It’s Genius, I Swear – The Wave Pictures on Joseph Spence’s ‘Complete Folkways Recordings 1958’
By: David Tattersall
One record that the Wave Pictures really love is Joseph Spence, The Complete Folkways Recordings, 1958. I first heard Spence's music as performed by Ry Cooder. I learnt to play one of his tunes, ‘Great Dream From Heaven’, from the Ry Cooder album Into The Purple Valley. I didn't hear Spence himself until much more recently, but since I got hold of it, everyone in the band has become addicted to his music, which is at once strange and comfortingly familiar. He plays church songs and popular tunes of his day, instrumentally, solo on acoustic guitar. He always tunes his guitar to drop-D tuning, which makes the bass string bassier, as if he is imitating the part a tuba would play in a brass band with his thumb, whilst his fingers pick out the melody on the higher strings. He improvises around a tune for up to 7 minutes with this punchy, heavily syncopated and utterly original solo guitar style, and all the while he grunts along with his own guitar playing in the strangest way. I don't know if he was crazy or very stoned or what. He sounds like he's having a lovely time, though. Never have I heard the joy of making music so perfectly captured on a recording. Frequently he breaks out laughing. He'll sing a couple of lines of the song, sometimes a whole verse, then go back to grunting or laughing. He sounds completely at ease, as if he doesn't know he is being recorded, or doesn't care. The Complete Folkways Recordings is a collection of recordings that musicologist Samuel Charters made on Spence's front porch in the Bahamas. I love the romantic image I have of this nutty guitar genius out there in the Bahamas, playing on his porch for his own pleasure. He is the best kind of musician to think about, not a careerist, just an original, only in it for the music. Aside from that, his music really cheers me up. I always end up smiling when I listen to Spence. Jonny Helm, The Wave Pictures' drummer, picked up a copy of another Spence recording, called ‘Goodbye Mr. Walker’, and I remember us all sitting around listening to that and chuckling and being happy and enjoying the pure spirit Spence seems to have. I once heard that Spence's own wife couldn't make head nor tail of his bizarre interpretations. I'm not really surprised to be honest. But, for us, it's very beautiful, very funny, music. It makes you want to reach for your guitar.
Joseph Spence - Mary Ann by Guille Dseda
Artists in this article: The Wave Pictures, Joseph Spence