Storm Jameson
A new recording from Matt Gold and Jim Tashjian
Roll On Buddy is the second recording by Storm Jameson. It is available for purchase on vinyl and digitally here.
This has been fun. I reached out to the folks behind Storm Jameson, Matt Gold and Jim Tashjian, and we were able to find time to have a Zoom conversation, a lightly edited version of which I am sharing with you.
You can dive in here:
I knew of Jim Tashjian through his playing with the neo-prog rock band District 97, but lately I’d also heard him in other settings, backing Bethany Clearfield and Matt Ulery. Even in some of the larger bands with lots of instruments, I had found myself drawn to his contributions on guitar in a variety of styles. I’m also just generally jealous at this point of musicians who play instruments as well as I could ever hope to play them, and then also can lean casually over to a microphone and sing while they’re doing it. Matt Gold has been a fixture of the jazz scene for years, but lately I have also noticed a certain adventurous collaborationism appearing, as well as mentions about his skills as a producer. I first heard him play as part of Greg Ward’s Rogue Parade (a group that it was pleasing to watch from initial shows at the great jazz bar the Whistler all the way to Symphony Center, opening for the Bad Plus a few years later). Rogue Parade also includes the wildly innovative, indispensable guitarist Dave Miller. And Matt also appeared recently in Dan Thatcher’s double-guitar project Waterwheel with another astonishing Chicago guitarist, John Kregor. So—a lot of guitar collaboration going on!
There were a few instances of kismet during our chat that I’ll highlight here. I hesitatingly suggested that perhaps Gillian Welch’s music might be a bit in the background of their music, and soon learned that yes, the Welch-Rawlings duo was important to both musicians, indeed was a crucial example of the kind of approach they took to this recording, the core of which was one long afternoon session with just the two guitarists, a microphone for singing, and no headphones, recording in the same room together.1 The track that best exemplifies the approach is here:
I was grateful for the conversation, and also grateful to be spared many embarrassments, including my ignorance of the traditional nature of a number of the songs. All the songs on this recording are by other people, although in some cases the original authorship is murky—that includes the title track, “Roll On Buddy,” which shares some elements with another song, “Nine Pound Hammer,” and appears in different versions by musicians from various locations and traditions. I was particularly grateful to be introduced to the music of Irish musician Paul Brady, and world-roving fiddler Bruce Molsky. Both are represented more than once in the playlist I’ve included below.
I also included the odd historical sequence of “Ready for the Times to Get Better,” which was originally recorded by country musician Crystal Gayle in 1976, and then covered by Doc Watson years later—but in Watson’s hands took on what Gold describes accurately as “a timeless quality.” Gold and Tashjian are deeply interested in the way songs can take unexpected paths like this, putting the Irish traditional song, “Mary and the Soldier,” next to Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes” and then next to “Roll On Buddy”—they referred to this as a kind of “thesis statement” for the record.
I wonder—would I feel like the Joel were a traditional song if I didn’t know better? It would be a nice thing to try out on students. I feel like there are a few aspects of its relationship analysis that betray a modern mind. It is also a typically stunning example of Joel’s harmonic sophistication. (Coming back to songs like “Allentown” and “Honesty” after spending some time studying harmonic progressions is a fairly flabbergasting experience.)
But I want to settle on “Mary” a little more2 to connect back with a topic from last week, and one of my favorite topics, namely gender-blurring aspects of song and songwriting.
Some versions of this song have Mary actually become a soldier, as in cross-dress so she can sign up and accompany him and fight by his side in foreign wars. This version I would say is a little unclear about that. I’d be grateful for more information if any of my readers have it. But what I carry to a situation like this is basically Jane Austen and the like: I don’t have any sense that anyone other than officers, and usually pretty high-ranking officers, ever got to travel with their wives to foreign engagements or postings. Indeed, when I heard this song the first time, I was expecting an Elvira Madigan-type plot, where the soldier deserts in order to run away with Mary. Not what happens!
Finally, I’ll share this clip from a story that Tashjian tells about the beginnings of his interest in “Time Flies.” (I also include Rosemary Clooney’s recorded version in the playlist. Oh and I also included a bit of music by Rakesh Chaurasia—because I’m interested in discussing associations of American/Anglo folk music and Hindustani classical music, you know, at some future point.)
Take care and remember to give me feedback if you have it, and like and share and all that kind of stuff, if you feel so inclined.
It turned out that Gold was indeed planning to attend the Welch/Rawlings concert that evening and when I saw him there he pointed out that the duo was doing the same thing now on stage: no direct inputs from instruments, and no close monitor speakers—they were trying as much as possible, it seemed, to recreate the feeling of two people playing together in a little room, translated to Chicago’s gorgeous Auditorium Theater.
And while on the topic of this song, the interview gets into a bit more about this New York-based violinist Dana Lyn who plays here, and I have included some of her music in the playlist too.