Sometimes it is hard to tell if Ben Weaver is having any fun. For instance I wasn’t sure he actually enjoyed his first visit to the House of Righteous Music until he started talking about all of his friends who he thought should play here. At the top of that list was the Pines, the singer songwriter duo of David Huckfelt and Benson Ramsey. The latter is the son of Greg Brown’s producer and sideman Bo Ramsey, and while he shares his father’s graceful, understated guitar skill he isn’t content to let his guitar do all the talking. Huckfelt’s and Ramsey’s voices work well together, similar enough to blend but still distinct. I was charmed by their duo appearance at the Carpe and immediately questioned them about available dates to play at the house. I wasn’t sure who else they would have with them after playing the Old Town School of Folk in Chicago the night before, but I was delighted that it turned out to be JT Bates, one of the Twin Cities most versatile drummers who has played with everyone from hip hop’s Eyedea & Abilities to folkie mainstay John Gorka.
Weaver had been right of course about how perfect they were for the room. Bates’ understated drumming emphasizing the pair’s gorgeous vocals. Their set contained some of their songs from their two previous releases, but leaned heaviest on 2009’s excellent release Tremolo. The record features two well-chosen covers. The first is from Spider John Koerner, an early influence on Dylan, and the second from legendary bluesman Mississippi John Hurt. The former’s “Skipper and his Wife” features a rambling tune arranged by the Pines, cheerful despite the fact that every verse ends with someone crying “All I had in this world done gone.” Hurt’s “Spike Driver Blues,” the story of John Henry, becomes even more haunting with Ramsey’s electric guitar moaning under David Huckfelt’s nimbly picked acoustic melody.
The record’s opening track “Pray Tell” has Huckfelt asking difficult (and I’m hoping rhetorical) questions like “who hung the moon so low in the sky?” and “who opens up the door between heaven and hell?” The same electric/acoustic pairing so dramatic on “Spike Driver” also percolates here, giving an urgency to the anxious but unhurried blues. Ramsey takes the lead vocals on what may be my favorite track, the shuffling love song “Heart and Bones” which features a pair of acoustic guitars and six simple lines separated by the refrain “heart and bones.” It’s stunning and surprisingly powerful. With how well their guitars duet, I would have expected their voices to do the same. Instead, they each take their turn on lead, limiting backing vocals to a few lines, even more effective for their infrequency. With the exception of “Shiny Shoes,” most of their songs don’t follow the traditional folk verse-chorus-verse format, though it sounds like they do with the use of repeated musical patterns. Admittedly, with a line as good as “But no matter how hard you try, no, you can't put the tears back in your eyes,” you need to use it more than once.
After booking the show I e-mailed Weaver to thank him for the recommendation. Within a few days he asked if it would be OK if came down and played that night too. I was delighted, I became a fan of Weaver’s music after listening (repeatedly) to his 2008 Bloodshot debut (his fifth release overall) The Ax in the Oak. Weaver’s music is the type that requires the audience’s attention. His clever non-rhymes work best in listening rooms where audiences can appreciate them, and my favorite shows of his have been in the basement and at the Frequency with similarly quiet singer/songwriter Denison Witmer. Thanks to the Pines, a bigger crowd was gathered to hear him tonight than the last time he played at the house. Unfortunately he doesn’t really like to play the more rocking songs from Oak like “White Snow” solo, but the new material recorded for his Bloodshot follow-up to be released this fall is quite intriguing. Once you hear some of his quirky poems, it makes sense when he says that it has always been about the words for him- he certainly has a way with them. It is somewhat ironic that at both of his SXSW appearances, he didn’t make it past the first verse of “Anything with Words.” Luckily, he got it back tonight.
Ben Weaver
The Pines
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