Echoing his 1995 release, Nashville, Bill Frisell's The Willies revisits the auburn sounds of American roots music.
Although he has dipped into folk music in prior efforts, these songs follow the traditional mode even more faithfully than any of his previous releases, with only minor shifts into his familiar dissonant explorations.
Assisted by Danny Barnes (Bad Livers) on banjo and guitar and bassist Keith Lowe (Fiona Apple, Wayne Horvitz & Zony Mash), Frisell's quirky tonalities and sweeping soundscapes still pervade each track, but the disquieting surges found on releases like The Bill Frisell Quartet and Gone, Just Like a Train are relatively reigned in.
This in no way means that The Willies sounds anything like Hot Rize or New Grass Revival -- it is most certainly a Bill Frisell album; dark and mysterious, eerily beautiful, richly textured and layered -- just sort of a kinder, gentler Bill Frisell album.
Highlights include the banjo-driven Carter Family standard "Single Girl, Married Girl" and the group's stark rendition of "Sugar Baby," a song usually associated with the similarly haunting Dock Boggs.
Anyone familiar with the guitarist's style will understand his choices in recording these timeworn love songs and murder ballads, and traditional folk aficionados will be intrigued to hear their old favorites in this new environment.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cluck Old HenTraditional | Bill Frisell | Play | 02:18 | 5 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Everybody Loves EverybodyBill Frisell | Bill Frisell | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | I Want to Go HomeBill Frisell | Bill Frisell | Play | 04:15 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Single Girl, Married GirlA.P. Carter | Bill Frisell | Play | 03:57 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Get AlongBill Frisell | Bill Frisell | Play | 03:23 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Sugar BabyTraditional | Bill Frisell | Play | 03:51 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Blackberry BlossomTraditional | Bill Frisell | Play | 04:20 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | If I Could I Surely WouldBill Frisell | Bill Frisell | Play | 06:46 | 15 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | Cluck Old Hen (Reprise)Traditional | Bill Frisell | Play | 01:50 | 4 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | Cold, Cold HeartHank Williams | Bill Frisell | Play | 02:27 | 5 MB | 0 MB |
| 11 | I Know You CareBill Frisell | Bill Frisell | Play | 03:13 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 12 | Goodnight IreneLead Belly, John A. Lomax | Bill Frisell | Play | 08:57 | 20 MB | 0 MB |
| 13 | Big ShoeBill Frisell, Jimmy Hamilton | Bill Frisell | Play | 07:50 | 17 MB | 0 MB |
| 14 | The WilliesBill Frisell | Bill Frisell | Play | 06:25 | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| 15 | Sittin' on Top of the World | Bill Frisell | Play | 04:00 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 16 | John Hardy Was a Desperate Man | Bill Frisell | Play | 05:18 | 12 MB | 0 MB |
| 72 mins | 166 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danny Barnes | Banjo, Bass Harmonica, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Pump Organ |
| 2 | Greg Calbi | Mastering |
| 3 | A.P. Carter | Composer |
| 4 | Lonnie Chatmon | Composer |
| 5 | Bill Frisell | Composer, Cover Art, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Loops, Primary Artist |
| 6 | Jimmy Hamilton | Composer |
| 7 | Lead Belly | Composer |
| 8 | John A. Lomax | Composer |
| 9 | Keith Lowe | Bass |
| 10 | Tucker Martine | Engineer, Mixing Engineer |
| 11 | Adam Muñoz | Assistant Engineer |
| 12 | Gwen Terpstra | Design |
| 13 | Lee Townsend | Producer |
| 14 | Traditional | Composer |
| 15 | Walter Vinson | Composer |
| 16 | Hank Williams | Composer |
| 17 | Michael Wilson | Photography |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |