PRAISE FOR THE WEST WAS BURNING
"This gets a big thumbs-up for its literary words and its soulful rootsiness."- popmatters.com
"We're told that this is the first solo album by Tennessee singer and songwriter Martha Scanlan, but such is the cool assurance and earthy authority of these performances, it could well be her sixth or tenth collection." - No Depression
"Martha Scanlan's cracked and quavering voice is a taste that, once acquired, is nigh on impossible to satiate. It's completely addictive."- Utne Reader
An Interview From The Kentucky Herald-Leader.
A FORMER TRAVELER JOURNEYS ON HER OWN
Going solo, singer sticks with what she likes
By Walter Tunis
It can be argued that all great music is a communal creation. It might boast a leader, conductor or some guiding presence. But the resulting sound is inevitably a conversation.
As proof, let us view the recording of
"That’s what is so nice about traditional music, said Scanlan, There is such and ease about it because the music belongs to everybody. There’s this wonderful consciousness and connectedness about it."
Scanlan is possessed of a voice of stirring but almost brittle calm and songs that plow and cultivate emotions in a sort of musical harvest; her initial performance vehicle was a
Then the travelers got a serious taste of communal music by hitting the road with Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ralph Stanley, Ollabelle, the Nashville Bluegrass Band and most of the
“What an amazing experience being with the Travelers was”, Scanlan said. “For so much of our career, it was a true grass-roots operation, a band supported so generously by the people who enjoyed our music. I grew up musically with them. It was a time that was so fulfilling and rich.”
When the travelers quietly called it a day in 2005, Scanlan set off on what would become her most adventurous collaboration, a project that would heighten and expand her roosts-music inspirations. The result was the singer’s debut solo album.
“The album, to me, is essentially a jam session that just happened to be recorded,” she said.
Titled The West Was Burning, Scanlan’s album gathers together multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, who also produced the album; Amy Helm and
“Ollabelle and Reeltime Travelers shared dressing rooms on the tour,” Scanlan remembered. “In most places we played, Alison Krauss had the first floor. The rest of us would be on the second. And we just played music all the time, onstage and off.”
But an outside
Initially, though, Scanlan didn’t want to make a fuss. In what was perhaps a reflection of the intimate string sound she crated with the Travelers, she pondered a similar foolish flavor for The West Was Burning.
“At first, I was just thinking about having brushes and guitar on the songs,” she said. “But doing that with Levon Helm there would have been like starting an art project with Picasso and only using a pencil.”
Along with sessions cut at Cypress House in
“A lot of these sounds I simply grew up with,” Scanlan said. “This is music I like. But I never imagined having the opportunity to go in so many directions with the music I’m making or develop so many wonderful friendships along the way.”