VA - Ten Years Gone: A Tribute to Jack Rose (2019)

The American Primitive or solo acoustic instrumental guitar genre has its share of tragic heroes, namely pioneers John Fahey and Robbie Basho, but the most heartbreaking for many in recent years was the premature death of the astonishing Jack Rose, a musician probably not even peaking creatively when a heart attack took him at the age of just thirty-eight. Jack has left a legacy of music and devotees, with many across all levels of the genre these days citing him as their ultimate influence. Suffice to say, players like Daniel Bachman, Matt Sowell, Eli Winter and Ryley Walker would be very different musicians had it not been for Rose’s music entering their lives. Glenn Jones has also been hugely influenced by Rose through the years, both as a close friend and musical inspiration, and it’s Jack’s name he will undoubtedly mention at every one of his live shows, Rose being critical in Glenn’s own career and life.

Ten Years Gone is a compilation of new music composed by various musicians who were either friends and contemporaries of Jack’s or emerging artists influenced by him. This hugely varied and fascinating set was compiled and produced by Buck Curran of Arborea, whose own piece is a beauty. ‘Greenfields of America’ is a lovely slowed-down slide piece, forgoing the heavy thumbed bass technique Jack often used and instead using space and the ethereal qualities of the slide across the strings to work his magic. Also unexpected are the two bowed tunes on here; Mike Gangloff‘s patient, spooky opener has slow, droning sweeps, jumping from high to low strings resulting in a splendid, uneasy piece. Helena Espvall is known for her free improvising music and her cello tune ‘Alcantara’ plays very much to her strengths; like Gangloff’s, this is at times anxious music, particularly with the notes being so much lower than the fiddle, and the drama is upped toward the halfway point, bringing a thrilling, nervous element to the mix.