Rick Deitrick is yet another in the recent wave of solo guitar rediscoveries, or better put, for nearly all of us just plain old discoveries. In Deitrick’s case the sounds are far less American Primitive and, as the titles of his two LPs, Gentle Wilderness and River Sun River Moon make clear, much closer to a log cabin in the mountains, and there is nothing wrong with that. Tranquil without becoming a sedative, both records are out on vinyl August 25 through Tompkins Square.
It’s a familiar story; back in 1978, Rick Deitrick had Gentle Wilderness pressed in a 500-copy edition for his own Niodrara Records, subsequently selling copies at performances and through retailers that would buy them, but he also gave some to libraries and left a few in the wilderness, “so people would find them,” hopefully before it rained.
There is undoubtedly a handful of folks who remember Deitrick from the original release of that LP; his playing makes this clear. But for a whole lot more, knowledge was gained through the inclusion of the Gentle Wilderness track “Missy Christa” on the Brooks Rice and Michael Klausman-compiled entry in Tompkins Square’s long running Guitar Soli series.
Imaginational Anthem 8: The Private Press gathered a slew of worthy fingerpicking previously heard only by the fortunate few or the wildly persistent. Due to the high quality of the prior Imaginational Anthem volumes and of solo guitar in general, The Private Press wasn’t a jaw-dropper, but it did open the ears to an unexpected amount of formerly obscure high-quality players in a field that was once, at least from this writer’s perspective, not especially deep.
For folks who might be reaching a point of saturation with American Primitive-style fingerpicking (perish the thought), The Private Press provides something of an antidote, the spirit of ingenuity vibing closer to Do It Yourself than the stereotypical outsider fringe zone, and in the process reaching into the realms of psychedelia and even more so, ragas, across its four sides.
Same with Fahey and his cohorts, one might be thinking, but the results of IA8 felt legitimately hippie (or in some examples, post-hippie), while the Takoma school and especially Fahey, often seemed to be running parallel to it. Splitting hairs perhaps, but the sounds offered by Gentle Wilderness are certainly distinct from the American Primitive, and that’s alright.
The disc isn’t psychedelic or raga-focused, either. Instead, as the title and Deitrick’s tendency for album scattering should make unsurprising, there is a consistent connection with the natural world, though the playing is full-bodied enough to avoid the dangers of excessive placidity or New Age hooey in general. The results are surely gentle, but the nine tracks also possess fluidity, weight, and verve.
These elements, along with an attractive sense of space and assuredness of tone, mark the set’s opener “At Morning,” the relaxed beginning gradually attaining an urgency that’s not that far away from Fahey and company, though Deitrick’s allegiance to original tuning (as opposed to open tunings then and still in vogue) helps it to stand apart.
His next two selections show that Deitrick wasn’t entirely smitten with the great outdoors, with “For Marsha” meditative but still dexterous, while “Missy Christa” (named for his daughter) achieves cyclical beauty and depth of emotion; it’s unsurprising that it was selected for IA8. But what follows doesn’t disappoint, with the succinct side-closer “Koto Rain” contrasting from the guitarist’s inclination to stretch out.
Deitrick doesn’t meander, and side two unwinds without a hitch. “Jon’s Song” exudes a melodic sense that brings some of Cooder’s non-slide work from the soundtrack to Wender’s Paris, Texas to mind, while the ringing folk-blues tones of “Crawdad Hole-Trad” do resonate a bit like Fahey’s stuff for Vanguard. But the angle shifts just as quickly via the somewhat classical guitar leaning (though thankfully unflashy of technique) “Deep Within the Forest of the Heart” and continues in the more folky “The Green Green Grass of Home.” The title track provides an appropriately labyrinthine finale.
River Sun River Moon consists of unreleased recordings from the same period, and yet as evidenced by the track titles, it connects as thematically as Gentle Wilderness. Opener “Morningstar” is crisp and buoyant, while “Abedonia” is more languid, and the record just flows from there. Impressively, the contents come together as well as the consciously designed LP that long-preceded it, but it’s also true that nothing happens on either record to really recommend them to those casually interested in solo guitar; fans however, will want both.
Per Tomkins Square, Gentle Wilderness and River Sun River Moon are part of an ongoing series of full-length reissues of the artists found on Imaginational Anthem 8; the first was Tom Armstrong’s The Sky is an Empty Eye from earlier this year, and these albums by Rick Deitrick extend it. The quality thus far bodes well for what’s in store.
Gentle Wilderness
B+
River Sun River Moon
B+
