Search - Last Forever, Dick Connette, Sonya Cohen :: Last Forever

Composer Dick Connette's conceptual vision stands at a crossroads between composed "serious" music and the wide horizons of American folk music. His subtitle, "New and Old Songs Out of the American Tradition," only partly describes their mysterious power, as Connette deconstructs and recombines elements of pre-industrial folk with subtle but inescapable post-atomic perceptions. His primary collaborator, vocalist Sonya Cohen, has a genetic claim to this humble miracle. Daughter of '60s folk warrior John Cohen, on a bloodline connecting her to the Seeger family, she sounds earthy, serene, unsentimentally connected to the moment yet always authentic as she interprets Connette's canny fusion of beautifully arranged vocal and instrumental evocations of Americana. From a chilling, brilliant new version of the stark "In the Pines" to Connette's masterful juxtaposition of deep holler and Bo Diddley on "Nursery Rhyme," Last Forever unreels vivid portraits of America's oldest soul music through settings that combine spinet, harmonium, hammer dulcimer, violin, guitar, banjo, and orchestration to haunting effect. Call it chamber folk if you must, but Last Forever transcends category. --Sam Sutherland