I found myself a little torn about whether to post a review of the new Alex Hargreaves album, Prelude, to Twangville. Â It does have fiddle and banjo and mandolin, but rarely does it even come close to twangy. Â It’s much more a jazz album. Â But this is a path that’s been blazed already by Bela Fleck, Alison Brown and others, and Twangville readers clearly have a wide spectrum of music they appreciate, so I decided to go ahead and hit Publish. Â And speaking of Fleck, both he and Mike Marshall have guest appearances so there’s some Americana bona fides here.
The first song on the record, Shasta, has a driving background banjo part that reminded me of 80’s era Pat Metheny. Â It serves as a good warm up to Big Hook, a pretty traditional take on bluegrass, with some tasty mandolin to go with Hargreaves’ fiddle playing. Â Lost in Lunel, about the French mandolin festival, also hews to the bluegrass genre.
More of the album, however, is jazz focused. Â April Joy does the fusion idea proud with a bluegrass instrumented take on a traditional sounding jazz tune. Â That leads into the John Scofield composition, There Will Never Be Another/Not You Again, that would have been right at home back in the day when I used to catch some of masters at a couple of Kansas City clubs. Â I also have to mention Road Song, a tune that quickly goes on the attack with a fiddle/bass duel, but then transitions into something more New Orleans than Harlem.
On the whole, Prelude is a record I’ll probably go back to when I’m in the mood for something a little different. Â The musicianship on this all-instrumental album is pretty fabulous. Â It is, though, more jazz and ambience than my normal daily diet of music.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.