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Big Mystery (Threshold Music 2009)
Dana and Susan Robinson’s album Big Mystery sings of the enduring beauty and prolific life force that exists all around us. From the whimsical springtime-in-the-north setting of the title track, to the Afro-Celtic strains of “Waiting For Gordon” these songs are postcards from the magical and forgotten places they travel. Simply conceived, and recorded by Chris Rosser in Asheville, North Carolina, Big Mystery highlights Dana and Susan’s sound as a duo. Their trademark, guitar, banjo, and fiddle sound stands out clearly while flourishes of percussion, bass, piano and dotar from Asheville’s world music trio Free Planet Radio are interspersed throughout.
Cast of Players
Dana Robinson - Vocals, Guitar, Fiddle, Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Banjo, Harmonica Susan Robinson - Vocals, Banjo, Guitar River Guerguian - Kit Drums, Hand Drums Eliot Wadopian - Acoustic Bass Chris Rosser - Piano, Dotar |
The newest CD from Dana and Susan Robinson is a homespun affair that’s what you’d get if you updated some Child Ballads, filtered them through the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina, and seasoned with amble doses of Jay and Molly Ungar, and occasional dashes of hooky pop. There are catchy old-time melodies, a cover of Lui Collins’s “Gone But Not Forgotten” that sounds even older, a bluegrass rendering of Leadbelly’s “Poor Howard,” and several gentle and sublime originals. Susan’s version of Bill Steele’s “Griselda’s Waltz,” a retelling of the Cinderella tale, is a surefire crowd-pleaser rendered in a style reminiscent of Sally Rogers. One of the many joys of this album is the imagery it evokes of places, be it the Zephyr Valley of Minnesota, the hills of North Carolina, or Scotland’s Isle of Mull. “Zephyr Wind” is as gentle as a soft breeze, the perfect frame for what begins as a love song to a hike and evolves into reflections on the lessons embedded in silence. You can envision a leisurely float down the Mississippi on “Delta Queen,” perhaps with John Hartford at the steamboat helm. And, though Vermont inspired the clever wordplay of the pop-like title track, anyone residing in a northern clime can relate to Dana’s take on the suddenness with which life unlocks after a long winter.Toss in some solid backup work from Asheville's Free Planet Radio, and you've got an unpretentious gem.
– Rob Weir, The Valley Advocate
– Rob Weir, The Valley Advocate
