Published on Jan 12, 2001
Say the words “acoustic resonator guitar,” and most people would
give you a stare like a deer caught in a car’s headlights. Say
“dobro,” though, and more people might recognize what you’re
talking about. Yet dobro guitar work isn’t something you hear a lot
of anymore. Sure, it’s still present in some blues and country
music, but for the most part, your chances of hearing a dobro are
about the same as Eminem being the grand marshall at a gay rights
parade.
Then, there’s Peggy Green. Her album
Songs Of Naka Peida, is a different approach to both
acoustic resonator guitar music and to new age music. This isn’t
fancy picking to show off one’s skills. This is music that comes
straight from the heart and the mind, and challenges the listener
to allow themselves to be taken on a journey that has no set path
nor an easy flight. It’s hauntingly beautiful.
If I’ve read Green’s story correctly, she has suffered some
injury to her hands which keep her from playing acoustic guitar in
the way you or I would be used to. Instead, she has shifted her
attention to pedal dobro guitars, which allow here the ability to
create music that crosses all rules and boundaries. In a way, what
she creates is a mournful blues, but she’s also able to paint
mental pictures with her music that could illustrate a sunrise as
much as a lightning storm.
It’s a different experience, to be sure – and it’s not always
the easiest musical style to embrace. It took me a few attempts to
get through the disc’s opening track “Fair Affliction” before the
lightbulb went on and I realized just what Green was trying to get
across.
Further efforts, as heard on “Wrong Stop Blue,” “Love’s Lost
Chance” and “Nakahama,” try to create a balance between the
Japanese scenes that Green saw as she recorded these (the bulk of
the disc was recorded in Japan) and the Americanization of the
music through the dobros. The listener is also given the chance to
hear musical ideas being pulled out of thin air on the three-song
suite “Improvisations In The Moonlit Dawn,” which are sparse but
strangely intriguing.
Songs Of Naka Peida is admittedly not a disc you’ll
immediately take a shine to, nor is it one which will find a
constant home in the CD changer. But what Green does is create some
interesting mood music, and it’s a disc which you’ll undoubtedly
find yourself drawn to when the muse moves you. I could see myself
listening to this disc as a spring shower fell outside of my
bedroom window. (Of course, I’m writing this in the heart of
winter, so that’s a moot point, I guess.) Whatever the case may be,
there’s enough on
Songs Of Naka Peida that should move you in some manner, and
will provide you with a gentle way to spend 45 minutes or so
escaping the pressures of the world.