Warner Bros. Media Information
Van Dyke Parks -Recorded Live At The Ash Grove
"I often make unconscious decisions that I then try to justify, this particular project being a case in point."
So says Van Dyke Parks on the raison d'etre of Moonlighting, his latest Warner Bros. Records release and the first ever live release from the acclaimed songwriter, soundtrack composer, producer, musicologist and all-round creative sparkplug. "This is a highly personal album," he continues, "which I hope will serve as an instrument of introduction to music that has influenced and inspired me over the years."
Encompassing thirteen tracks that nicely scratch the surface of Parks' extraordinary artistry, Moonlighting was recorded in concert at the new location of the legendary Los Angeles folk music venue, The Ash Grove, in September of last year. Backed by a full complement of accomplished musical friends under the direction of Parks long-time creative co-conspirator Sid Page, Moonlighting is, indeed, both highly personal and impressively eclectic. All of which, it might be added, more than serves to justify this delightful excursion into realms of music, memory and magic by one of America's most inventive and enduring artists.
"I try to perform in concert at least once every five years as a change from the studio regimen," explains Parks. "This time around, I thought of releasing an album of the event as a way of paying the copying costs of the arrangements." Parks' typically self-effacing comment is undercut by the ambitious nature of the Moonlighting tune stack. This ostensibly modest undertaking is, in fact, a wonderfully engaging journey down forgotten byways of American musical lore, from the lush tropical evocations of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, one of the nineteenth century's premier progenitors of popular music, to the minstrel theaters of the Deep south, to the '60's folk boom and beyond.
"Beyond" in this case, being Parks' own music, which synthesizes all of the above and more in a pastiche of selections drawn from the full range of his earlier recordings. From Orange Crate Art, his 1994 collaboration with Brian Wilson, comes live renditions of the title track, "Wings Of A Dove" and "Sail Away". Jump, his 1984 musical meditation on the story cycles of Joel Chandler Harris, yields that album's signature tune and "Hominy Grove", while "Cowboy", Parks' paean to the Hawaiian cowpoke, was drawn from 1989's Tokyo Rose. Even his legendary 1968 debut album, Song Cycle, is represented with "The All Golden" a tribute to his lifelong friend who, incidentally, opened Parks' Ash Grove concert stand.
In between are pickings from Parks' extensively cross-fertilized musical garden: a new adaption and arrangement of the calypso classic "F.D.R. in Trinidad", which he originally cut for 1972's Discover America; "Night In The Tropics" and "Danza" (both from the profilic pen of the above mentioned Monsieur Gottschalk) and "C-H-I-C-K-E-N", a gaslight sing-along covered by, among others, Mississippi John Hurt, The Red Clay Minstrels and Uncle Dave Macon.
Also included: "Delta Queen Waltz" from one of the Folk Movement's founding fathers, John Hartford (last seen piloting his own riverboat on the mighty Cumberland), aShoes", a moving tribute to the late and much lamented Lowell George.
nd "Sailin' A full plate, and then some, but for Van Dyke Parks Moonlighting was less an opportunity to make a musical statement then it was to have some fun with old friends and exercise some underused creative muscles. "For me, playing live is, first and foremost, a chance to find the time and place for musicians to come together and enjoy themselves. It also gives me the opportunity to get out of the studio and off the sound stage, where I spent so much of my time and make music at close range, without the reliance on various technical enhancements, Finally, it's always fun to go up in the attic and pull old material out of the trunk."
Moonlighting additionally lives up to its name by providing the artist a night out from his day job, which these days is keeping him very busy indeed scoring numerous film and television projects.
Reason and rationales aside however, Moonlighting offers its own abundant justification in music that celebrates the artistry, enthusiasms and inspirations of a true original.
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