RITA HOSKING
with SEAN FEDER
Live In The 16 to 1 Mine
Rita Hosking makes me laugh. Outright. I mean, right on the back of the CD cover of Live in the 16 to 1 Mine, in the right hand corner, she posts a warning. ?WARNING,? it says in capital letters (that's how I knew it was a warning)--- ?This is NOT a studio recording. It was made underground in a working gold mine with just one stereo mic.? With wording like that, I'm surprised she didn't use the skull and crossbones. Why do I laugh? Because for 'Warning' I would have substituted ?How cool is THIS??. I mean, how cool IS it? Hosking grabs daughter Kora Feder (who in turn grabs her camera) and husband Sean Feder and heads into a working gold mine in Northern California to record (both musically and video-ly) a set of songs related to mining. Think about it. Some of the best music has been recorded in churches, canyons, basements, etc. Why not a mine?
Why not a mine, indeed. To Hosking and those of mining heritage, that is Mother Earth. That is a connection as meaningful as a farmer's to the soil or a logger's to the forest. Why not a mine? Of course, simply recording in a mine is not what is important. What is important is the connection to the mine. Getting the picture yet? If you are, you'll get the music as well.
Hosking lined up a number of songs for this session, six of which made it onto the album (Bright Morning Star, a traditional song of ethereal beauty, is sung in three-part a capella as an intro as well as at the end with instrumental accompaniment): two originals, two by Utah Phillips (et. al) and two traditional songs. The selection of songs was a master stroke (like I've said before, Hosking knows her stuff), the sequencing spot on and the execution, to my ears, flawless. Not perfect. Flawless.
You see, perfection would demand a commitment to the recording and the recording process and if anything separates Hosking from the pack, it is her commitment to the music. Seemingly intangible, that commitment has resulted in two outstanding albums (Silver Stream and Come Sunrise) (read my review here) which bend folk/bluegrass/country in an open and honest way. There are no extras or gimmicks because she neither feels them nor needs them. She is simply and success to her is a song well-written and performed.
On 16 to 1, we get six extremely well written tunes and seven outstanding performances plus a bonus video. Everything from the backwoods- and old timey-sounding The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia (written by folk legends Utah Phillips, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin) to the solemn and brooding original Taking You In to the age-old traditionals--- the upbeat and bluegrassy Dream of a Miner's Child and Bright Morning Stars, a forty second hymn-like a capella intro which Hosking and the Feders turn into a light and melodious trip of vocal bluegrass not unlike the Buck White and the Down Home Folks of the eighties. All live. All solid. All good.
Make that better than good. There is something about Hosking I find refreshing. There is more to her than guitar-slinging or voice. There is unbridled honesty to her music. I heard it on her previous albums. I hear it here. It is fitting that this music which comes from deep within Hosking also comes from deep within a mine. Hosking's great-grandfather W.T. 'Tom' Hosking, a miner himself, would have been proud. Very proud, indeed.
An aside: I am weeks late with this review because of the video. I haven't seen it. It's there. I know it's there because I can hear the music and the ambient sounds captured by Kora Feder's camera--- the clanking of the rail car and the voices of the miners--- but my old diesel-powered computer (thank you Microsoft, you twits) isn't able to translate. I downloaded codecs and messed with it until I wanted to toss it out the window (along with Windows). Bums me out, but I think it's God's way of telling me it's time for an upgrade (this time, I think I'll go Linux). I hate shopping but in the meantime I can still listen to the music (and will). I think I will start shopping soon. I dig mines and am anxious to see what Kora put together. It will be worth it, I am sure.
Frank O. Gutch Jr.
Supporting the Indies Since 1969
