{"id":1950,"date":"2020-11-19T22:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T04:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2021-06-24T16:59:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:59:19","slug":"alcorn-pedernal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/alcorn-pedernal\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Susan Alcorn&#8217;s &#8216;Pedernal\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Geography isn\u2019t destiny, but it might explain some things about pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and her new release, <em>Pedernal <\/em>(Relative Pitch Records, 2020). Alcorn is based in Baltimore, a place where the strange, unexpected and contradictory thrive. It is the birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Zappa and John Waters, who wrote, \u201cYou can look far and wide, but you\u2019ll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It\u2019s as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether or not an accident of fuel economy brought Alcorn to Baltimore from her longtime home base of Houston, her project of legitimizing the pedal steel guitar in jazz and improvised music circles is at once eccentric and completely logical. After all, jazz is always hunting new sounds to add to the vocabulary.&nbsp; Still, even though pedal steel players such as Speedy West and Buddy Emmons flirted with jazz decades ago, no one has nudged the boundaries of the instrument quite so far as Alcorn has.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"lyte-wrapper fourthree\" style=\"width:420px;max-width:100%;margin:5px;\"><div class=\"lyMe\" id=\"WYL_S_DxQiKPWKc\"><div id=\"lyte_S_DxQiKPWKc\" data-src=\"\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/S_DxQiKPWKc\/hqdefault.jpg\" class=\"pL\"><div class=\"tC\"><div class=\"tT\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"play\"><\/div><div class=\"ctrl\"><div class=\"Lctrl\"><\/div><div class=\"Rctrl\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><noscript><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/S_DxQiKPWKc\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/S_DxQiKPWKc\/0.jpg?resize=420%2C295&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"YouTube video thumbnail\" width=\"420\" height=\"295\" \/><br \/>Watch this video on YouTube<\/a><\/noscript><\/div><\/div><div class=\"lL\" style=\"max-width:100%;width:420px;margin:5px;\"><\/div><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>On <em>Pedernal<\/em>, the very notion of boundaries is nullified. Yet, this isn&#8217;t an experimental album, even though the players are given plenty of room to move. The galloping \u201cNortheast Rising Sun,&#8221; for instance, is an outright earworm, stretching a bouncing barn-dance melody over a descending G-major scale. The round-robin string of solos for the leader, violinist Mark Feldman, guitarist Mary Halvorson and longtime colleague Michael Formanek on bass are right out of the Appalachian string band tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drummer Ryan Sawyer, late of TV on the Radio, gives that cut its rhythmic giddy-up, but <em>Pedernal <\/em>is neither&nbsp; Newgrass nor a crossover session. From time to time, things get weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The title cut, named for the New Mexico mesa that was a favorite subject of the painter Georgia O&#8217;Keefe, begins as a high, lonely cowboy melody by Alcorn over Formanek&#8217;s tolling bass. But the second time through, the tune jumps the rails and ascends into the darkness like a tumbleweed caught in a dust devil, only to drift back to earth. When the original theme returns with richer harmonization it only underlines the strangeness of what has gone before.<\/p>\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"120\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/track=3406451949\/album=306898340\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With its ghostly sustain and quavering, pitch-bending, the pedal steel&nbsp; does strangeness and alienation very well. So, it&#8217;s no surprise that Alcorn conjures spooky, graveyard effects on &#8220;Circular Ruins,&#8221; abetted by Feldman&#8217;s jittery, poking solo. It&#8217;s a perfect soundtrack to an Expressionist silent film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sense of dread is even more effectively painted in the brooding, Shostakovian &#8220;Night In Gdansk.&#8221; A 13-minute soundscape inspired by a tense evening in the Polish city, the piece begins with an atmospherically noirish unaccompanied pedal steel melody that is soon joined by commentary from the strings. Feldman&#8217;s uneasy rhapsodizing ushers in a more hopeful section rich with glowing Messiaen-ic polychords. With minimal drums, this is through-composed chamber music for strings, a quartet for the dawn of time for the unusual ensemble of pedal steel, electric guitar, violin and double bass.<\/p>\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"120\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/track=3519676715\/album=306898340\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even at her most playful, as on the whimsical &#8220;R.U.R.,&#8221; Alcorn keeps an eye on structural matters. The opening unison theme, almost Braxtonian in its marcato boppishness, drifts into a nearly swing-time rhythmic lane before breaking down into a mechanistic squabble.&nbsp; It&#8217;s as though the Rossum&#8217;s Universal Robots of Karel \u010capek\u2019s titular science fiction play, have been mis-programmed. They wander and bump into one another until order is restored by the brief return of an explicit rhythm. After Alcorn hangs auroras of ghostly sustained chords over twinkly space music from Halvorson, the opening theme returns and the robots resume their march.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all the improvisatory firepower in this ensemble, <em>Pedernal<\/em> is no blowing session.&nbsp; It&#8217;s satisfying and brilliant evidence that pedal steel players not only can improvise in the most exalted settings, they can be formidable composers, too.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eccentric? No, more like brilliant, hon.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com\/album\/pedernal\">Available now on CD, digital and on vinyl in December, 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tracklist: (1) Pedernal; (2) Circular Ruins; (3) R.U.R.; (4) Night in Gdansk; (5) Northeast Rising Sun.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Personnel: Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), Mark Feldman (violin), Michael Formanek (double bass), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ryan Sawyer (drums).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geography isn\u2019t destiny, but it might explain some things about pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and her new release, Pedernal (Relative Pitch Records, 2020). Alcorn is based in Baltimore, a place where the strange, unexpected and contradictory thrive. It is the birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Zappa and John Waters, who wrote, \u201cYou can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":36,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/0021677624_10.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peRkRR-vs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7364,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/mourning-hope-susan-alcorn\/","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":0},"title":"Mourning and Hope: A Conversation with Susan Alcorn","author":"Rob Shepherd","date":"December 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"For centuries, music has served as an empowering call for the oppressed and alienated. The origins of Blues, jazz, and rock all have their core in the subjugation of Black America. In Nazi Germany, youths would covertly undermine the Reich by playing verboten swing music in hidden corners of their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Alcorn_Studio_photo_by_Julia_Walker__90792.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Alcorn_Studio_photo_by_Julia_Walker__90792.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Alcorn_Studio_photo_by_Julia_Walker__90792.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Alcorn_Studio_photo_by_Julia_Walker__90792.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8695,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/weaving-janel-leppin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":1},"title":"Weaving: A Conversation with Janel Leppin","author":"Rob Shepherd","date":"June 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As an art form, weaving requires different threads to combine into one to create a sturdier whole cloth. How the threads are combined affects the characteristics of the end product. It is appropriate that cellist Janel Leppin is also a weaver by trade, as one can hear a direct application\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Janel-Leppin-Ensemble-Volcanic-Ash_-To-March-Is-To-Love_Photo-by-Shervin-Lainez-4-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Janel-Leppin-Ensemble-Volcanic-Ash_-To-March-Is-To-Love_Photo-by-Shervin-Lainez-4-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Janel-Leppin-Ensemble-Volcanic-Ash_-To-March-Is-To-Love_Photo-by-Shervin-Lainez-4-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Janel-Leppin-Ensemble-Volcanic-Ash_-To-March-Is-To-Love_Photo-by-Shervin-Lainez-4-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2137,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/rob-shepherd-best-of-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":2},"title":"The Editor\u2019s Reflections on a Crazy Year and his Best of 2020","author":"Rob Shepherd","date":"December 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Historians will probably remember 2020 primarily for the COVID pandemic, movements for racial justice, and lots and lots of politics. While all of that is true, to me it will also mark the creation of this site. Postgenre was born on February 20, 2020, less than a month before state\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lists&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lists","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/lists\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage8.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage8.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage8.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/BeFunky-collage8.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7350,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/best-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":3},"title":"PostGenre&#8217;s Best of 2023","author":"PostGenre Writing Staff","date":"December 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Below are the albums we collectively felt were the best of 2023 (technically from Thanksgiving 2022 to Thanksgiving 2023). Ties are ordered alphabetically by the leader\u2019s last name. Following the list are honorable mentions; recordings multiple members of our small group thought worthy of merit but did not make the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Best of Lists&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Best of Lists","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/lists-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/original-4AA5FD17-5CE0-4D46-9496-99CA70683F50.jpeg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/original-4AA5FD17-5CE0-4D46-9496-99CA70683F50.jpeg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/original-4AA5FD17-5CE0-4D46-9496-99CA70683F50.jpeg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/original-4AA5FD17-5CE0-4D46-9496-99CA70683F50.jpeg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10337,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/edges-big-ears-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":4},"title":"Musical Tourism on the Edges &#8211; Big Ears 2025","author":"Jim Hynes","date":"April 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"My sister and I made the scenic journey through the picturesque farmlands of central Pennsylvania, through the bucolic splendor of Virginia\u2019s Shenandoah Valley, on a nine-hour road trip to Knoxville, TN, for the annual Big Ears Festival. The fest has become America\u2019s - and perhaps the world\u2019s - most diverse,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Live Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Live Reviews","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/category\/live\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/big-ears-2025-scaled-e1742321551957-1-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/big-ears-2025-scaled-e1742321551957-1-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/big-ears-2025-scaled-e1742321551957-1-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/big-ears-2025-scaled-e1742321551957-1-1.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2845,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions\/2845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}