Guitarist Danny Paul Grody has been on the scene since the late 1990s, initially in bands (Tarentel, The Drift) and then solo for a series of full-length recordings. Arc of Day is his latest, which in contrast to his prior truly solo releases, finds him in the company of esteemed collaborators Chuck Johnson on pedal steel, Jonathan Sielaff on clarinet and bass clarinet, and Grody’s former bandmates Trevor Montgomery and Rich Douthit on bass and drums-percussion, respectively. Arc of Day is out June 16 on vinyl and digital through Three Lobed Recordings.
Tarentel came first, debuting with a self-titled EP in 1998 for Temporary Residence Limited, with scads of releases both short and long to follow on numerous labels. The Drift came next, formed in 2002 and hitting with Noumena, the outfit’s first LP, a double, in ’05, also on Temporary Residence Limited. That label issued The Drift’s entire discography, including two more ’05 releases, a 12-inch EP and a CD mini-album Travels In Constants Volume Nineteen (the latter part of an extended series, with a volume from Tarentel amongst the contributors).
Both Tarentel and The Drift are fittingly described as post-rock in orientation, but Grody’s solo work, with its focus on sharp fingerpicking often in a post-American Primitive mode, is distinct in approach, but without a disconnect with his earlier work. Both Tarentel and The Drift were essentially winding down as Grody’s first solo record, Fountain, came out on CD; the year was 2010.
To expand upon the progression of Grody’s work, he didn’t just wake up one day reborn as a Takoma-style string dazzler. Instead, his picking aptitude was well integrated into a sound that pulled from various sources, with Grody’s prior bands amongst them. Nowhere is this more evident than on his latest, which reconnects him with a pair of bandmates plus kindred spirits Johnson (noted as a deft fingerpicker in his own right) and Sielaff, who’s half of Golden Retriever adding a horn dimension, an element shared with The Drift (Johnson and Golden Retriever cut Rain Shadow for Thrill Jockey in 2020).
Arc of Day does open with the relatively concise solo passage “Daybreak,” a showcase for Grody on a 12-string acoustic dishing maximum gorgeousness, the track cut at home in September of 2022 as the rest of the record was recorded at the Brothers Chinese studio in Oakland the previous April. Switching to a standard acoustic six-string, “Light Blooms” (which at some point was titled “Sunshowers”) maintains the picking presence as bass drums and horn are layered in to brilliant effect.
Grody returns to the 12-string for “California Angelica,” a multifaceted piece that opens with a field recording, as Montgomery, Douthit and Sielaff intensify the beauty, in particular Sielaff, who brings an almost klezmer feel as the track stretches out beyond seven minutes. Sticking with the 12-string, “Cathedral Tree” finds Grody weaving a tapestry of patterns as Johnson belatedly enters the scheme with substantial atmospherics.
Another field recording begins “Path to Olema” (a tactic that reminds me a little of My Garden State by Glenn Jones, another American Primitive fingerpicker with post-rock roots), as Grody’s on 6-string acoustic this time out; as the track progresses, it takes on an organic psychedelic edge that’s deepened by the drumming and the clarinet. For closer “Slow Walk,” Grody picks up the electric six-string and leans into a robust cyclical motif as the unwinding gets even more psych-inclined.
Grody continues to eschew vocals in his work, which suits this well-rounded affair just fine. Arc of Day is full-bodied and highly satisfying as it lacks nothing in its formulation.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
