Category:
Roots

Try if you like:
Billy Childish

By trolling through eBay and garage sales for beat-up and/or cheap instruments, Guitarist Richard Leo Johnson and drummer Gregg Bendian, legends both, aim to present you with a hoedown that is part myth, part kitsch. In lesser hands this might have been a condescending outing by know-it-all freak folkers; as it is, this is a minor miracle, a whimsical and often moving exploration of revelation as it is found using whatever is lying around.

 

The angle on Who Knew Charlie Shoe is that the two are down and out musicians, Charlie Shoe and Junk Fish, brought together by circumstances, who decide to jam, which was recorded for posterity by some academic musicologist. That aside, what we have here is a set of fairly mighty acoustic guitar workouts, with a percussion backing ranging from drums to washboards, pots and pans. And it works, aside from the somewhat goofy trappings. Johnson is a visionary player in the John Fahey mold, and Bendian has long been one of the great jazz/improv/freakout drummers. Songs like “Where Rivers Meet” and “Uncle Toby’s Place” emphasize Johnson’s moving but whimsical picking, while on “Superman” and “Whitewash Worship Warehouse/Fine Washer and Dryer,” the stress is on the of-kilter but rolling percussion, with killer slide guitar backing.

Both Richard Leo Johnson and Gregg Bendian have enough of a rep and chops to do as they please. “Who Knew Charlie Shoe?” is a result of that freedom, a release that is by turns poignant and shredding, punning and raucous. By inventing history through their masterly knowledge of real music history, the duo has created a set to be explored at leisure, and carried around for good luck.