Alex De Grassi - Now and Then - Folk Songs of the 21st Century
Tropo Records

Sometimes being a music fan means borrowing a few good clichés from your grandmother. If the elders can long for the "good old days" why can't we? I get a lot of letter from former rockers longing for the "next big thing" to appear to reaffirm their faith in music. Interestingly, I get more letters from instrumental lovers who long for the New Age heyday of the eighties. Back then anyone with even limited chops could release an album and get airplay via hungry radio station across North America trying to keep up with demand. They say perception is everything and it's easy to assume that because the airplay was there so was the quality - well it was with the Windham Hill label. The eighties brought us the famous record company that introduced founder Will Ackerman’s contemplative peaceful guitar and pianist George Winston who made even a pregnant pause interesting. Lets not forget the late great Michael Hedges who "turned the guitar inside out" - hey was that a cliché'? Alex De Grassi was also responsible for that eighties excitement with classic albums like "Turning Turning Back" and "Slow Circle.” His new album reminded me of two things - 1) Windham Hill was largely responsible for the instrumental boom of the eighties - 2) With the exception of Michael Hedges who died in 1997 all the labels current and former acts are still on top of their game. De Grassi's "Now and Then" is an exercise in superb guitar picking with loads of subtext. Listen carefully and you'll hear a song within a song, a musical reference to another genre or time and maybe a little guitar riff from Elvis! The album opens with "Single Girl" an old frontier song that breaks into the star spangled banner De Grassi says, "It was less born out of a sense of patriotism but just because it kind of fits in the song or with the theme." That theme kind of says that "Folk songs of the 21st Century" are not necessarily genre specific. The old English folk tune "Sweet William" inspired De Grassi to give it a new shine, "I tried to do that one with kind of a hip hop rhythm" says the guitarist proudly. "I also quote the nursery rhyme, "It raining, it's pouring the old man is snoring." That’s nothing, on "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" he quotes Elvis but don't be alarmed this still sounds like a great folk album that any guitar fan will love because of its inevitable long shelf life. De Grassi packs so much music on this album with so many little guitar nuance's that you are bound to hear something new on every listen. The idea for "Now and Then" came to De Grassi while touring with Brazilian guitarist Paulo Bellinati, ”I started to realize that most of the music he was playing, composing and performing was rooted in the folk music and the various ethnic music of Brazil." De Grassi also noticed a lot more going on in Bellinati's sound "He played the pieces rooted in different rhythms or different regional sections but he's taken them to a different place by the fact that he was composing his own music using those rhythms or certain aspects of that folk tradition in his music." De Grassi then realized that this approach wasn't really covered in North America and so the project started two years ago. "Now and Then" is an album of traditional folk songs recorded as if they were written yesterday by more modern minds. De Grassi injects sometimes non western scales and a little samba and maybe a Rock 'n Roll subtext in every little ditty on this CD. Is it New Age? Well, no but it's much more. This album will appeal to both old rockers waiting for the second coming and New Age and folk fans who love clever, intricate guitar picking. De Grassi picks apart old folk songs and reminds us that the good old days just got better today. If you have problems finding this one it's available from De Grassi's official site at http://www.degrassi.com. - By John Beaudin