Musically Speaking runs, for the most part, on free time, of which I’ve had precious little in the last two or three months, primarily due to a heavy workload. The renaissance of the Baltimore Orioles, who require my constant attention to keep the wins coming, has further reduced my time for careful listening. I did recently manage to sneak in a listen to worthy releases from the Susan Holmes Brotherhood and Chris Burton/Frederick Aragón.

The Susan Holmes Brotherhood
The Susan Holmes Brotherhood (indie)
A review
Bassist/songwriter/producer/graphic artist Susan Holmes has been a valued member of the musical family along the Santa Fe–Albuquerque corridor for years, laying down solid lines and rhythms for everyone from Bill and Bonnie Hearne to the Santa Fe All-Stars, the Alpha Cats, Rosie Flores, and more. On her new release, The Susan Holmes Brotherhood, she has put together a simpático quartet to collaborate on new material that features Americana in multiple flavors—from blues to C&W to country—and beyond. The quartet includes George Langston (electric and acoustic guitars), Jon Graboff (electric, acoustic, electric 12-string, and pedal steel guitars), Paul Pearcy (drums, cymbals, shaker, tambourines, frame drum), and Holmes (elecric and upright bass, electric and acoustic guitars). The credits for Holmes’ highly accomplished conspirators—and luthier, in Langston’s case—include Willie Nelson, Iris DeMent, Norah Jones, James McMurtry, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, and The Chicks, to drop a few of the names. The music is as comfortable as a pair of old jeans, and it’s played with the understated virtuosity and unguarded relaxation of a back porch get-together. Holmes’ production and Jon Gagan’s engineering deliver top-drawer audio. There’s the breezy ride down a country road with “Diggity Dog” (Graboff, Holmes, Langston, Pearcy); a rollicking party vibe (Langston’s “Swamp Gas”), which features nice trading between Graboff (right) on a Les Paul and Langston (left) on his own custom Langston AlphaCaster, and guest Ollie O’Shea’s fiddle; Graboff’s bluesy “Aloha 1625;” Holmes’ ominous “The Coming of a Storm;” a love letter filled with gratitude to Holmes’ horse, Miami, in “Daybreaker” (Graboff, Holmes, Langston, Pearcy); and “Sleepy Desert Moon” (Holmes), featuring Shannon McNally on vocals and a lovely melody, which I forehear under scrolling movie credits. You can find the album on Bandcamp for your listening and ordering pleasure.

Chris Burton/Frederick Aragón
Frontiers (indie)
A review
I met guitarist Chris Burton while waiting for the bar to open at the 2022 New Mexico Music Awards in May. We had a nice chat, and I was happy to see him and his collaborator, flutist and artist Frederick Aragón, win Best Native American Album for their EP Frontiers. When I see “guitar,” “flute,” and “Native American music” in the same sentence, I make some asinine assumptions, expecting an acoustic, atmospheric, New Agey dreamscape duet culled from traditional songs. Frontiers happily exposed and undermined those assumptions. First off, the album features a full band, with most instruments—keyboards, electronics, bass—played by Burton, who also samples the drums, with Aragón playing the haunting Native American flute. Second, Burton wrote all the material, with the tunes presented in their chronological order, the earliest written at age 15 and the latest in the last year or so. Third, while the album overall does have a dreamy quality, Burton skillfully colors the songs with elements from various genres. There’s the traditionally inflected “Pawn of Prophesy;” the neosoul “Earth Mother;” the funky, bluesy “Frontier;” and Reflexions,” with a flute line that almost seems pulled from Irish folk music. (Burton, a Taos resident, grew up in Georgia, which might account for the funk and blues.) The production is so clean that it’s hard to believe the album was recorded and produced in Burton’s home on his Mac Studio, and the arrangements are nicely detailed and textured. “Sayulita,” the most ambitious track, tells a story of lessons learned from a love found and lost, with some judiciously placed hip-hop effects dropped into the mix. You can preview the album and purchase downloads at buydirectfromtheartist.com, where you can also learn more about the two artists. (The album’s stunning artwork, though uncredited, appears to be Aragón’s.)

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© 2022 Mel Minter