If you’re the type of fancy dude or dudette who constantly sips their soda with your pinky upturned, it’s more than likely you’ve hoid of Houston, Texas’ Susan Alcorn. The woman has played her pedal steel beside such high falootin’ types as Chris Cutler and Pauline Oliveros while harvesting praise from publications way more glossy than this virtual one. The Olde English Spelling Bee label has just released a super deluxe gate folded vinyl beauty of some of her solo pedal steel work entitled ‘And I Await (The Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar)’ and it’s certainly the finest late night record we (me and the couch) have heard all year. Previous recordings I’ve heard of her were in a group setting and although they were pretty exhilarating, I didn’t really get a full grasp on what she was saying with her instrument. Stripped of the previous surroundings, Alcorn takes full advantage of her solitude and produces sounds from her instrument that poke and bubble and sit and breathe with intense pregnancy that can only come from someone who actually knows how to play her instrument. She certainly ain’t no noisenik cooking up a buncha bullshit so she can rub elbows at the next No Fun Fest, that’s for sure. Throughout the whole disc, the roots of the pedal steel that Alcorn has devoured playing in C&W pick-up bands throughout her hometown can be heard poking its’ head through all the (cough…splutter) ‘experimentation’. Has there been a bookend in weird pedal steel records since Red Rhode’s ‘Velvet Hammer In A Cowboy Band’? Can this be it? Cool! I’m glad we can agree on something….Rest assured, next time I drive that snaky stretch of 84 leading into Taos, I’ll have this seeping out of the rental car speakers to lead me directly into the sun that leads to oblivion.
P.S. -- Believe it or not, no drugs were taken in the making of this review.
To get this direct from OESB, contact them at -- obese@gmail.com
To get this direct from OESB, contact them at -- obese@gmail.com
Fusetron’s got some copies too -- http://www.fusetronsound.com/
For more info on Susan Alcorn -- http://www.susanalcorn.com/
Also, if you’re in the NYC area tonight, check this out. Should be a happy good time -- http://walden.phpwebhosting.com/~stevek10/
I could write something real biting right now as a closing line and make it out like it's not directed at anyone in particular like I normally do, but I won't. Let's just say the farther I stay away from warehouses fulla trustfund kids being raped by Todd P, older losers dressed as the 'hipster weirdo' on 'Friends', and bands who play 50 times a month, the better...let's just say that. Hmm...maybe I shouldn't of said that. Oh well...
