Sunday, February 26, 2017

Why Delphinium CD Is A Blues Milestone

By Jerry Collins


Late bloomers in the contemporary music scene offer the most distinctive works, and there are a lot of them who have become popular. Great music is being made by people of all ages today, and age groups here do not relate since most things are available on YouTube and other sites. Some discovered playing late while others started young, stopped and then rediscovered their playing roots.

A musician who took the longer road and found himself entering the world of recorded music is Dean Maser. He made the rediscovery one night during the open mic of a hootenanny and went on to record Delphinium CD. Those lucky enough to know him listen are in for a treat.

In the spirit of James Taylor and the Depression era song Wandering, Maser has become something of a modern definer of wandering blues minstrelsy. He has followed the footsteps of masters like Bob Dylan, creator of a now accepted standard for wisdom in both music and literature. Plus, he creates a visually oriented kind of music a la Grant Wood with this album.

Delphinium continues his journey into a broad landscape, filled with the sere and open vistas of the Midwest and the spiritual rigors of the American West. The title of this new work was taken from the flower, which is considered a late bloomer, coming round in the high heat of summer. It has a broad geographical range, growing on meadows on the plain as well as alpine valleys.

He started out with church music, ukeleles and guitar and the song Kumbayah is deeply imprinted like a bad and unwanted tattoo on his soul. Perhaps it took those years away from music to make him shake of the early influence and come to see a real spirituality in nature and the world. He goes on to say that he really went for the prize in high school and ended up making a 3 record EP that not one person heard.

The artist blogs, too, and it is titled The Good Ancestor, a deep trawling of his musical roots and influences, imagined or otherwise. This is personal music history musicians should know. Thus this artist has fully awakened by taking in everything, and this is something reflected in this first full album.

He has also come into his own with the blues, and he and his band of traveling players named SoulShine are readying an eclectic album of this kind. Their influences range from Johnny Cash to ZZ Top, from Hendrix to Clapton, Dylan and BB King. And people should watch for it, because Maser and his group are seasoned musicians playing as a classic trio.

From Boston to Minneapolis, he has recorded this new album with musicians from Africa and North Dakota. He is taking a stand for all kinds of influences that have become native to his work. However, all the elements that make up the Blues as it was first sung to Old Man River himself are there, evidenced in songs of the album.

Titles in the album include Strong Love, Heroes, Heart Be True and One Time. The list also features the title track, A Little Older and The 1 Second Miracle, which are excellent takes on the tradition. And De Blues is nothing if not traditional, about all things Christian and Biblical inspiration on American soil, about feelings so vast and deep that only tears can express them.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment