The Legend
of Vernon McAlister
by Richard Leo Johnson
Cuneiform Records, Silver Spring, MD,
2006
Audio CD, Rune 222, $13.00
Distributors website: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be
Richard Leo Johnson is a rather well known
architectural photographer who turned
to guitar playing after his studio burnt
down in the Nineties. His two previously
published albums were praised mainly for
his virtuoso style, combining melodic
invention with technical mastery and experiment.
Some time ago, a friend presented him
with a worn but still playable 1930s National
Duolian steel-bodied guitar. The instrument
had the name of Vernon McAlister
etched on it, and Johnson naturally wanted
to find out who that was. Nothing. Vernon
McAlister never left a trace as a musician,
probably like most other players of that
type of cheap instrument. The National
Duolian was produced by the National Stringed
Instrument Company, who sold thousands
of it in the Thirties. Because of its
big resonator chamber, the instrument
has the advantage of sounding
louder than a regular wooden guitar and
first became popular with jazz and Hawaiian
musicians who didnt want their part
to be drowned in the sound of a band of
woodwinds and percussion. Later, it was
adopted by the blues community, where
it remained popular as a cheap alternative
to amplified electrical guitars only to
be forgotten as a mainstream instrument
after the Second World War.
So, what would you do if you laid hands
on a well-preserved steel-bodied guitar
with a name and a hidden history? Precisely
what an imaginative musician like Richard
Leo Johnson has done: dream up a story,
create a legend, imagine a music and record
an album. The story and the legend are
simple, elegant and charming, as you can
find out on http://www.vernonmcalister.com.
The music is equally charming but not
simple at all. Quite the contrary. It
comes across as the result of months of
exploring the possibilities of the instrument
by an uneducated and enthusiastic player,
someone who isnt spoiled by any
formal musical training and who has lots
of time to find out what kind of sounds
he can draw from this loud-mouthed stringed
box.
In 20 short tracks, Mr. Johnson explores
the whole range of sounds the Duolian
can produce, from gently tapped percussion
to orchestral chords and from sweet melodic
lines to harsh, crying harmonies. The
entire record is built like and meant
to be heard as a suite of wordless songs
where each separate piece serves to emphasise
the overall versatility of the music.
Much more than being a mere showcase of
sound effects, it is a dialogue between
musical means and meanings. Each piece
shows how the instrument influences the
expression and vice versa, and the whole
is loosely constructed but closed in on
itself, following its own musical logic.
Vernon McAlister, wherever he is buried,
proves to be truly a legendary master
of the steel-bodied National Duolian.
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/