here is kind of Oh Brother, Where Art Though? meets Ry Cooder’s debut (produced by Parks), or his Into The Purple Valley, or as the blurb points out, The Band’s Music From Big Pink, though this is far smoother and rounder-sounding. You’ll hear the roots of Randy Newman and Biff Rose too, along with Bob Wills and Gene Autry.

The music flits from string band to classic country and western to pre-depression era pop, to Stephen Foster, to sea shanties, celtic reels and The Grateful Dead. It’s all over the map and better for it.

Parks augments the quartet with jazz musicians guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Buell Neidlinger, as well as percussionist/Jew’s harpist Don Heffington.

If you’re thinking the usual solemn “roots” authenticity, you’re thinking wrong. There’s authenticity all right, and of course meshed, sometimes breathtaking musical virtuosity, but much of it is invested with good humor, thanks in part to brilliant A&R work. The song selection is genius.

A rousing cover of Dylan’s “The Wicked Messenger” seems to come embedded with contemporary political meaning—though that could be because I’m writing this the morning after the State of the Union address.

Even the anti-slavery song “Get Off The Track” gets a lilting reading, with familiar, intricate, Van Dyke Parks production.

Paul Kennerley’s “High Walls” (from his 1979 album The Legend of Jesse James, originally featuring Johnny Cash, Levon Helm, Emmylou Harris and Charlie Daniels), gets a liquid reading, redolent with Ed Littlefield, Jr.’s pedal steel.

Mark Graham’s death bed lament “Last Words,” wherein the protagonist’s friends ask for his possessions as in “Would you mind if I took a few records?Just The Beatles, The Stones and The Dead?” will resonate with everyone reading this! There’s even a sarcastic paean to the French Elvis, Johnny Hallyday.

Two of the set’s highlights are band member Mike Phelan’s gorgeous parting song “Love, Not Reason,” augmented by an elegant arrangement, and a “top-hat-y” cover of Willard Robison’s familiar “There’s Religion in Rhythm.”

What good would all of this scintillating music-making be if it wasn’t well recorded? Well the sound here is stupendously good! Rich, warm, detailed, coherent and containing and exhibiting just about every sonic attribute you’d wish and hope for in a recording.

It was tracked at Sage Arts Studio on a Washington State farm that Parks says is “…on the banks of an unpronounceable river.” Parks goes on to describe the studio as “…a combination of thoroughly modern stuff and everything of value from the golden age of analog recording. We worked hard on the record to make it entertaining to the ear…”

That he did!

According to mastering engineer Bob Katz, of Digital Domain, tracks were laid down on a Studer A80 16 track analog deck and mixed down to ½” 2 track 30IPS analog tape through a custom-built board. The board, the Studer and all outboard gear were built and/or “tweaked” by Fred Forsell (www.forsselltech.com). Katz mastered using his custom Ampex MR-70 reproducing electronics attached to his Studer C37 deck (which he calls his “Stampax”).

Add triple gate-fold packaging adorned with new art from R. Crumb, in whose string band, the Cheap Suit Serenaders, Marley Ghost member Dan Wheetman once played, and you have a not-to-be missed package.

Spooked will be available February 21st, and gets the highest recommendation for music and sound.