Album Review: Dustin Busch ? Down Home | Little Village

Dustin Busch

Down Home
dustinbusch.bandcamp.com

Down Home is Dustin Busch?s first solo album in a long time (he was 15-years-old when he made his first), and showcases his slide guitar and country blues. In most people?s hands?at least people who weren?t born 100 years ago, poor and black in Mississippi?this is a recipe for embarrassing tedium. Yet Busch combines a complete mastery of the technique and style of blues, as well as a relaxed, nothing-to-prove attitude to make serious music that never takes itself too seriously.

On ?Quail Is A Pretty Bird? he strays from blues into the acoustic, primitive territory pioneered by John Fahey and Sandy Bull. The relationship to the original (popularized by John Hartford) is tangential; Busch takes it apart and puts the pieces back together into something new and mysterious. The slide playing is liquid and graceful, outlining a subtle melody with bends and swoops not far from the South Indian carnatic style. To borrow from a Ry Cooder album title, this is chicken skin music.

The lo-fi production adds atmosphere rather than obscuring the music. These songs often sound like they?re playing on an old tractor?s AM radio. Especially effective is the distorted harmonica, which has enough dirt and grease in its sound that you wonder if it?s been changing the oil in an old pickup truck. Down Home succeeds by good-naturedly embracing a paradox: It?s music that is captivating and exciting precisely because it doesn?t make demands or get worked up about itself.

Source: http://littlevillagemag.com/album-review-dustin-busch-down-home/

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