Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends
Released: February 2010
Cards on the table. This is only the second harmonica album I have ever bought. That said, calling it a Harmonica album doesn't do it justice or properly describe it. This is a country blues album, with a huge cast of fantastic musicians, in which the focal point happens to be a fine harp player and singer. There's barely a shuffle in sight, and you certainly won't find any 72 bar harp solos.
Crucially (and perhaps unusually) Grant Dermody's harp never dominates the songs here; it serves them tastefully. Perfectly even. Its all about the songs.
Back to the huge cast- the CD kicks off with Eric Bibb on guitar, delivering a subtle finger picked rendition of Gary Davis' I'll Be Alright to accompany Grant's gentle vocal and laid back harp.
Amazing Grace is a standard (and perhaps a cliché) but hits the right spot. Full of atmosphere but somehow unsentimental, the track features Orville Johnson's unique dobro sound, partnered with lap steel and held together by John Miller's acoustic guitar. The smooth beginnings grow into an unexpected crescendo and a good deal of life is breathed into what is a very familiar old hymn.
John Cephas' last recording, a rendition of Hard Time Killing Floor, sees Grant take a back seat to Cephas' vocals and guitar, but as ever the harp is perfectly measured and exactly compliments the song.
Waterbound deserves a special mention. Sparse banjo and a beautiful haunting melody, delivered by Grant with passion and intensity. I'm not familiar with the song, but its one of those tunes that sounds like I've probably known it forever, without happening to realise it.
What I quickly realised on listening to this music, is just how much I enjoy Grant's vocals. He readily switches from soft to booming, but the latter is never ill judged or overdone. The tone is pure and absolutely natural. There are no affectations here, no attempts to try to sound like an old black bluesman. Just Grant Dermody singing loud and clear, from somewhere deep down in the gut.
First Light is another early favourite for me. A Dermody original with an agreeable thumping groove (driven by acoustic bass) and infectious rhythmic mandolin from Orville Johnson.
Notable further contributors to the generous 16 tracks include Frank Fotusky, Louisiana Red, Rich Del Grosso and Del Rey, among many others.
I can do no better in summing up the essence of this CD, than to borrow Grant's quote from the sleeve:
Eileen said to me once that our life is a poem and a prayer and a love song. Not too surprisingly, so is this recording.
Hugely enjoyable and highly recommended.
Grant Dermody is one of the few blues cats who, beyond singing, plays harmonica and only harmonica. This concentration has allowed the cultivation of a rich palette of inflection, tone, and breadth. Because of that, he reaches beyond the narrower confines of the genre, landing more fully in Norton Buffalo territory cross-sliced with a very generous tang of John Mayall (and if you want a companion piece to John's celebrated Room to Move, bend an ear to Rain Crow Bill here). In fact, along with Buffalo, he's one of the very few players whose skill argues for the inclusion of the harp as an unusual orchestral instrument—were we only to have a Ferdi Grofe or William Russo type composer still around.
For back-up on this disc, Dermody recruited an armada of skilled players, some very well known: Del Rey, Louisiana Red, John Cephas, and others. The sound is mostly stripped down, nailing an open sky atmosphere, and his voice carries a bit of John Sebastian but tends to the monotonic. The entirety of the CD is acoustic and frequently dips into folk and gospelly airs, though the title cut is surprisingly patina'ed with folk-rock and light jazz. Much of the entire enterprise is an elegy to Dermody's late wife Eileen, who sings alto on the a capella Hard Times Come Again No More, and to his mother, who passed two months after Eileen, who was battling cancer.
The lama Kilung Jigme Rinpoche apears on the closing track, in a dreamy rendition of the trad Vajra Guru Mantra, standing as a reminder that the entire world has lament musics, not just American blues. Lay Down My Burden is an extremely well wrought tapestry of roots musics crafted in Dermody's mode of syncresis resulting in a CD that treads ground alongside those he admires—people who, in the words of liner writer Phil Wiggins, "keep moving forward". Thus, it closes the chapter on tragedy quite nicely while opening the door to new days and the future without diminishing either.
Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends
Released: February 2010
Mark Hoffman
Sacred harp—not the shape-note kind, but the three-hole draw kind, filled with deep, spiritually rich blues, gospel, and old-time music. That’s Grant Dermody’s new CD. He’s accompanied by 26 top roots musicians, including Eric Bibb, Darick Campbell, Joe Filisko, Mark Graham, Rich Del Grosso, John Dee Holeman, Orville Johnson, John Miller, Louisiana Red, Del Rey, and others. Also his mentor John Cephas, whose last recording is here: an ethereal version of Skip James’s Hard Time Killing Floor Blues. Dermody knows a lot about hard times. Within the last year, his wife, Eileen, and both of his parents also passed away. He threw himself into this CD with a passion, and it shows. The arrangements of these traditional and original songs are stately and elegiac, and his rich-toned, soulful harmonica elevates every syllable. Treasures abound, such as a spritely version of “Twelve Gates to the City” propelled by Dermody’s and Filisko’s whoppin’-and-hollerin’ harps. An original, “Evening Train,” that chugs along on the driving wheel of Del Rey’s metal-body guitar and Dermody’s huffing harp. An a capella “Hard Times Come Again No More” featuring Dermody’s late wife. Even a Tibetan prayer chanted by his Buddhist teacher Kilung Jigme Rinpoche. The CD was mixed by Michael Bishop, a nine-time Grammy winner. All in all, this is the kind of deeply felt, gracefully played CD that can ease any burden.
Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends
Released: February 2010
Bob Tilling -
There are twenty six guest appearances on this set and often when I see long lists of guests it makes me feel apprehensive that the album may be a little too diverse in style - but I am pleased to say that I was completely wrong about this set, especially as among the guests are John Cephas, John Dee Holman and Eric Bibb. I enjoyed every moment of this very entertaining set where Dermody is very much the front man while allowing his guests to express their own personalities
Seattle, WA, based harmonica player and vocalist Dermody has been touring and recording with Eric Bibb for some while now, and on the opening, Rev. Gary Davis title, I’ll Be Alright they work sympathetically together. The lyrically delicate guitar picking from Bibb is a perfect match to the rich textured harmonica tone from Dermody making this a perfect start to this sixteen track session.
Dermody has a range of musical styles and influences where the blues play an important role and this is very evident on the second title It’s My Soul, from the Steven Gomes and Ronnie Earl stable, which powers along at a great pace after the successful lilting opener. It was a real delight to hear John Cephas join Dermody on Skip James’s 1931 classic Hard Time Killing Floor Blues and is one of the most compelling moments of this highly recommended set. This is a rare recording of Cephas recording with another harmonica player other than with his long time musical partner Phil Wiggins. Cephas is one the best exponents of James’s material and the duo here certainly capture the eerie quality of the 1931 original to perfection.
I have never been much of a fan of harmonica duo’s but the two here have helped me change my mind! The first with Mark Graham entitled Rain Crow Bill was composed by the legendary Henry Whitter and drives along with a timeless feel, suggesting at times, the style of the harp maestro Sonny Terry, and on the traditional Twelve Gates To The City, Dermody with Joe Filisko gives this much recorded classic a fresh and engaging outing. On Jimmy Reed’s You Don’t Have to Go Dermody plays some gritty harp alongside the gutsy guitar picking and vocals from, the National Heritage Fellowship award winner, John Dee Holeman. The vocals from Louisiana Red, on his own composition Where Is My Friends?, have a warm and weathered quality and the dexterous mandolin from Rich Del Grosso add to the infectious tension.
This beautiful, balanced album was produced by Orville Johnson, a long time fellow recording and performing partner of Dermody, and appears on four tracks playing both mandolin and Dobro. His Dobro playing on the evergreen Amazing Grace adds tremendous class as does the refined guitar picking from John Miller. There is a sense of Blind Boy Fuller’s jaunty style on So Sweet with some strident guitar from Frank Fotusky all adding to the enjoyment. It is not possible to mention all of the guests on this album but everyone involved has given a fine contribution on this beautifully recorded and balanced set.
There are three intriguing originals where Dermody illustrates that he is willing to wear his heart on his sleeve. I particularly enjoyed Evening Train which hits a hypnotic groove helped along by the confident guitar picking of Del Rey while the vocals from Dermody are natural and engaging. The past three years have not been easy for Dermody, in particular with the loss of his wife Eileen who passed away last year during the recording of this album. This is a very strong outing from a gifted and highly respected performer and teacher, and the sincere notes from Phil Wiggins all add up to make this a disc worth adding to any serious collection.
Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends
Released: February 2010
Cathi Norton -
It’s hard to sum up this record. It would never fit into a category, for it is a journey— a story gently told by instruments and voices, old and new. This album came together over a period Grant describes as one of the toughest of his life, when his world was shaken by the passing of several loved ones central to his world. “It could have turned out to be a dirge, but it didn’t,” he said almost in wonder. He’s right, instead of a dirge it is a work of singular power, a testament given by Grant and his many friends to musical healing.
Old-time traditional musical styles—country blues, bluegrass and folk—seem to have largely fallen out of popular favor in recent years, though many students have followed the trails left by genre masters and spent time learning to replicate their styles. What drove past styles to greatness was the feeling and soul with which they were created. If the musician—or the listener—does not feel or understand that, the songs sound lifeless and stale. Rare are musicians who can hear, understand, and express that “feeling” and bring it once more to life. Rarer still are the ones who can add something to old styles that combines respect for and attention to what has gone before, yet adds something delightful and “true” to carry them even further. This disc is a wonderful example of that melding.
Listening is a fading art. Grant’s adventures in music are diverse yet he clearly listens to learn and savor. His harmonica work testifies to this. Never does he “step on” or “step out in front” of the music to its detriment. He’s a team player who cannot help but be noticed—because his harmonica playing supports when it should, is technically stunning, and always adds to the whole. No mishmash of instrumentation here…spare, yet tasteful accountings of each style grace every song. On a single disc we hear Eric Bibb’s soulful guitarwork, Rich Del Grosso’s mandolin, three lowdown blues tunes with wonderful old-timers John Cephas, John Dee Holeman, and Louisiana Red, a stellar harmonica duet with harp-maestro Joe Filisko, plus the wonderful work of Del Rey, Orville Johnson (who also produced the disc) and many other great players. Grant and friends move seamlessly between bluegrass, country, and blues, as the listener is joyfully propelled along Grant’s musical/life adventure. For goodness sakes we even hear an a capella Stephen Foster tune—and the collection ends with a Tibetan prayer/mantra voiced by Kilung Jigme Rinpoche— accompanied by Grant on harp and Orville Johnson on dobro!
Grant’s vocals themselves sometimes waiver, yet somehow always meld in with the “true-ness” of expression that characterize the work of his fellow musicians and the journey of this album. What delights are seen (and heard) along the way if we but look and listen. Like recognizing an old friend on a foreign street when you’ve been too long from home, Grant’s CD really is—as Phil Wiggins says in the liner notes—a welcome “banquet that feeds the spirit. “ To me, it also clearly relates the story of a man’s journey, his loves, losses, and the music—that like love—sustains us all beyond time. .
Deceiving Blues – Johnson, Miller & Dermody
Released: 2006 Orb Discs ORB 1007
Tom Peterson - Victory Review
When three of the finest musicians in the Pacific Northwest go into a room, pull up chairs around a microphone, and let fly, it’s hard not to be prejudicial about the results. Of course, Deceiving Blues is terrific: must have, automatic, get it today, etc. What makes it SO good, though, is that local legends Orville Johnson, John Miller, and Grant Dermody have pushed each other into new places and spaces, drawing out sounds and abilities for this record that they’ve not achieved before. Johnson, already acclaimed as the King of Mongrel Folk and as such a seemingly endless repository of different old-timey styles, puts on a tour de force, trying a little something extra and astonishing on each tune. He can go from chirpy highs to guttural lows, and weave and bend every note in between. He’s never doing it just to show off, though: he’s complimenting his own Dobro, and playing against Miller’s guitar and Dermody’s supple harmonica. The well-known Johnson, however, is not the album’s greatest revelation. That would be Dermody. The harpist had the area’s album of the year a couple back (Crossing That River), on which he displayed a sly, tempered light baritone on the vocal cuts. This time, his buddies urge him to a menacing growl on “Soul of a Man” and “Depot Blues” that really works. Meanwhile, the musicianship is uniformly fantastic. Miller says that the group was looking for ways to stretch out, relax, and find something new in a mix of classics and originals, and they’ve succeeded. The group lays back some on the traditionally brisk “Stewball,” but then pushes the laconic “Polly Put the Kettle On.” This is the sound of genius at work: THAT’S why this is a must-have.
Deceiving Blues
Bob Tilling
This Seattle based acoustic trio, of Johnson (guitar, mandolin, dobro, washboard and vocals), Miller (guitar and vocals) and Dermody (harp and vocals), have been working together for over ten years but this is their first time in the recording studio for a full album, which is performed with great confidence and consummate skill. All three men are well known in their own rights both as performers and teachers, working sympathetically together giving each other plenty of space in which to express their own individual personalities.
The choice of material is fascinating, including titles from the likes of Charlie Patton, Memphis Slim, Tampa Red and Rev. Gary Davis, with a number that I have not heard recorded elsewhere for some while. I was, in particular, interested to hear Leadbelly’s Stewball where the vocals are led by Miller with some driving and intricate mandolin from Johnson. The harp from Dermody is quite superb throughout this set and he has a tone very much of his own and on Memphis Slim’s Mother Earth his distinctive break is one of the highlights of this highly recommended set.
I have enjoyed Miller’s guitar playing since I first heard him back in the late sixties when he recorded for the “legendary” Blue Goose label owned by the late Nick Perls based in New York City. He is a clean and accurate player capturing the feel of many of the early players while adding much of his own personality. On the Son House classic Depot Blues he is particularly tight creating a perfect foil for the heartfelt vocals from Dermody. The dobro from Johnson on Sonny Boy Williams’ Springtime Blues sets him apart from many of his contemporary players while his vocals throughout are natural and impressive. His singing, in particular, on Rev. Gary Davis’s emotional original I Will Do My Last Singing is awesome capturing much of Davis’s intense honesty.
This is not a recreation of historic recording but a very personal and entertaining interpretation of some carefully selected material all performed with integrity and skill. This is a heartfelt outing by three serious and committed musicians performing naturally and without any pretensions and long may it continue!
Deceiving Blues
Pat Missin–Harmonica World Magazine
I loved Grant Dermody's solo album "Crossing That River", an eclectic blend of old time Americana, blues, jazz and calypso released a couple of years ago, so I expected that I would enjoy this album too. I was right. This CD finds Grant teamed with guitarist John Miller and Orville Johnson on mandolin, Dobro and washboard, all three of them taking turns at vocals. Any one of these musicians could make a great album by themselves, but the three combine to form something greater than the sum of its parts. The material covered on the CD is mostly straight ahead country blues, but they've avoided slavish recreations of the classics in favour of more personal interpretations, enhanced by recording the album "live" with no overdubs or studio trickery, making it sound almost like the musicians are right there in the room with you. There are a few well known tunes, such as "Trouble In Mind" and Henry Thomas's "Bull Doze Blues", but there are also some lesser known gems including a beautiful version of Charlie Patton's "Some of These Days". Throughout the whole CD, Grant's harmonica playing shows a keen sense of appropriateness - at times introspective, at other times playful, always perfectly in keeping with the mood of the song and the feel established by the other musicians. For this reason, I would highly recommend it to harmonica players as a text book example of how to integrate the harp into a small acoustic ensemble. More importantly, I would highly recommend it to roots music fans as an album of great music well played.
Lyin’, cheatin’, and sneakin’: the blues is rank with falsehoods and double-dealing. But there’s no deception on this disc. What you hear is the genuine article, direct from three titans of Northwest acoustic blues: Orville Johnson, John Miller, and Grant Dermody. Johnson is well-known for his innovative slide guitar and dobro playing and unbridled singing. Miller is renowned for his clean, complex fingerpicking in a variety of genres and styles, and for his guitar teaching credentials and many instructional tapes and DVDs. Harmonica player Dermody is less well known, but based on the evidence here and on his debut solo album last year, “Crossing That River,” he should be internationally famous. He has technique and tone to spare, and an easy intimacy with the subtleties of blues music that’ll make you think he started blowing harp about when he learned to walk.
The three bluesmen first played together a few years ago when they were on staff at the Centrum/Port Townsend Blues Workshops and enjoyed it so much that they kept getting together on occasion, though they maintain separate careers. Their first CD together is a romp through twelve acoustic blues classics by Memphis Slim, Charlie Patton, John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, Leadbelly, Tampa Red, Blind Willie Johnson, Son House, Gary Davis, and others. Like all classics, these tunes are full of the kind of mysterious yet somehow vaguely familiar lyrics and melodies that sound like they were not so much crafted as unearthed in a musty oak trunk of unknown provenance. They sound centuries old—ideal for the grand, old-time whoopin’, wailin’, moanin’, and hollerin’ that Johnson, Miller, and Dermody specialize in. Their arrangements, playing, and singing are superb throughout.
Prime cuts are the old warhorse “Stewball,” with Johnson and Miller’s wildly syncopated mandolin and guitar, Miller’s slap-your-knees funny vocal, and Dermody’s luscious harp solo. “Some of These Days,” associated with Charlie Patton (but based on a pop tune first recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1911), with Dermody’s slick harp and vocal and Johnson’s tasty mandolin. The sly, jazzy title tune, driven by Johnson’s dynamite dobro. (No wonder they call him a King of Mongrel Folk!) Johnson’s clever vocal on “Polly Put the Kettle On,” accompanied by Dermody’s tight, rhythmic harp. A propulsive version of Blind Willie Johnson’s famous “Soul of a Man” that’s pushed into hyperdrive by combined guitar, mando, and harp. Miller’s string-snapping guitar work on “Depot Blues.” Johnson’s moving vocal and Dermody’s beautiful harp on Gary Davis’s “I Will Do My Last Singing in This World Somewhere.”
In fact, all these songs are keepers. No lie—this is a great acoustic blues CD!
Crossing that river
Released: 2003
"The buzz in Seattle the last couple of months has been: check out Grant Dermody's CD. The session ace and perennial mouth harp coach at Blues camps was out with his own sound, backed by top local talent and a couple of out of town ringers. The buzz is right."
Tom Peterson - Victory Review
"Where so many country blues revivalists sound like tourists or carpetbaggers, Grant Dermody devises his own musical map. An understated harmonica virtuoso and a vocalist of subtlety and warmth, he not only renews an acoustic legacy, but extends it. "
Don McCleese, No Depression Magazine, Jan.-Feb., 2004
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"Seattle based harmonicist and musical adventurer Grant Dermody has created a name for himself by his work with the old time band the Improbabillies, (and if you like old timey music, you will love the Improbabillies) as well as backing up other musicians and teaching harmonica workshops.. Grant and 16 other collaborators have created a musical journey that draws from old time string bands, rural and urban blues, ragtime, gospel, country, calypso, and jazz. The combinations run from duets to full bands. What holds it all together is a pervasive mood created by the alchemy of true friendship and kindred spirits playing music that they love. It is a subtle but very satisfying quality that grows with repeated listening."
Richard Sleigh
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"Now with his first solo CD Dermody brings it together with a feeling. Liner notes by drummer Dale Fanning describe that feeling best: “This recording is not only about exploring and building on various ‘roots' music styles, it's about roots in a deeper sense of the word as well; community, the root of culture, the basis of music.” Dermody plays from “inside” each genre, with the familiarity and care of a lover of each. Surrounded by friends and respected musical peers—excellent musicians each and every one—he creates community even as he dispenses it. I hear the relationship between him, the players, and the musicianship, and yes, it's clearly a spiritual thing. "
Cathi Norton, American Harmonica Newsmagazine, December 2003.
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