Talented trio melds Scandinavian music with a mix of California, Maryland and Wisconsin Americana
When it comes to music I’ve always been more of a word guy. My old mandolin player Michael Walters and I used to give each other no end of grief because he took the opposite view. A song with dumb lyrics but good music would spark his interest while a song with questionable music but clever lyrics would pique mine.
As it turns out, this was ideal for us since it gave us the opportunity to either re-write better music or lyrics depending on the need. It’s a good balance to have.
That being said, my appreciation for words should in no way imply that I have no love for instrumental music. My personal collection says otherwise, but when it comes to the music I write about each week, purely instrumental music is rare and there’s a very good reason.
When ninety plus percent of performers adhere to the music/lyrics dichotomy, specializing in one or the other (instrumental tunes or spoken word poetry) means you had best have some serious chops. You’re pulling all the weight with half the horses. In a word, pulling off instrumental music well is a hell of a lot harder than penning a catchy tune with some clever words.
When it works it is a thing of rare beauty and the Haas Kowert Tice trio has mastered the art.
Fiddler Brittany Hass (Crooked Still,) bassist Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers,) and guitarist Jordan Tice (Tony Trischka) are the perfect storm of talent. In a typical ensemble, however talented the players are, one generally emerges as the showcase player, but in Hass Kowert Tice the skill of each player is perfectly matched by the other two. There is no dominant force but rather a perfect synergy of all three instruments that, in my experience anyway, is exceedingly rare.
The trio has released their debut album, You Got This, and it is nine tracks of ear candy so original, so perfectly plotted and played, that there simply is no one else to compare them to.
“Grandpa’s Cheese Barn” is the first track I listened to, and before it was half over I was sharing it with some of my close friends with the admonition, “You have got to hear this!”
It was a tricky tune to deconstruct. There were certainly familiar elements but I couldn’t quite place them until I sat down and read Tice’s own description which lists alternate banjo tunings, Norwegian dance tunes, driving folk rhythms, and Debussy-esque string arrangements. It was, for me, an “aha!”moment, as in, “well of course that’s what I’m hearing,” yet left to my own, I don’t know that I could have ever cracked the code.
Granted, my experience with Scandinavian music is more focused on Swedish werewolf song(s), but the point is that the elements, all familiar in their way, are blended in to something so unique that taking it back apart again is damn near impossible, a perfect fusion.
As instantly in love as I was with “Grandpa’s Cheesebarn,” “The Switchback Games” has got to be the standout track on this flawless album. I can find no better way to describe it than “acoustic prog rock.” Dynamic and fluid, the tune is worthy of Rush, Yes, Fairport Convention, Tull…and yet while it could easily stand shoulder to shoulder with those legends, it doesn’t sound particularly like any of them. I do not say this lightly, but this trio has created something entirely knew and this song is breathtaking.
I could spend another thousand words talking about the band and their album, “You Got This,” and still not cover half the points that deserve attention so I urge you to seek them out online at hasskowertice.com and sample the album for yourself.
Do it soon, the band is coming to Barking Legs on May 11th and once word gets out, it will be a sold out show.
Photo by Constance Brinkley