Steve Gunn | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Steve Gunn is a guitarist, songwriter, and producer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. While he is best known as a go-to musician and for his membership in GHQ, Gunn has a varied recording and collaboration history that includes work with British legend Michael Chapman (with whom he recorded the duo album Cantos de Lisboa in 2014) and the late Jack Rose. The diversity of his approach embraces everything from American Primitive guitar to raucous, Neil Young & Crazy Horse-inspired psychedelic roots rock & roll. He has collaborated with Meg Baird, the Magik Markers, and Kurt Vile, and issued a handful of well-received solo albums including Time Off (2013) and Way Out Weather (2014) for Paradise of Bachelors. Gunn began playing guitar before high school, and credits his older sister with giving him tapes to listen to. His first loves were punk rock and rap. His first real band was a hardcore covers unit that actually toured between his freshman and sophomore years of high school. But Gunn kept expanding his musical horizons, taking in everything from psych to folk to country to funk. He eventually developed a deep interest in Indian classical music, La Monte Young, and Gnawa music as well -- all of which would feature in his own work. While in college, Gunn became aware of other Philly-based musicians including Bardo Pond and Rose. He also joined GHQ, whose other members were Pete Nolan (Magik Markers, Vanishing Voice) and Marcia Bassett (Un, Double Leopards, Zaimph, Hototogisu), and the trio moved to Brooklyn, which became his home base. Gunn played with GHQ between 2005 and 2007, during which time the band issued nine full-length recordings. While still with GHQ, Gunn issued three extremely limited-edition recordings as Moongang. These releases were created using tape manipulation, field recordings, and, to a lesser extent, guitars. In 2007 he released his first self-titled solo album on Onomato, followed almost immediately by a self-titled, self-issued CD-R. Sundowner followed in 2008 on Tulsa, Oklahomas Digitalis label. In 2009, Three-Lobed (also GHQs label) released Gunns Boerum Palace and the Too Early for the Hammer EP. The former -- a limited-edition LP -- quickly sold out. Later that year, End of the City, a split album with Shawn McMillen, appeared from Abandon Ship Records. Gunns next solo guitar offering was Camel Throat, released as a cassette-only album on Germanys Meudiademorte. In 2010, Gunn and drummer John Truscinski began playing live together as the Gunn-Truscinski duo. Their debut, Sand City, was issued by Three-Lobed that year, followed by a live CD-R in 2011 and Ocean Parkway in 2012. Gunn also kept busy as a solo artist, releasing a split album with Sun City Girls entitled Not the Spaces You Know, But Between Them in 2011. In 2012, the guitarist joined Kurt Vile & the Violators for a global tour, eventually returning to issue his next album Time Off, a trio album featuring Truscinski and bassist Justin Tripp, for Paradise of Bachelors in the late spring of 2013. In 2014, Gunn was prolific. Melodies for a Savage Fix, his collaborative date with Pelt guitarist Mike Gangloff, was issued in March, followed in June by Cantos de Lisboa, a duet session with Mike Cooper in RVNG Intl.s Frkwys series. In early October, Way Out Weather, his second singer/songwriter offering for Paradise of Bachelors, appeared. Gunn teamed with the Black Twig Pickers during a short break in his touring schedule to record a live-in-studio date. Seasonal Hire included four original tunes and one traditional piece, with Gunn and the Black Twig Pickers Mike Gangloff and Sally Anne Morgan all taking turns on lead vocals and songwriting. It was released by Thrill Jockey in early 2015. By the end of that year, hed also taken part in a unique vinyl box set of split LPs from Three Lobed Records titled Parallelogram, with Gunn and Kurt Vile each taking a side of one of the LPs. The following summer he made his Matador Records debut with a collection of road meditations called Eyes on the Lines and a live set with Angel Olsen titled Live at Pickathon. The following year his seemingly never-ending tour produced the self-released Dusted, whose six tracks were captured from gigs in Chicago, New York and Toronto. Gunns singer-songwriter ambitions were predominant on 2018s The Unseen Inbetween, a set of nine intimate, often autobiographical songs that flowed stylistically from Anglo-Celtic folk, Indian raga, guitar pop and Americana. Meg Baird duetted with the guitarist on the track "Vagabond." The album also contained the song "Stonehurst Cowboy," a tribute to his recently deceased father and the Philadelphia neighborhood Gunn grew up in. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 10 Title: Boerum Palace Released: 2009-11-17 Tracks: 7 Duration: 39:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Mr. Franklin (09:04) 2 Variation II (02:13) 3 Mouse of Knowledge (07:57) 4 Cryin Eyes (07:02) 5 Jadins Dream (03:04) 6 Dusted Mind (04:54) 7 Mustaphas Exit (05:06) |
 | Album: 2 of 10 Title: Too Early for the Hammer Released: 2009-11-17 Tracks: 6 Duration: 55:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Landsdowne Shuffle (04:16) 2 Dusted Mind (06:31) 3 For Harvest (07:29) 4 No Atlas (05:24) 5 Wythe Duet (12:39) 6 Suntwice (18:55) |
 | Album: 3 of 10 Title: Melodies for a Savage Fix Released: 2013 Tracks: 5 Duration: 41:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 First of Spring (11:21) 2 Out Canning Factory Road (05:30) 3 Worry Past Worry (04:32) 4 Topeka AM (17:01) 5 Dive for the Pearl (Cians Tracksuit) (03:09) |
 | Album: 4 of 10 Title: Time Off Released: 2013-09-17 Tracks: 6 Duration: 39:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Water Wheel (05:09) 2 Lurker (07:42) 3 Street Keeper (05:43) 4 New Decline (05:25) 5 Old Strange (06:58) 6 Trailways Ramble (08:53) |
 | Album: 5 of 10 Title: FRKWYS Vol. 11: Cantos De Lisboa Released: 2014-06-24 Tracks: 7 Duration: 38:11 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Saudade Do Santos-O-Velho (07:38) 2 Pena Panorama (07:04) 3 Song For Charlie (05:35) 4 Pony Blues (06:53) 5 The Enchanted Moura (02:45) 6 Lampedusa 2013 (04:52) 7 Saramago (03:24) |
| FRKWYS Vol. 11: Cantos De Lisboa : Allmusic album Review : RVNG Intls Frkwys is defined by the label as an "unrestricted series pairing contemporary artists with their influential predecessors...." This 11th volume places New York guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn and veteran guitarist, electronicist, and experimentalist Mike Cooper in Lisbon. They spent ten days drinking wine in fado bars, and playing long informal sessions informed by fado -- the Portuguese music whose roots can be traced to the early 19th century but are reported to date back much earlier, and was originally regarded as "the music of the poor." There are six improvisations here and one free-flowing cover: an expansive reading of the Mississippi Delta standard "Pony Blues" associated with Charley Patton. The word "canto" has three meanings: "corner," "chant," and "song" (it is derived from the Latin word for stanzas in a poem). Fados inpsiration is felt throughout the album Cooper feels it equates with the spirit of the blues. Cantos de Lisboa feels right at home in a sonic terrain somewhere between Gunns take on American Primitive fingerpicking, his drone folk work with GHQ as well as his psych and free jazz-infused solo material, and Coopers early folk and bottleneck blues playing and more electronic improvisation/exploration as displayed on Trout Steel and Rayon Hula, and the elusive feel of fado itself. These are all open-ended pieces, mercurial, slowly evolving without an end in view. Opener "Saudade Do Santos-o-Velho" is a silvery, mercurial, and melancholy piece. The word "saudade" is not literally translatable in English, but its meaning encompasses loss and longing. The quiet fingerpicking, slide resonances, and natural-sounding reverb, make it sound like it was recorded late at night in an open courtyard, the notes gently bouncing off buildings. "Pena Panorama" with its elusive, brooding drones, raga overtones, hallucinatory chords, and bottleneck slide, comes close to wedding blues to fado -- particularly as Gunns near-moaned vocals become another instrument. The relaxed vibe here even applies to its most abstract pieces. "Song for Charlie" uses electronic effects, disembodied spoken voices, feedback, and drones on top of guitars; it threatens to become menacing, but never loses its relative tranquility. The repetitive, hand-strummed drone chord at "Lampedusa 2013"s core is very close to the evocation of fado, with noisy electronic fragments; Gunn offers his own ragged, raw vocal "cantos" atop the mix, informed by the traditions great singers Amalia Rodrigues, Ana Moura, and others. Though Cantos de Lisboa was an experimental undertaking with no real goal in mind, it is fully realized. These master musicians allowed the spirit and culture of an historic city to guide their explorations. What they created reflects not only their considerable abilities, but the magical prescence of Lisbon itself. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 10 Title: Way Out Weather Released: 2014-10-07 Tracks: 8 Duration: 43:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Way Out Weather (06:18) 2 Wildwood (05:38) 3 Milly’s Garden (05:34) 4 Shadow Bros (04:29) 5 Fiction (05:44) 6 Drifter (03:59) 7 Atmosphere (05:09) 8 Tommy’s Congo (06:34) |
| Way Out Weather : Allmusic album Review : Steve Gunns Time Off was one of the great surprises of 2013. Not because it showcased his already considerable skills as a guitarist, but because he discovered his strength as a songwriter too. Way Out Weather, written during his global travels over the last year, is ambitious. Its musical architecture is more focused yet its production is more spacious. Gunn employs a larger band here -- drummer John Truscinski, bassist/producer Justin Tripp, banjo player and soundscape artist Nathan Bowles, harpist Mary Lattimore, Rhytons Jimy Seitang, and multi-instrumentalist/engineer Justin Meagher. Gunn has gained considerable confidence as a singer. His grainy yet airy voice sits atop this mix, fully expressive for its limited range. Songs often follow a verse-chorus-verse structure underscored by layers of repetitive, gradually shifting acoustic and electric guitar and percussion patterns, adorned by the other instrumentation selectively as well as strategically placed drones and gorgeously tailored effects that extend the songs margins. Way Out Weather unfolds, for all of its range, holistically. The title track emerges tentatively from skeletal lap steel and acoustic guitars with a sparse, reverbed upright piano toward a gradually revealing lyrical and musical landscape as Americana, droning blues, and psych-drenched folk (think David Crosbys If I Could Only Remember My Name) commingle and converse. Its emergent lyric examines drive-by glimpses of ocean vistas, jagged coastlines, and bleached landscapes with the awareness that while seemingly eternal, they are always in flux. The droning organ that introduces the twinned electric guitar vamp on "Millys Garden" is sun-drenched, shuffling, windswept. Its musical aspect asserts a blurred terrain where roots rock, blues, and country meet. They carry a bright melody that reveals a dark, tragic lyric. As it unfolds, the music betrays traces and influences of the early-70s Grateful Dead and the Byrds -- circa Untitled. It is easily the most beautiful song Gunns ever written. "Shadow Bros," the excellent back-porch waltz that follows, is framed by banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, harp, and old-timey vocal harmonies; its use of reverb gives more dimension to the poetic, metaphysical narrative in the lyric. The spacy psych impressionism of "Fiction" is the sets first hard proof of an evolving direction, followed by the interlocking rhythms in the acoustic-electric rocker "Drifter" and the shimmering, hushed instrumental interlude that is "Atmosphere." Closer "Tommys Congo" contains brooding, trance-like reverbed and layered percussion driving a steamy, minor-key Junior Kimbrough-esque blues groove voiced with Malian-style guitars, background bass, and synth drones. Its a knockout six-minute jam that suggests what Robert Plant might sound like if he were backed by Lobi Traoré and Francis Bebey. Way Out Weather ends in a very different place than it began, but Gunns wide-angle musical vision possesses the acumen necessary to encompass it. His musical language has evolved into a sound that is not only ambitious, but instantly recognizable. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 10 Title: Seasonal Hire Released: 2015-02-24 Tracks: 5 Duration: 37:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Dive for the Pearl (05:50) 2 Dont Let Your Deal Go Down (04:03) 3 Cardinal 51 (04:35) 4 Trailways Ramble (06:55) 5 Seasonal Hire (16:24) |
| Seasonal Hire : Allmusic album Review : Despite the billing, Seasonal Hire seems to reference guitarist Steve Gunn hanging his shingle on a Black Twig Pickers recording more than the other way around. Before launching his career as a solo artist, he spent his time working with everyone from Meg Baird and the Magik Markers to Kurt Vile, and he was a member of GHQ and the Gunn-Truscinski Duo, to name a few. He had also worked with the individual members of BTP before. He and Mike Gangloff recorded Melodies for a Savage Fix for Important, and Nathan Bowles was part of Gunns Way Out Weather studio band. The Black Twig Pickers, who reside in Montgomery County, Virginia and Greenbrier County, West Virginia, have been a string band whose roots lie deep in the soil of Appalachia, but whove nonetheless been influenced by everything from psychedelic music and punk-blues to the music of North Carolinas experimental fiddler Henry Flynt. Gunns love for folk styles, raga, and Piedmont and Delta blues is a natural fit. There is only one public domain tune here, a wide-open modal read of "Dont Let Your Deal Go Down," where Sally Anne Morgan and Gangloff play fiddles and sing, while Isak Howells mouth harp, Bowles banjo, and Gunns guitar create a middle and bottom that wed drone to a Celtic reel. "Dive for the Pearl" is a new, longer version of the same tune that Gunn and Gangloff cut, played in a round with slide and standard banjo, harmonica, fiddle, and guitar all turning the same phrase over throughout, while different tonal accents are displayed as each instrument takes a turn at the forefront. Morgans "Cardinal 51" is a fiddle tune that could be a lonesome square dance number. Here, more than any other cut, is where the recording process really shines -- this was cut live in the same room with no amplification, just recording microphones. Gunns presence really asserts itself on the back half of the record. A vocal version of his "Trailways Ramble" (from Time Off, though this one was recorded first) asserts its raga-blues quality for nearly seven minutes before he and the Twigs spin off into a glorious improvisation on the title track for over 16 minutes. Gunns gorgeous 12-string playing is the centerpiece of the first half, supported by Bowles bowed cymbals, jaw harp, singing bowls, gongs, fiddle, banjos, and sruti box. Despite the exotic instrumentation and colorful textures, its central motifs are melodic, building and releasing in dynamic as both Western and Eastern traditions are bridged. And while the tune ranges far and wide, it eventually echoes a return to its origins, but from a different hemisphere. Despite the relaxed, very informal nature of the playing, some deep music gets made here. While guitar freaks may have hoped for more guitar from Gunn, hes everywhere even when hes not running the show. Seasonal Hire is excellent country and Eastern. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 10 Title: Parallelogram Released: 2015-12-11 Tracks: 6 Duration: 28:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Pretty Boy (04:12) 2 Way Back Then (03:35) 3 Red Apples for Tom Scharpling (04:21) 4 NPR Reject (01:32) 5 60/40 (05:09) 6 Spring Garden (10:06) |
 | Album: 9 of 10 Title: Eyes on the Lines Released: 2016-06-03 Tracks: 9 Duration: 41:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Ancient Jules (06:00) 2 Full Moon Tide (04:48) 3 The Drop (04:45) 4 Conditions Wild (04:36) 5 Nature Driver (04:00) 6 Heavy Sails (04:01) 7 Night Wander (04:18) 8 Park Bench Smile (03:24) 9 Ark (05:21) |
| Eyes on the Lines : Allmusic album Review : Brooklyn singer, songwriter, and guitar slinger Steve Gunn makes his Matador debut with Eyes on the Lines, a windblown set of road explorations that, despite its meandering nature, is one of his most accessible records yet. The Pennsylvania native has maintained a prolific output over the previous decade, much of it in the form of one-off projects and collaborations, but his solo releases all seem to spring from the same well of wanderlust. Expanding on the spacious sound of his excellent 2014 LP, Way Out Weather, Eyes on the Lines is more of a free-flowing rock affair, finding Gunn and his band locking into bucolic grooves that take their time to unfurl. Both lyrically and musically, Gunns themes seem geared toward observation and the natural relationship with ones surroundings, urging listeners to "take your time, ease up, look around, and waste the day" on opener "Ancient Jules." It introduces the albums casual tone and sets up subsequent highlights like the breezy "Nature Driver" and "Night Wander," an affable moonlit ramble whose nimble riffs are punctuated by some clever work from drummer John Truscinski. As with Gunns more recent albums, echoes of cerebral jammers like the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground can be heard in his work, though his style ultimately comes across as more impressionistic than either of those two sources. But as blissed-out a road record as it is, Eyes on the Lines contains some very thoughtful and well-designed songwriting, with lead single "Conditions Wild" being among its best. Inspired by Rebecca Solnits book A Field Guide to Getting Lost, its a thematic centerpiece to an album that leans toward the path less taken. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 10 Title: The Unseen in Between Released: 2019-01-18 Tracks: 9 Duration: 44:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples AlbumCover | 1 New Moon (05:09) 2 Vagabond (05:01) 3 Chance (04:25) 4 Stonehurst Cowboy (03:41) 5 Luciano (05:53) 6 New Familiar (05:56) 7 Lightning Field (05:00) 8 Morning Is Mended (04:00) 9 Paranoid (05:15) |