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LP
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FTR 758LP
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"A very nice return to unadorned acoustic guitar playing by one of the form's masters. Allred's last album for FTR, What Strange Flowers Grow in the Shade (FTR 656LP) was more of an imaginary band outing, but Folk Guitar plays it straight. Joseph reports they'd been listening to a lot to pieces by 16th-century composer, John Dowland, and the solo work of Pentangle's John Renbourn while this album was gestating. They also note Hammer Studio horror-film soundtracks as a touchstone for certain tunes, while others were inspired by the music in Chinese fantasy TV shows, and poetic fragments by Sappho. All of which means, this is another deeply considered and beautifully rendered set of tunes by this Tennessee-based rambler. Unlike some of Allred's early solo work, which manifested the same sort of syncretic brassiness as Robbie Basho's Takoma-era work, several of the pieces here display an extreme clarity of attack that reminds me a bit of British guitarist, John Pearse, whose work also explored folk and classical traditions (sometimes simultaneously). But of course, Allred's playing is as original as always. They manage to blend whatever influences they have consumed into perfect gems of musical karma -- each facet glimmering like a transcendental star. Folk Guitar is a work of unalloyed brilliance, and will prove to be a boon companion for anyone attuned to the art of solo guitar music." --Byron Coley, 2024
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LP
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FTR 656LP
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"Tennessee-based string bender, Joseph Allred likes to change things up from album to album. But usually, he does this one element or instrument at a time. On What Strange Flowers Grow in the Shade, Joseph adds a whole heck of a lot of elements. And he does so without ever really disguising the identity of his music. The six tracks here were all recorded with different line-ups. 'The Valley' features Chris Davis (Cherry Blossoms) and the Magic Tuber Stringband. 'The Ruins' is a Basho-esque solo piece created with large varieties of instrumental glisten. 'A Long Winter' features previous collusionists, Mikey Allred on trombone and Matt Johnson on synth. 'Lake Erie' features Jen Powers on dulcimer and Matthew J. Rolin on electric guitar. 'Sunburst' features Michael Pierce (Sweeteartflying) on synth. 'The Flood' features Anthony Ford (of Hellbender and Holy Mountaintop Removers) on drums and Patrick Shiroishi on sax. This may seem like wild and wooly selection of players (which it is), as might Joseph's decision to play electric guitar (amongst many other instruments), but it's really just another step along Allred's long and winding road. He had recorded on electric earlier, with both Hellbender and Graceless, but, as he wrote, 'I got a Fender Jaguar guitar at the beginning of the pandemic lock down and that really influenced the album too. I've been big into shoegaze and no wave kind of stuff for >20 years but didn't ever have a guitar like that for some reason until now. Fenders in general and especially a guitar like the Jaguar with all the chrome on it feels more like a contraption than a musical instrument in a lot of ways. Leo Fender was an inventor/tinkerer who wasn't a musician at all and was more influenced by car manufacturing than traditional instrument making. That guitar really encouraged me to use the volume knob and whammy bar a lot and I ended up with a kind of ethereal bowed string section sound by doing that and recording a lot of layers. That became the basis for all the tracks except for one where I started with an open tuned autoharp and a bunch of bass clarinet tracks for some reason.' The music on What Strange Flowers... was also influenced by the work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, Glenn Branca, My Bloody Valentine, Loren Connors, Sonic Youth, and a variety of other folks, but as always, Allred's sound has signature spiritual components that are uniquely his own. And no matter how wide he opts to cast his stylistic net, there is a core depth to his music you can always recognize, even if you can't quite describe it. As ever, it's a real pleasure to have a new Joseph Allred LP to dig in to. So get diggin'." --Byron Coley, 2022
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LP
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WS 007LP
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"The prominent biblical city of Shiloh was first mentioned in the Book of Joshua: And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them" (Joshua 18:1) It held a perhaps unsurpassed place of importance for the Israelites until the construction of Solomon's Temple and elevation of Jerusalem as the capital of a united Israel some centuries later. The Shiloh, which is the primary matter of interest here, is not the biblical city, but rather a namesake community in rural Overton County, Tennessee, situated in the Upper Cumberland region of the Appalachian Plateau near the Tennessee/Kentucky border. It isn't a town, but a community made up of a church, two cemeteries, a smattering of houses, some farmland surrounded by forested hills, and a mostly gravel road. The West Fork of the Obey River tumbles through the area at a fairly leisurely pace, and Joseph's father, who was born in the adjacent and slightly easier to access community of Allred, always called Shiloh Road "the River Road" since the road and the river often unfurl through the valley side by side. The instrumental pieces for guitars and banjo on the album at hand mostly depict images and events, both real and imagined, that take place in Shiloh and the broader river valley it's situated in. "I won't go into the details of the inspiration for each tune here," Allred comments, "but I will say that Shiloh is a place where the distinction between past and present isn't always clearly defined. It's a kind of 'mandorla,' a place where the spheres of past and present, dead and living, immanent and transcendent, overlap. It's also a place that has attracted some odd characters over the years, or just people who are weary and trying to find refuge. Though I grew up in a small town about 25 miles away from Shiloh and have lived in Boston since 2016, my dad's side of the family has been in the area for over 200 years, and that valley feels a lot like the place I'll be buried when I die." Gatefold sleeve; art by Jonny Brokenbrow.
"Joseph Allred's recent outpouring of excellent releases has been an impressive enough feat on its own considering how unique they all are in relation to one another and how focused each one is when taken as individual statements. The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh strikes such a deceptively comfortable balance between more familiar folk guitar approaches and Allred's own wholly distinctive techniques that it'd be hard to believe it was the same person playing everything if you were able to ignore how seamlessly it all fits together." --Rob Noyes
"If you don't know Allred already, you will soon." --Byron Coley
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LP
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FTR 573LP
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"Don't hold me to it, but by my count this the sixth LP we have done with the splendid Brighton-based musician named Joseph Allred. Initially known as a master of stringed instruments, Joseph has continuously expanded his musical arsenal. When asked about basics regarding Branches & Leaves, he wrote, 'I played harmonium, piano, guitars, glockenspiel, banjo, tambourine, bass drum, and clarinet on this album and did all the vocals myself. I'm glad I got to collaborate with some friends and would like to have done so more, but the pandemic made that impossible. Recorded at the end of 2019 and in the first few months of 2020 in Overton County, Tennessee and Boston.' The ten songs on Branches & Leaves are originals, apart from two traditional tunes, 'When the World's on Fire,' and 'Can't Feel at Home,' which Allred first heard performed by the Carter Family. And while it if difficult to attach too specific a tag to this wonderfully varied LP, words like 'Southern,' 'gnostic,' 'rural' and 'haunted' keep floating into my head. Not always at the same time, but enough to think I might use them to point in the material's general direction. The mix of harmonium and Allred's vocal delivery gives some of songs the sonic qualities of a spiritual, even if the lyrics are not similarly disposed. Joseph's work is always very personal and idiosyncratic, so I am hesitant to make too many statements about it. Other than to say the way he weaves all these threads into the textures of American Primitive guitar music is amazing to hear. Branches & Leaves may be one of the more plain-spoken albums in Joseph Allred's canon, but like all his music, the songs have many layers of sound and meaning that will unfold themselves for your pleasure for a long while to come. Beautiful stuff." --Byron Coley, 2021
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LP
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WS 002LP
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Joseph Allred, or occasionally known as his alter-perspective, Blind Faulkner, is a Tennessee-born multi-instrumentalist, now residing in Massachusetts, who has received critical acclaim for his seemingly endless slew of wonderful records, most of which showcase his talent for all things stringed. Here, Worried Songs presents the initially private-pressed masterwork, The True Light, taking its name from the Gospel of John, a haunting lament for solo-harp guitar. Recorded shortly after receiving the instrument, The True Light documents his exploration of the harp guitar. The five songs found on The True Light bleed like a river, flowing from one to the next in waves of immense beauty, melancholia and yearning, reflecting on spirituality and belonging in its many forms. Strong Basho vibes on this one, yet, as always, Joseph expands and transcends on the ghosts of primitive-past, forging his own path. In short, this is the real deal. "If you don't know Allred already, you will soon." --Byron Coley "Each time I've seen Joseph Allred play a concert, I've choked up. Whether working in improvisation or composition, for harmonium, stringed instruments or voice, their music reveals a deep knowledge of diverse musical idioms secular and religious, with the sort of quiet force that comes from the acquisition of this knowledge, and their performances are striking and brave, simultaneously unadorned and rich as to suggest collaborations with realms beyond our own. The True Light retains these qualities: like Basho or Rose, it's uncompromising; like sacred musics, stately; like the music of so many American masters, it plows ahead on its terms and gives and gives." --Eli Winter "... fierce, raw and deeply moving." --Pop Matters "... standing on the shoulders of American folk music traditions, he generates a tension not far removed from the melodramas of the German new wave director. Folk music, not for the coffee shop singalong, but for a lonesome trek through a wilderness increasingly invaded by a brutal modern world." --Spectrum Culture
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LP
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FTR 532LP
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"Michael is the third LP we have done with Boston-based musician, Joseph Allred. The first, O Meadowlark (FTR 451LP, 2019) was a suite for guitar and banjo. For its follow-up, Traveler (FTR 491LP), Joseph added splendid vocals to the mix. With Michael, Mr. Allred gives airing to his fine harmonium playing, alongside string majesty and vocals. Maybe on the next one he'll teach us how to fly. Michael is an album with a dreamy narrative core. Its loose tale deals with the idea of the Archangel Michael appearing during a spirit ritual, performed by the character Faulkner (something like Allred's alter-ego) in hopes of remembering the contours of heaven. But this concept only emerged after the music was recorded. Allred compares the process of divining narrative content form musical improvisation to 'throwing an inkblot on paper.' I can dig it. All of the instruments as acoustic -- harmonium, autoharp, singing bowls, dulcimer, bowed guitar -- and the overtones and interplay on surfaces here is unbelievably rich. And even though they're connected, the individual tunes flow from different head spaces. 'Ascent + Return' is long-tone meditation, conceived for harmonium, singing bowls & autoharp soon after Allred performed a Tony Conrad piece as part of the big MIT Conrad exhibit. 'Every Thing in the Dim Night' (a random quote from Whitman's Blades of Grass) lies midway between that and a string improvisation with Indian tonalities. 'O Death' follows the original Lloyd Chandler lyrics (originally entitled, 'A Conversation with Death'), before evolving into swells of drone and strum. And so on. Each piece different, but expanding the boundaries of the drone-based universe has created for this album. Joseph Allred's music is an always evolving, constantly astounding wonderment. His live shows are quite otherworldly, but we're sure you'll find his records equally transportational." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 491LP
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"Welcome to the second album we've done with string maestro, Joseph Allred. Unlike O Meadowlark (FTR 451LP), this one features a smattering of Joseph's vocals, although his main thrust is still glistening instrumentals. The title song is a goddamn sad one, sung with reedy elegance, dealing with a kidnapped dog that serves as a stand-in for all earthly beings, full of both frailty and resilience. Another vocal track, 'The Crown' (which inspired the cover art), stems from a long conversation Joseph had with Max Ochs. It squeezes the inherently surreal aspects of dream-walking into semi-conventional blues tautology, and the fit is just right. The third and last vocal, 'O Columbia,' is a particular favorite, based as it is upon the some of the same melodies Fahey swiped for 'In Christ There Is No East or West,' although Allred takes things in all new directions. I had been a tad leery when I heard Joseph would be singing on this new session -- being so enamored of his unadorned instrumental technique -- but these tunes won me over in the course of a few plays. Maybe there'll be more verbal-content in his future? We would not say, 'no.' But the meat of this album remains Joseph's splendid inventions for guitar and banjo. His piece for Glenn Jones, 'The Giant Who Shrank Himself,' is a beautiful suite, worthy of its concept (that Jones is a behemoth who has to shrink himself in order to deal with us normals). It flows like the sweetest stream of wine you, I or anyone might imagine. 'Single Me a Stranger' is another literal killer, with sliding chords evoking the 1872 lynching and curse-fulfillment of an unlucky newcomer in the small Tennessee town where Allred grew up. It's spell-binding. As is 'Mark's Overture,' a banjo piece inspired by a homeless music critic in Cambridge, Mass. Another top-notch album by this great player. If you don't know Allred already, you will soon." --Byron Coley, 2019
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LP
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FTR 451LP
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"Currently based in the Boston area, Joseph Allred was one of the players we first encountered at 2018's Ten Thousand Incarnations of the Rose festival in Takoma Park MD. Allred's playing had some Basho-esque sequencing that was highly engaging, and the rest of the set was a killer, off-center swathe of string quiver we could not resist. O Meadowlark is Allred's third solo vinyl (there are cassettes as well), and will surely please many heads. Here're Joseph's words on how the album came together. 'I recorded this stuff at the end of last year all in one night without really intending anything in particular with it. After I sat and listened back to it a narrative came together really quickly and I reflected that in the song titles. Poor Faulkner is a name I released music under for the first recordings I made several years ago, but he's since become a character I sometimes tell stories about in my music, or sometimes I assume his perspective and play songs from there. He's a very lonely middle-aged man who lives in a house in a remote part of Tennessee. He thinks the house is haunted, and the ghosts he sees range from the ghost of a kitten to a woman's ghost that his grandfather brought back from WWII. O Meadowlark tells a story about him, partially from an outside perspective and partially from his perspective. He hears a bird and follows it into the woods, where he finds a cabin and is visited by an angel. He stays the night at the cabin, and struggles to understand what the angel is trying to convey to him. The next day the angel reappears and eventually takes him to a celestial place where he's shown a vision. The album ends with his ascent, but doesn't include the vision. I think that's part of something new I'm working on at the moment.' Using guitars and banjos the way they were meant to be used, Allred's narrative unfolds like a strange movie just for you. Dig it now." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 300.
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LP
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SCTR 043LP
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"Joseph Allred fits the Guitar Soli realm perfectly, fully embodying the guitar loner typecast -- he falls in line with Robbie Basho not only in his 12-string playing that has a leaning towards Eastern musical traditions and droning free form raga, but also in his educational background in philosophy and religious studies. Scissor Tail Editions decided to put out Fire And Earth after hearing only thirty seconds of the track 'Leitmotif' -- there's a sincerity in Allred's music and way of life that has been missing from the modern age for a long time. Allred has been quietly releasing records for years, painstakingly designing and hand-printing most of the packaging, never promoting any of them. He hand-painted the covers for Fire And Earth and letterpressed the back covers of Dylan Golden Aycock's latest. Now inhabiting land that's been in his family for two hundred years, he says he's trying to find a place in the family legacy. In Fire And Earth, there is a searching and spiritual quality to the music, and also integrity."
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