Bill Frisell
Gone, Just Like a Train
Bill Frisell is special because of his ability to weave a wide variety of styles –
jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, all-out rock and roll — into smooth, melodious,
improvisational music. Each album is a venture through a different kind of landscape,
soundtracks to surprising new stories. Gone, Just like a Train features the
best-known drummer in rock, Jim Keltner, and Viktor Krauss on bass. This tight, brilliant
combination creates an album as colorful as its cartoony packaging, a whimsical ride
through vigorous jazz that occasionally swerves into rock revellry. There’s an
optimism to the sound that has the strange effect of brightening and enlivening any
context. It’s an album that would be as welcome in a morning coffee shop as it would
be at an ale house in the evening…and it’s complex and rewarding enough to
deserve one’s full attention in the solitude of an audiophile’s listening
room. This music enhances the time spent listening, a celebration of sound.
Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Impressive
Bill Frisell
Ghost Town
Ghost Town provides a refreshing counterpoint to the freestyling of the previous two
albums, Gone Just Like a Train and Good Dog Happy Man. This time, Frisell
experiments by playing all of the instruments himself, a first for him. The result is
fitting to the title, a series of spooky, haunted numbers that have a Twin Peaks
quality, resonant, atmospheric, slightly sour, and dark. Maybe playing by himself opened
new doors, new areas for him to explore. Maybe the solitude gave him freedom to express
some of the questions or mysteries harder to bring out in the open when others are
contributing their own ideas. Some songs are familiar—"I’m So Lonesome, I
Could Cry" is an appropriate inclusion, although you’ve never heard a version
quite like this. It’s exciting to hear a one-man band exploring so many instruments
(even a banjo) with such confidence. He doesn’t show off; he seems fully focussed on
exploring different textures, and just grabs whatever tool he needs to dig deepest into
the material. At least of the Frisell recordings I’ve heard before, there’s
never been anything as surreal or gloomy as this, but he’s such a generous and
collaborative artist that I’m fairly confident in saying there’s never been
anything quite so personal and revealing as this in his repertoire.
Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Impressive
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