Note: After I wrote this, I discovered that Marty Varner’s column about Tyminski’s “Southern Gothic” album last year. I almost scrapped this column, but since it deals with the recent live concert in Berkeley as much as the album, I’m keeping it. Read more about the album in the archives.
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Last Sunday night, Dan Tyminski played at Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage Coffee House. His eponymously named band, Tyminski, played mostly from his new album, “Southern Gothic” (2017, Mercury Nashville).
It was loud. It wasn’t bluegrass. I loved it. And, from what I can tell, I’m about the only one who did among my bluegrass-loving circle of friends.
No doubt you know Dan Tyminski as the singing voice of Soggy Bottom Boy Everett Ulysses McGill (played by George Clooney) in the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Or, you know him as the guitar/mandolin player with Alison Krauss and Union Station. He also has four solo albums, including “Southern Gothic.”
If you went to the concert, or listened to “Southern Gothic” expecting a reprise of his “O Brother” or Union Station bluegrass style, you were no doubt disappointed. If you’re like my crowd, a lot of you didn’t know what you were in for. Here’s the lowdown.
EDM
Short for Electronic Dance Music. It’s that disco thump-thump-thump, electronic mash-up you hear if you go to most bars in Amsterdam or Oslo. Swedish DJ Avicii, who died in April of this year, contacted Tyminski to sing on the cut “Hey Brother,” (2013, which appears on Avicii’s album “True.”) Ironically enough, the live version done by Tyminski on stage was probably closer to the sweet bluegrass harmonies that we’re all used to than any of the cuts on ‘Southern Gothic”. Nevertheless, a bit of EDM infuses some of the cuts on “Southern Gothic.”
In the Garden of Good and Evil
For those of us who have lived in the South, the title cut of “Southern Gothic” is deeply evocative of life there. From the more serious line “We got a church on every corner/So why does heaven feel so far away?” to the more humorous “Good fences make good neighbors/But good neighbors make good lovers, too,” the song could be part of a soundtrack for just about every film set in Texas, Louisiana, or Mississippi.
Equally haunting were the “Devil is Downtown” (“The devil is downtown, it’s a hell of a place”) and “Haunted Heart.” In fact, the ghosts and devils show up a lot on the tracks from this album.
Bluegrass and Country
Many of the songs on this tour, however, take on themes familiar to country and bluegrass fans: lost love, cheatin’, crooked politicians and preachers, family, and all the things that enrich and plague our everyday lives. In fact, if the cut “Numb” doesn’t hit you where you live, you need a jumpstart.
Feeling like there was something wrong with me for liking this music, I started searching around for reviews, and was heartened by the fact that I am far from alone in enjoying it.
In the Rolling Stone, reviewer Jon Freeman called the album “a wild clash of sounds that proves traditional sensibilities don’t have to be covered in dust.” Amazon.com reviewers have given it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, with anonymous reviewers saying things like, “I would NEVER have envisioned this blending of roots music and EDM from Dan and yet I was digging it from the first few lines,” and “Southern Gothic is…obviously a masterful union of yesterday’s bluegrass accents and where the future roots of country music should be cultivated.”
At the Berkeley concert, for those who were expecting to hear “Man of Constant Sorrow,” the Soggy Bottom Boys hit, he didn’t disappoint, although the band played a raucous, rocking version. They also covered an Allman Brothers song, further connecting the dots with Southern rock and American tradition.
This album, and Tyminski’s live performance, exist on the margins of many styles and traditions. I dare say it is the perfect ideal of American music—a little bit of everything and truly original. Dan Tyminski has said about this album: “I think it’s important that music does evolve. I think it’s also important that it be preserved. I’ve spent a good share of my time on the latter half, so getting to experiment in some of the evolution is exciting.”
So, to all who say, “That’s not bluegrass!…” Nope, it isn’t. And it sure is good.
