cd cover: terraplane by scott ainslie

Terraplane

$15.00

Sixteen tracks of solo acoustic Blues on guitars and diddley bow!Songs by Bukka White, Blind Blake, Rev. Gary Davis, Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, John Jackson and four original Blues.

Category:

Description

Although I have become known as an expert on Robert Johnson and the Delta blues, Terraplane also provides strong examples of Piedmont and Chicago styles, gospel and several original pieces. I play acoustic, electric, and National guitars, and even three songs on a home-made one-string diddley bow (can you guess which popular blues legend took his stage name from that instrument?!). Four of the 16 songs here are original compositions; the rest come from Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, the Reverend Gary Davis, John Hurt, Bukka White, John Jackson and Pete Franklin.

Personnel

Mixed by:
Joe DiGiorgi  http://joedproductions.com   joedgmusic@aol.com
Guitar
Scott Sawyer
Percussion
Gabriel Ainslie
Acoustic, electric and National guitars and diddley bow; vocals
Scott Ainslie

Links to Lyrics and Other Info about the Tracks

  1. I Got To Find My Baby
  2. Parchmans Farm Blues
  3. Chumpman Blues
  4. Terraplane Blues
  5. Death Don’t Have Mercy
  6. If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day
  7. Police Dog Blues
  8. My Baby Walks On Fire
  9. Walkin’ Blues
  10. Change My Name
  11. Spike Driver Blues
  12. You Gotta Get Up 
  13. Run Like Water
  14. Ramblin’ On My Mind
  15. Rocks and Gravel
  16. Amazing Grace

Reviews

  1. barb –

    Terraplane, Scott Ainslie
    Cattail Music

    You can name your album after a car, no problem. Name it after Robert Johnson’s best-selling song, and you’d best be prepared to back it up with some singing and playing. North Carolinian Scott Ainslie proves he’s up to the task – and then some – on this fine recording.

    Ainslie’s Terraplane is superior to most traditional or revival recordings. His guitar playing is well-rounded – it’s as strong rhythmically as it is melodically, and it’s always inventive. Ainslie’s a clean picker, so a minimum of finger-squeaks and palm-knocks intrude on the music. Even better, Ainslie can really sing. His powerful, emotional voice must have red-lined the studio meters more than once, yet he never sounds mannered, never sounds jive, never sounds forced. He’s a natural.

    By category, it’s country blues mostly played solo on acoustic guitar (although Ainslie does plug in for three songs). A quarter of the 16 songs here are original compositions; the rest come from the pens or recordings of Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, the Rev. Gary Davis, John Hurt, Bukka White, John Jackson and Pete Franklin. Ainslie manages the best of East Coast and Delta styles with ease. His own “My Baby Walks On Fire” skirts modernity with its chunky rhythm and Scott Sawyer’s tasteful lead electric guitar, but it’s hardly blues-rock.

    Terraplane’s sound nicely balances warmth and detail, with the character of Ainslie’s acoustic, electric and National guitars coming through very clearly. The electric guitar is played like an acoustic, without any bad habits inspired by amplification. Rev. Davis’ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” is among the album’s best rendered songs, its busy runs translating surprisingly well to electric in Ainslie’s hands.

    Other high points are the original spiritual “You Gotta Get Up,” one of a trio of songs played on the diddley bow, the makeshift single-stringed instrument that was the first “guitar” of so many Delta-born originals. Ainslie makes it sound like six strings and more, impressively highlighting complex rhythms and precise melodic figures with his slide. And his “Change My Name,” which dryly plays on blues nicknames, is a future classic.

    Terraplane is convincing and satisfying.

    – Tom Hyslop, Blues Revue

  2. barb –

    Jealous Of The Moon, Scott Ainslie (Cattail Music)

    Scott Ainslie is yet another of the talented new generation acoustic blues players. His fine new CD, Terraplane, treads a lot of familiar territory, covering tunes by Robert Johnson (“Walking Blues,” “If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day,” ), Blind Blake (“Chumpman Blues”), Rev. Gary Davis, and Mississippi John Hurt.
    What distinguishes Ainslie’s work is his fiery picking and slide work and his deep, passionate bluesman’s growl. He also has a strong musical sense of humor that comes through in his animated version of Blake’s “Police Dog Blues” and his own “Change My Name,” which ponders the challenges of being a blues musician with a name that no one can pronounce.

    This is an immensely entertaining and confident recording that is recommended to anyone who likes (or thinks they don’t like) acoustic blues.

    – Dirty Linen, August/September 1999

  3. barb –

    Jealous Of The Moon, Scott Ainslie – Cattail Music

    North Carolina’s blues scene has blossomed in recent years. Our still impressive roster of master musicians has been joined by talented younger folk like Lightnin’ Wells, Skeeter Brandon and Durham’s Scott Ainslie. In his latest, Terraplane, Ainslie offers a moving and mature body of songs, new and old.

    Although Ainslie is a leading expert on Robert Johnson and the most Delta influenced of our bluesmen, Terraplane also provides strong examples of Piedmont and Chicago styles, gospel and several original pieces, including the hilarious “Change My Name.” Most memorably, he reinterprets Johnson’s “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” on the primitive, one-string diddley bow.

    – Art Menius, The Independent, Durham NC

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