Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info
[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Joel Harrison and Free Country

Hey,

I was lucky enough to be one of the about 10 people in the audience 
to hear Joel Harrison and his band Free Country last night, at 
Squirrels here in Corvallis, OR. He's in the middle of a West Coast 
tour supporting his new CD, and it seems that the tour hasn't gotten 
the publicity it deserves, so I thought I'd give a heads up to the 
list. Basically, if you like Frisell's recent discs, or Nels Cline's 
jazzier stuff, you will also dig this band. Harrison is an NYC-based 
guitarist with great, understated chops, and a surprisingly good 
voice. This band does avant jazz arrangements of country and folk 
standards, and as corny as that might sound, it really works well!

Plus, there's actual looping content. Harrison uses a DL4  a lot to 
set up drones and loops of finger-picked guitar parts. His sax 
player, David Binney, uses a Boss SP202 sampler to capture and 
process live samples of the band, and does so better than just about 
anyone I've seen using the SP202. During one tune, where the band 
went into a dub feel, Binney did a really interesting live dub on the 
band just using the SP202 and a boss digital delay pedal. The band 
also includes an acoustic bassist and a drummer, both great players.

The band will be at Jimmy Mak's in Portland tonight, in Olympia on 
8/11, and Seattle on 8/12. For more details and other dates in the 
area, there's a schedule on his website http://www.joelharrison.com/

I really urge any NW loopsters to check this band out, I left the 
club last night totally inspired.