[Davey]

Not overlooked by everyone like some lost gems, but guess it's one of those records that, once you find it, you'll never leave it. This was his debut back in 1995 on DejaDisc in the US, and I think 1994 on Gltterhouse in Europe. I have the DejaDisc version which says 1995, and it sounds great. Nice and dynamic, very good master job. I also happen to have the later Rykodisc remaster done in 1999 with a few bonus tracks, and it's way too loud. Definitely search for the original, well worth it. The bonus tracks on the Ryko are good demos, but they actually aren't even from the Bloomed sessions, so would've been better on a separate disc.

But back to the music, after all this time it's still one of my favorites. Buckner has a very expressive voice, and it brings a lot of weight to the lyrics, even when they get a bit cryptic. The music is a mixture of country, folk and rock, mostly acoustic. In an album full of highlights and memorable lines, the opening of lyric of "Six Years" has always been one of my favorites, the delivery just perfect, "I went down to meet my maker, and the water tastes salty, what's on my lips, the letter you sent me." There's a review of that song at AMG that I'll paste below, although they don't rate the album that highly, giving it 3 1/2 stars. You can trust me though, it's a good one, at least 4 1/2 stars. They can't be expected to always get it right

Song Reviewby Mark Deming
After the end of a love affair, it’s generally a lot easier to see what went wrong than to recognize the mistakes as you’re making them, and Richard Buckner’s song "Six Years", recorded on his debut album Bloomed, records the thoughts of one man as he ponders the true love who got away from him, and where things began to go wrong. An old man (who informs us "I’m down to meet my maker/ and the water tastes salty") finds himself thinking about a woman he once loved, picking over the small details of their six year relationship in his mind – her good bye letter, the way she used to kiss him, a long train ride after an argument, how she felt in his arms. While the song’s sketchy structure suggests rather than insists upon the full picture of their lives together, the subtle but strong emotions of Buckner’s performance (and the interplay of his acoustic guitar with Ponty Bone’s accordion) makes clear that if love, like life, is a matter of details, it’s the small things that will record both the triumphs and the failings of our love lives in our memories.


This guy does get it right ... http://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p00306.htm

Comments on this or other Buckner records welcome, or just some of your own overlooked classics.

 

[Davey]

Really? No Buckner fans here? What about the followup, Devotion + Doubt, great CD. He made it to the major labels for a short 2-CD ride after the buzz for that first one, but then MCA dropped him in the middle of a tour and backed out on their deal. Still lots of sour taste for the record labels, since I don't think he ever got paid what was owed for his debut either. Too bad. But this second one was recorded very nicely down at Wavelab in Tuscon, with Howe Gelb and his Giant Sand bandmates Joey Burns and John Convertino (who were starting to get a lot of recognition for their own Calexico, soon putting an end to that version of Giant Sand), and all around musical support from Lloyd Maines like on Bloomed, and one of the best guitarists of modern times in Mark Ribot. Great sounding CD too, very dynamic. You can really crank it, and it just gets better, nice all around recording with some of that elusive bloom that so often is missing from modern CDs. And it also has maybe my favorite upbeat song of his in "A Goodbye Rye", a guitar burner with Marc Ribot's inspired Telecaster driving it to the good place, and Lloyd Maines' weepy pedal steel adding to the emotional atmosphere, and John Convertino giving it all those percussive textures he's so good at. I read that the great "Figure", an emotional slow burner, was used on one of the popular TV shows this year. Friday Night Lights maybe. Live studio performance this year at KEXP

Boy, 1997 was a great year for my kind of music.

 

[zumaro]

A huge Buckner fan here - most of his albums go into the overlooked classics category however. The last two in particular have seen him in very strong form - Dents and Shells being the less rocky of the two, while Meadow, despite its more aggressively hermetic sound, is Buckner's best since Devotion and Doubt.

Buckner should be much better known than he is - but i guess there is something about the emotional ambivalence he deals in which is offputting for the mainstream audience.

By the way have you got the new Joe Henry album Civilians? Another criminally overlooked figure!

 

[Davey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zumaro /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...while Meadow, despite its more aggressively hermetic sound, is Buckner's best since Devotion and Doubt. By the way have you got the new Joe Henry album Civilians? Another criminally overlooked figure!

Yea, love Meadow. Probably made a couple posts around here about it, but it is a good one. I actually only picked it up a few months ago, completely missed it last year. Those three are definitely my favorites, but I don't have much else.

Love Joe Henry, and their careers do kind of run parallel, though I think Joe might have the edge in notoriety with all his production work, and the Madonna connection too. Both very adventurous, not always giving their fans quite what is expected. Civilians has shipped and should be here soon. Fuse will probably always be my favorite, or maybe Scar, but anxious to hear the new one. Seems a lot of people really like it. Turning into a very good year for music.