OK Corral is a collection of Western themed material I have been working on over the past few months. It was an exercise in creating a more cohesive musical narrative. The Melancholic Trails single was one of the first pieces I wrote for the album. While that piece opens with a somber mood, the playfulness in its final minute is not really the mood I was seeking. A little too much spaghetti in the pot. I abandoned other tracks featuring the rhythmic striking of bells and other cliches. I hope this work is successful in creating a general ambience of the despair of the Wild West without relying too heavily on the hallmarks of the Western Genre.
This project was also an opportunity to learn and improve on several areas in my developing musical language. "Stagecoach Robbery" features my first adventurous in writing a section of Serial Music. "Shootout On Freemont St." is based around a slow, driving syncopated piano, a first in my songbook.
"Arizona Territory" and "Twenty Saloons and Two Bibles" feature extended use of the pedal steel. Bowed Dobro appears in "Here Comes the Cowboy". Lastly, the final track "Three Tombstones" is a threatening duet between two Bowed Psaltries — a kind of Zither played with a bow that seems to have appeared in the early 20th century. This of course was a good forty years after the battle at the OK Corral. The Pedal Steel, a revision on the Hawaiian lap steel would not appear in the U.S. until 1940. Historical musical accuracy was not my goal here. The Bowed Psaltry that I play on this record is currently on loan to me from my sister. It was handmade by a local instrument maker down the road from my father's farm by the name of James Hamilton.It has a tone unlike anything I've ever heard. It is shrill without being intolerable.
Most of the strings on this record were recorded or re-recorded through a Tascam 4-Track. I wanted the decaying nature of magnetic tape to be part of the compositions. The Classic Western genre does not exist in the digital world. There are certainly plenty extensions of the genre that exist exclusively in the digital. The hiss and warping of the cheap tape I used has an unpredictable nature to it. It's a dirty, sandy sound.
It's not exactly relevant to this post, but if you are looking for some alternatives to well known country music, a friend just turned my onto "Re-Imagining Country with Jamal Khadar. The program is " a trip through country music’s hidden roots and surprising global connections—in search of a more personal, nuanced view of what it means to be a country fan. From African-Country crossovers to Jamaica’s country connection, and the continuous role of Southern Soul in remaking country." Please give it a listen. I don't think you will be disappointed.
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