Today Bow Thayer releases “The Source and the Servant“, a collection of tracks in a way dedicated to the music of yesteryear and specifically to the likes of Dock Boggs and Fred McDowell. With a whole host of covers and a few inspired originals, the record is a fluid, forceful lesson in heartfelt, heartworn tunes steeped in tradition with a contemporary twist. In Thayer’s words, “Whether it is fate or coincidence, the fact is, these guys struck a chord with me, a deep one, and one I did not even realize until recently. I was living in Boston going to art school just outside of Kenmore Sq. during the late eighties and nineties and fairly unimpressed with what was coming over the airwaves. This was a time when cassette tapes were on the way out and digital music was becoming the norm. I found myself perusing all the record stores in the area just searching for something real and cassettes were super cheap, like 2 bucks a pop. So I dug hard into all kinds of blues, bluegrass, old time, folk and jazz. The cassettes being used were so cheap they were almost disposable. I did not mind losing them, giving them away or not taking good care of them. Many disintegrated in the filth of cigarette butts, coffee and grime under the seat of my car, or the turpentine and cobalt dryer in my paint box, but there were survivors. It may have been subconscious that Alan Lomax’s field recordings of Dock and Fred got a bit more attention. Listening back to my catalogue of music I hear it now…. I didn’t then.”
I find a refreshing nature in an artist’s ability to take influences and breathe some new life into them. This is something that Thayer excels at. Especially in a world overrun with young folks listening to Lady Gaga instead of Levon or Deadmau5 instead of Dylan its even more important to find a way in which to shed a light on what came before us. On the “current state of Americana”, Thayer exclaims,“Yes, It is true the best artists will never be house hold names and in a way we may be living in a cultural dark age. I am very skeptical of artists who find mainstream appeal. I realize it is necessary to have celebrities in our culture, but to me it is always a compromise of artistic integrity. I find myself saying “they were better before they were big” in most cases. There are so many great artists out there…. now more that ever, but one must sift through a very thick quagmire of mediocrity to find them. I think a lot of this is due to people who are very good at self promo and the technology that is used to garnish attention yet their artistic intentions take a back seat to the “numbers”.”
There is a swampiness to much of the record, but not in a muddied and dully presented fashion, its that hard hitting, heart wrenching blues style that sucks you in like a boggy old growth forest teeming with mystery and fog. The kind of music that makes you say “what was that over there embedded in the undergrowth of the arrangement?”. It just plain pulls you in, endearing but haunting, badass but beautiful in a way. Most prevalent perhaps is the use of electrified instruments most often seen used in an acoustic fashion. Thayer has a way in which he seems to be the king of experimentation and crossing boundaries, taking risks and coming out with always interesting ways in which to present his songs. “I do not wholly understand where my artistic needs stem from,” he says, “My wife says I am a “creatoholic”, maybe I am just curious and unsatisfied with the status- quo. I have see 6 year old children rip a banjo better than I ever could and most people are better guitar players than me and lets face it my voice has the timbre of a rusty harmonica! BUT my limitations have forced me to experiment with a wider variety of tools and I am very confident about my “inner Voice” so for that I feel lucky.”
Another noteworthy fact about The Source and the Servant is the line up of incredible musicians lending their talents and voices. Something I’ve struggled with personally in making the move to a rural location is the…well, rural and desolate nature of it. In the case of Bow he has taken that (perhaps purposefully) and used it to his advantage. When asked about his decision to move to Vermont and what he found here in the way of a community he states,“I moved up here about 19 years ago, I was not looking for a musical community, in fact I was moving out of a very strong one in Boston. I was looking for a place where I could be totally original with out the influence of other artists. I was also a bit naive in romanticizing the notion that I would move to the woods, hole up in a small cabin and write the plight of the “American Dream” and portray the state of the consciousness of mankind through song…… or something like that. I do not regret my move at all, but it was very difficult and still is, to make a living up here as an artist. There is very little infrastructure to the business end. There is little need or attention paid to becoming more popular on a national or global level. With that said though, I have found some wonderful and talented people around here, but it took a while. It is also true that folks around here are ferociously independent and posses multiple skills…. the lifestyle here demands that! The guy who works on cars also raises chickens for meat, or the lady who teaches at the school also bakes awesome bread and the dude who builds stone walls is a sick mandolin player who was actually on Blue Note records for a time. I have also found writers, sculptors, actors, producers and engineers who all possess talents that most likely will be witnessed by only a few. So my point is that ,yes there is a vital creative existence here, but it is scattered, there is not a nucleus in which ideas are regularly shared like a more populated area would have. This in turn does create a sense or need for community in a very profound way. Vermont is a bunch of small communities nested in tight hills and back roads and the artistic need is eminent and vibrant. I am actually allowed to make a living playing music here many of which are community events, and over the years it has become a boon and a bane that I can do this comfortably within the state lines of Vermont. I have also noticed the tourist always call for cover tunes and the locals demand my originals. Independence, originality and perseverance are deeply rooted qualities around here”
Much of that mentality comes through in this latest record from the banjo-weilding bluesy-bluegrass man. That sentiment of deep roots, a simple life and being a part of the struggle that feeds both inspiration and perseverance are common threads in the music of blues and folk artists of the past. Hell, its called “the blues” for a reason. In thinking on that, maybe that is why Thayer is so successful in his portrayal of these songs. They are not mere covers of old blues and folk tunes, they are an artist, a man’s interpretation of the feelings that those songs represent and a strong desire to give them a new voice and share the stories with a modern audience. In that respect, man oh man does he succeed.
Bow’s uncanny ability to pay homage while making this collection something contemporary is where the magic lies. This is the kind of music that could be heard streaming out from beneath the swooping branches of a weeping willow, picked on a crooked old wooden porch or emanating out from giant speakers at a theatre in Boston, Portland or Burlington. The juxtaposition of taking a style revered for so many years, something so concrete and recognizable, and injecting life, energy and electricity into it…well, thats just something special.
You can stream the full record in the player below and order the album NOW on Bow’s Bandcamp.