Orchids and Violence is the first solo full-length by
Michael Daves. (The Grammy-nominated
Sleep with One Eye Open was a collaboration with
Chris Thile.) Mixed by
Vance Powell, it's a double album whose discs contain the exact same songs -- the first is acoustic, the second electric. The material comprises traditional bluegrass and country standards -- and
Mother Love Bone's "Stargazer." The first disc was cut live to tape in a 19th century church.
Daves flatpicks and strums like a madman, surrounded by a smoking cast: bassist
Mike Bub, fiddler
Brittany Haas, mandolinist
Sarah Jarosz, and banjoist
Noam Pikelny. The electric second disc was recorded in
Daves' home studio. He played guitars, pianos, and drums -- electric bass was played by Jessi Carter. The way
Daves renders all these tunes underscores his rep as a "renegade traditionalist." Contrast both versions of the old fiddle tune "June Apple." The acoustic version is deft and quick paced, played with enough ensemble energy to make it crackle. The electric take sounds like
Richard Thompson playing with
Robert Quine. On disc one
Bill Monroe's "Darling Corey" walks a tightrope between rural country boogie, rockabilly, and swinging bluegrass. On the second half it sounds like
the Hollies' "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" played by
Ali Farka Touré and
Toumani Diabaté (thanks in no small part to
Tony Trischka's psychedelic cello banjo). While the acoustic version of "The Dirt That You Throw" is a midtempo mountain waltz with gospel and blues overtones, on disc two it comes through as an elegiac dirge filtered through psychedelic country. The first version of the aforementioned "Stargazer" is a sprightly, quick-moving bluegrass tune with extended vocal harmonies -- and sounds like it originated with
the Stanley Brothers. Its electric companion is rife with
Neil Young and
Crazy Horse-esque sustain and distortion. The initial version of "A Good Year for the Roses" (associated forever with
George Jones) is rendered raw, stripped-down, and bereft of anything but grief. The second, more bewildered that bereft, could have been arranged by
Paul Westerberg and
Gary Louris.
Ralph Stanley's classic "Pretty Polly" reveals its deep Delta blues roots without straying from the mountain tradition on disc one; its mirror image is twisted and bent through the ghost of
Dock Boggs and
Junior Kimbrough. "The 28th of January" is rendered on disc one as a picker's hornpipe tune (with
Trischka on cello banjo). Its electric read is a strutting instrumental boogie filtered through Marc Bolan's shadow.
Daves considers bluegrass a music whose heritage was fostered by a tension between various musical traditions -- blues, gospel, country, folk, swing jazz -- and the desire of its creators for innovation on these forms. Taking
Orchids and Violence as a whole illustrates that in spades. In the 21st century, these songs as covered by
Daves not only retain their meaning but cut deeper into the American grain. ~ Thom Jurek