Wednesday 22 February 2017

Excellent Qualities Of The New Delphinium CD

By Jerry Collins


People who came late into the current music world have created the most memorable works, and many of them have moved on to become well known. All sorts of people, young and old, are creating the most pleasing sounds, age being ethereal in a world ruled by YouTube and online sites. Many were waylaid and came back to music, while others have come into the picture quite late.

One person who has wide experience of the world is the artist Dean Maser. His road was longer than others had, but he made his way back into making music after attending a hootenanny open mic session, which led to the making of Delphinium CD. Lucky are those who have accessed the album.

Maser has wandered around a bit, and he is entirely within the tradition of American blues minstrelsy, with many greats coming before him. There are many masters, and Dylan has been lately recognized with a Nobel in literature, a conundrum for all American music makers. Maser, though, has skipped into a unique space with a the visual and rural Gothic perspective in this album.

Delphinium continues his journey into a broad landscape, filled with the sere and open vistas of the Midwest and the spiritual rigors of the American West. The title of this new work was taken from the flower, which is considered a late bloomer, coming round in the high heat of summer. It has a broad geographical range, growing on meadows on the plain as well as alpine valleys.

He started out with church music, ukeleles and guitar and the song Kumbayah is deeply imprinted like a bad and unwanted tattoo on his soul. Perhaps it took those years away from music to make him shake of the early influence and come to see a real spirituality in nature and the world. He goes on to say that he really went for the prize in high school and ended up making a 3 record EP that not one person heard.

The musician is also a blogger, and his blog is entitled The Good Ancestor, which is a rumination about roots ethereal or real. It is about the history of his music. The artist in him has finally taken everything in stride and this shows clearly in this first full length album he has made.

Maser also plays with a blues band, experienced musicians like himself and they have eclectically influenced new album coming. They call themselves SoulShine, and the album wander the discography of the idiom, from BB King to ZZ Top, from Cash to Dylan, Hendrix and Clapton. Blues fanatics should watch out for the work of this trio.

He recorded the album in studios in Boston and Minneapolis, with players coming from the Dakotas and Africa. His stand is all about making his influences come at as native to the album. Despite the eclecticism, all things that stand for the Blues are there, as defined by the first ditty ever dedicated to its source Old Man River.

Titles in the album include Strong Love, Heroes, Heart Be True and One Time. The list also features the title track, A Little Older and The 1 Second Miracle, which are excellent takes on the tradition. And De Blues is nothing if not traditional, about all things Christian and Biblical inspiration on American soil, about feelings so vast and deep that only tears can express them.




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