Dan DeLuca’s Mix Picks: Strand of Oaks, Rev. Horton Heat, a Jack Rose tribute, and W. Eugene Smith’s Jazz Loft
Music Critic Dan DeLuca's picks of songs to hear and shows to see.
Ten Years Gone: A Tribute To Jack Rose. Jack Rose, the Philadelphia acoustic guitarist who was a bridge between an old generation of American vernacular players like John Fahey and a new generation of axemen such as Kurt Vile and Steve Gunn, died in December 2009 at the age of 38. This rich, wordless 14-song tribute to the virtuoso known as Dr. Ragtime includes Rose’s friends Sir Richard Bishop, Helena Espvall, and Buck Curran (who produced), as well as upstarts carrying on Rose’s legacy such as Simone Romei, Prana Crafter, and Paolo Laboule Novellino.
The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith. Sara Fishko’s documentary chronicles the period between 1957 and 1965 when Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith lived and worked in a Sixth Avenue loft in Manhattan next door to a nightly jam session whose participants included Thelonious Monk, classical composer Hall Overton, and drummer Ronnie Free. Pack rat genius Smith was the obsessive fly on the wall, snapping 40,000 photographs and recording 4,000 hours of audio, giving Fishko plenty to work with in evoking a magical time and place. Streaming on Amazon prime.
Rev. Horton Heat’s Holiday Hayride. Since dipping into Christmas music with We Three Kings in 2005, red-headed psycho-billy guitarist Rev. Horton Heat has made it a regular routine to go on a holiday season musical sleigh ride, helpers in tow. This year’s line-up includes ska-punk veterans Voodoo Glow Skulls and the great California songwriter and guitarist Dave Alvin, formerly of the Blasters and lately a collaborator with Texas country singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Plus, a rarely touring treat: the 5.6.7.8’s, the Japanese rock and roll band featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 1. Wednesday at World Cafe Live.
Strand of Oaks — Winter Classic V. Go ahead and be sad that Tim Showalter, the longtime Philadelphia singer-guitarist who performs as Strand of Oaks, has packed up and moved to Austin, Texas. But then quit your moping and be glad that the Winter Classic, his annual tradition of playing a trio of December solo shows (sometimes with the help of friends and family) is ongoing and remains “essential to my life.” Thursday through Saturday at Boot & Saddle.