“Seeing Things” is fine contemporary folk recording
THE CD: “Seeing Things: Heidi Muller & Bob Webb”
PERFORMER: Heidi Muller and Bob Webb
WEBSITE: www.heidimuller.com
This new recording features Seattle songwriter Heidi Muller and Bob Webb, a longtime Charleston musician. The pair also serve as producers, with Webb as engineer. The result is a nice blend of folksong and fine instrumentals.
The title tune is a wistful look at people and places that are no more, with a warning about the future. “Those houses that you see on open land/Were put up where the cornfields used to stand/Funny, I expect to see/Dairy farms and apple trees/Who will feed us in the end?/Does anybody look around the bend?”
Loal legends come to life in “From an Earlier Time,” a song that grew out of Muller’s work at the Patchwork Dream project at the Big Ugly Community Center in Lincoln County. “And can you quite picture a man all alone/Who lived in a cave in the shadow of stone/Steven Hart was a loner, he never sought fame/But the creeks in these mountains still carry his name”
Or: “Miss Emeritt Adkins was living in Leet/The Guyan and Coal River train only feet from her porch/When the brakeman attempted to flirt/So she raised up her shotgun/And riddled his shirt.”
The instrumental medley, “Elk River Blues/West Virginia Hills” joins the classic ode to West Virginia with a fiddle tune from the late Ernie Carpenter of Braxton County. Another combination “Bach’s Old Coat,” mixes J.S. Bach with a cello version of a traditional fiddle tune found in West Virginia.
“My Barista” is an ode to the local coffee bar and the Queen of Caffeine. All hail!
“Seeing Things” has well-crafted lyrics, rich production and varied instrumentation, with harmony singing, dulcimer, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, slide guitar, piano, cello, harmonica and percussion, ably provided by top players in Charleston’s music scene. Among them: Julie Adams, Ryan Kennedy, Paul Elliot, Janis Carper, John Kessler, Guy George, Deron Sadaro, Mellissa Javors, Ammed Solomon, Randy Gilkey and Ron Sowell.
“Seeing Things” is a fine contemporary folk recording, and would be right at home on “The Folk Sampler” or similar programs. Here’s hoping Muller and Webb are finding a wider audience.
– By Paul Gartner
WHERE: Available on the Web at CDBaby.com, Taylor Books, Frog Creek Books at Capitol Market and Showcase West Virginia in downtown Charleston, W.Va.
