Bryan Rahija – Timber (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24bit/88,2kHz | Time – 37:47 minutes | 699 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ramseur Records
Perhaps the most enduring attraction of americana is the sheer extent of its styles and influences. Piedmont blues comes as no surprise but nineteenth-century classical guitar or early twentieth-century French avant-garde might raise a few eyebrows. To hear how these rather unlikely influences gel seamlessly listen to Bryan Rahija’s debut solo album ‘Timber’. This collection of acoustic instrumentals owes its creation as much to the fingerpicking ragtime rhythms of Blind Willie McTell, Reverend Gary Davis or Blind Blake as to Fernando Sor whose solo compositions made the guitar a respectable instrument for classical musicians.
Rahija is no stranger to pushing musical boundaries having been a founder member of the innovative folk-pop band, Bombadil. His music also featured in two screenplays. Since then he has studied classical guitar, which combined with his long-standing love of the blues from his North Carolina origins, explains how he describes ‘Timber’ as “a batch of warm and organic instrumental guitar pieces”, something “to settle into while you’re watching the world go by”. Rahija has not completely cut his ties with Bombadil. Over pandemic enforced distance, to his own guitar and dobro, he adds minimal bass and percussion from Stacy Harden while Daniel Michalak and James Phillips respectively assisted with production and mixing.
Tracklist:
01. Bryan Rahija – Silent Advance
02. Bryan Rahija – Three-Legged Buddha
03. Bryan Rahija – Everywhere But Up
04. Bryan Rahija – Peacocks in Fur
05. Bryan Rahija – T’el’eph’erique
06. Bryan Rahija – Nothing’s Fifty-Fifty
07. Bryan Rahija – How the Grape Ripens
08. Bryan Rahija – Eight of Wands
09. Bryan Rahija – Itinerant Star
10. Bryan Rahija – Storm Queen
11. Bryan Rahija – Back to New
12. Bryan Rahija – Zoopraxiscope
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