Steve Waring & Roger Mason: The American Guitar & The American Banjo [Le Chant Du Monde, 1972]

Two superb pickers who recorded several instrumental albums for the "Le Chant Du Monde" label.

Judging from a title like "American Guitar", one may expect a repertoire of traditional American folk and blues tunes. But with the exception of a combination of Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train" and Etta Baker's "Railroad Bill", entitled Carolina R+R, and a medley of Scott Joplin rags, most of the tracks are original pieces by Waring and Mason. The only other covers are not even American tunes, but two standards of modern guitar playing by two Englishmen, the inevitable Angie and John Rebourn's Judy.

But the focus here is not on the material but different techniques of playing. Waring and Mason are both excellent and versatile musicians, that turn this album into a joy for all lovers of acoustic guitar music. This is highly recommended if you like Stefan Grossman, John Renbourn and the like.

Unlike the guitar album, "American Banjo" contains mostly traditional tunes. The approach here is a little more didactic, with a selection of well known standards like Shady Grove or John Henry and a cross-section of different music and picking styles.

Many tracks feature duet partners - guitar, bass, dulcimer, sax, violin - that give the album a more colourful athmosphere than the stark sound of the banjo alone could have produced. The most surprising duet partner may be Senegalese kora player Lamine Conté. Yet lovers of Westafrican music will be familiar with the combination of kora and ngoni, a lute from the Mandinge culture, which is seen as an ancestor of the banjo. With this in mind, opening the album with a hint to the banjo's Westafrican roots seems pretty logic. From here Waring draws a bow to almost "free" jazz pieces, allowing country, blues, rags etc. inbetween.

These albums were issued in the context of Le Chant Du Monde's "Special Instrumental" series. The series includes albums about the harp, bass, harmonica etc., and many titles are excellent.

Fortunately the French label approached young artists with pretty individual stlyes for this series, and therefore came up with very enjoyable, listenable records, not just dry ethnological evidence of a certain culture. All albums have fold-out jackets with plenty of pictures and explanations about the creation and playing of the instrument in question.

The German Pläne label reissued many of these titles a few years later. They came without the lavish cover design of the French pressings, yet had an inlay that included at least part of the pictures and information found on the orignal covers.

I pick up this series whenever i come across one of them and will show a few more titles here in the coming weeks.

Steve Waring & Roger Mason: Guitare Américaine / Die Amerikanische Gitarre
Le Chant Du Monde ‎LDX 74441 - Spécial Instrumental (France, 1972) /
Pläne 88 150 - Instrumente der Welt (Germany, 1979)

A1 Eat What You Kill (Roger Mason) 2:20
A2 Thing In D (Steve Waring; Arr. by Roger Mason) 3:30
A3 Roger's Marriage Rag (Steve Waring) 1:55
A4 Angie (Davy Graham; Arr. by Roger Mason, Steve Waring) 3:20
A5 Françoise (Roger Mason) 2:50
A6 Carolina R+R (Elizabeth Cotten, Etta Baker) 2:00

B1 Old Country Rock (Roger Mason, Steve Waring) 1:47
B2 Annegramme (Steve Waring) 2:18
B3 Judy (John Renbourn; Arr. by Roger Mason, Steve Waring) 2:40
B4 La Marsa (Steve Waring) 2:22
B5 La Sainte Vierge (Roger Mason) 2:57
B6 Thanks Mr. Joplin (Scott Joplin; Arr. by Roger Mason) 4:05

Steve Waring (g) solo on A3, B2,4
Roger Mason (g) solo on A1,5,6, B5
Steve Waring and Roger Mason (g) A2,4, B1,3,6

Steve Waring : Le Banjo Americain / Das Amerikanische Banjo
Le Chant Du Monde ‎LDX 74472 - Spécial Instrumental (France, 1972) / 
Pläne ‎88 165 - Instrumente der Welt (Germany, 1979)

A1 Shady Grove 5:13
A2 Cripple Joe 2:20
A3 King William's March 3:35
A4 Old Molly Hare 1:46
A5 Suzanna's French Doodle 2:05
A6 900 Mille 3:35

B1 John Henry 3:20
B2 Georgie Buck 1:56
B3 Hot Foot Hen (La Poule Aux Pieds Chauds) 2:35
B4 Cinq Minutes Quarante Secondes 4:40
B5 Smokey City Blue 4:55

Steve Waring (bjo) Claude Lefebvre (g on A3, A6, B1, B3, B4) Kent Carter (b on B5) Mary Rhoads (dulcimer on B2) Lamine Conté (kora on A1) Anne-Marie Waring (spoons on A2) Steve Potts (sax on B5) Fiddlin´ Phil Fromont (vln on A6)