Singer and arranger Pyeng Threadgill is the daughter of composer, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill and choreographer/dancer Christina Jones, a founding member of the celebrated Urban Bushwomen. Sweet Home offers 11 Robert Johnson tunes in 11 different settings. While more cynical punters and blues purists (ugh) may sigh or wring their hands at such a notion, everyone else can take delight in Threadgill's considerable accomplishment. Unlike mere revivalists like Eric Clapton or Peter Green, Threadgill hears and interprets Johnson's blues as music not of, but for the ages.
Certainly she has models here, most notably Cassandra Wilson and Olu Dara, but Threadgill's take on these tunes doesn't attempt to remake them in her image, so much their own. Sweet Home's selections are radical. They take Johnson's songs and strips them of the interpetive, anachronistic baggage that has all but killed the spooky and hedonistic majesty of the originals at the hands of well-meaning but woefully rigid performers.
First there's the edgy, swinging jazz read of "Love in Vain," followed by the lean, ragged funk of "Phonograph Blues." The swampy acoustic guitar-and-brass blues of "Milk Cow Calf's Blues" is a nod to earlier times, but feels more like it's being performed in busker style on the lawn of Thompkins Square Park. The lone cello accompaniment (played elegantly by Dana Leong) on "If You've Got a Good Friend" evokes the dignified spirit, if not the timbre, of Nina Simone's ghost, and the jazzed-out, near scatted take on "Dust My Broom," where Threadgill is accompanied only by a double bass and a trap kit, offers the startling--and sometimes hair-raisin-- originality of her approach. Likewise the tension between second-line New Orleans rhythms at the heart of "Sweet Home Chicago," where jagged jazz-rock guitar fills are held expertly in the tense grain of Threadgill's voice is jarring, perhaps, but far from unwelcome. She croons, swoons, shouts, growls, whoops, and moans to get these blues across proving in the process that in the current era, these tunes that are enduring to be sure, but they continue to hold a cryptic mystique; they are still alluring because they can be articulated in so many different contexts and retain their seductive power and jagged grace. Threadgill's recorded debut is an auspicious one. She paints her blues shiny black and pushes them headlong into a future where tradition and history are processes of evolution, not quaint curiosities. ~ Thom Jurek
This is the debut album from 27-year-old Pyeng Threadgill, whose father is free jazz saxophonist Henry Threadgill and mother is a founder of the Urban Bushwomen. On this CD, Pyeng performs the songs of blues legend Robert Johnson, presenting new arrangem
Recorded at Sorcerer Sound, New York, New York on August 18-20, 2003.
Personnel: Pyeng Threadgill (vocals, hand claps); Ryan Scott (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, hand claps, sampler, background vocals); Dana Leong (cello, trombone, electric bass, bass guitar, hand claps); Dave Pier (piano); Luz Fleming (Fender Rhodes piano); Sachal Vasandani, Ian Jeffreys, Laura Johnson (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Scott Cresswell; Tim Conklin.
Liner Note Author: Pyeng Threadgill.
Recording information: Sorcerer SOund, New York, NY (08/18/2003-11/20/2003); Studio 99, New York, NY (08/18/2003-11/20/2003).
Arrangers: Jacob Silver; Ryan Scott; Pyeng Threadgill; Dana Leong.
Personnel includes: Pyeng Threadhill (vocals); Ryan Scott (acoustic & electric guitars, slide guitar); Dana Leong (cello, trombone, electric bass); Dimitri Moderbacher (clarinet); Kevin Louis (trumpet); Dave Pier (piano); Luz Fleming (Fender Rhodes piano); Qasim Natvi (drums, percussion); Jacob Bronstein (programming).
Sweet Home: Pyeng Threadgill Sings Robert Johnson Songs
Sweet Home: Pyeng Threadgill Sings Robert Johnson Album Track Listing
Trk
Song
1
Love In Vain Blues
2
Phonograph Blues
3
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
4
Milkcow's Calf Blues
5
When You Got a Good Friend
6
I Believe I'll Dust My Broom
7
Dead Shrimp
8
They're Red Hot
9
Sweet Home Chicago
10
Come on in My Kitchen
11
Ramblin' On My Mind
Sweet Home: Pyeng Threadgill Sings Robert Johnson Music Review
Customer Sweet Home: Pyeng Threadgill Sings Robert Johnson Reviews
Average Rating: (5 out of 5 stars)
Brainy, soulful & eclectic--- --- this is the most interesting album of Johnson covers, and much more fascinating than the Clapton disc. Would love to hear what Ms. Threadgill would do with Bessie Smith tunes... that should be her next project. Submitted by Chopsie (Columbia, SC) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
Incredible debut from "New Blues Chanteuse" This woman can SING. this album, her debut, is the best I have heard in a long time. The arrangments, the instrumentation, the vocals, every aspect of this record is top-notch. Threadgill is going to go a long, she is truly what we have been waiting for, she is the "New Blues Chanteuse" Submitted by moderbacher (Brooklyn, NY, USA) Was This Review Helpful? YesNo
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