Stash Wyslouch goes track by track through “Plays and Sings Bluegrass Vol. II”, May 6
Stash Wyslouch will stop by Folk & Beyond Thursday afternoon, May 6, at 4 (edt) to go track by track through his new album, Stash Wyslouch Plays and Sings Bluegrass Vol. II. You can listen locally at 91.1 FM, streaming at wtju.net, or by asking your smart speaker to “Play WTJU.”
Stash Wyslouch is a Bluegrass guitarist known for his “extreme flavor of avant-garde freneticism” (Music Connection Magazine Jan 2021, Andy Kaufmann)
A departure from his past 3 albums of purely original music, “Plays and Sings Bluegrass Vol. II” is a collection of re-imagined Bluegrass standards.
Notable cuts off “Plays and Sings Bluegrass Vol. II” include Jimmy Martin’s “My Walking Shoes” and Bill Monroe’s “Will you be Loving Another Man?” which make way for dynamic unisons, whiplash-inducing tempo changes and sludge-metal-like riffage.
The band features Sean Trischka on drums, Duncan Wickel on fiddle and Max Ridley on bass.
Bluegrass has framed Wyslouch’s life for the past 15 years touring and recording with groups such as The Deadly Gentlemen, Bruce Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, the Jacob Jolliff Band, Tony Trischka’s Early Roman Kings, and his own group, The Stash band.
Stash Wyslouch is a devout student and die-hard fan of the traditional Bluegrass genre. Despite this fact, “Plays and Sings Bluegrass Vol. II” is a far-cry from a traditional Bluegrass album.
Using well-known and obscure traditionals as a jumping off point, great liberties were taken re-writing melodies, inserting riffs, and integrating improvisations throughout. Describing the arranging/composition process Wyslouch says: “Any little gesture from the original song and recording can be used as a portal for further exploration. A classic melody or even fragment of a melody can be flipped upside down, sped up or slowed down and morphed into a whole new identity, all the while maintaining a core feeling akin to what I first experienced when I fell in love with the music.”
In addition to songs by The Carter Family, Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, EC Ball, and Flatt & Scruggs, 2 original instrumental tunes, “Stash’s Turkey in the Straw” and “Stash’s Fiddler’s Dream” are included.
“For most, radical interpretations of conservative favorites will be declare the creative output of a raving Lunatic” (Music Connection Magazine Jan 2021)
Perhaps a little Lunacy in Bluegrass is just what is needed in this day and age.
