DIRK POWELL
''WALKING THROUGH CLAY''
FEBRUARY 4 2014
52:54
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01 - Rollin_ Round This Town 04:40
02 - Walking Through Clay 03:55
03 - Some Sweet Day 04:54
04 - Abide With Me 04:23 (Traditional)
05 - Spoonbread 04:22
06 - As I Went Out A_Walkin' 03:35
07 - Goodbye Girls 04:45 (Traditional)
08 - Break The Chains 04:41
09 - That Ain't Right 04:33
10 - Sweet Goes The Whistle 04:48 (Martha Scanlan)
11 - Golden Chain 05:26
12 - My Heart Won't Let Me Stay 02:47
Tracks By Dirk Powell, Except 04, 07, 10
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Christine Balfa/Guitar (Acoustic), Percussion
Grant Dermody/Harmonica
Johanna Divine/Vocals (Background)
Jerry Douglas/Slide Guitar
Christian Dugas/Percussion
Eric Frey/Bass (Electric)
Natalie Haas/Cello
Amy Helm/Arranger, Vocals (Background)
Levon Helm/Drums, Featured Artist
Patrick Keeler/Drums, Percussion
Mike McGoldrick/Pipes, Whistle
Aoife O'Donovan/Featured Artist, Vocals (Background)
Dirk Powell/Accordion, Arranger, Banjo, Bass (Electric), Bass (Upright), Fiddle, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Mandolin, Mixing, Percussion, Piano, Vocals
Martha Scanlan/Vocals (Background)
Oscar Utterström/Trombone
Kai Welch/Trumpet
Chris West/Saxophone
**********
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Dirk Powell has expanded on the deeply rooted sounds of his Appalachian heritage to become one of the preeminent traditional American musicians of his generation. In addition to his widely influential solo recordings, he has recorded and performed with artists such as Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, Jack White, Joan Baez, Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. His ability to unite the essence of traditional culture with modern sensibilities has led to work with many of today's greatest film directors as well, including Ang Lee, Anthony Minghella, Spike Lee, Victor Nuñez and Steve James. He was a founding member of the important Cajun group Balfa Toujours and has been a regularly featured artist in the award-winning BBC series The Transatlantic Sessions. In addition to performing under his own name in a wide variety of settings, Dirk also tours regularly with Joan Baez, playing 7 instruments during each performance.
Dirk’s soulful and emotionally fearless music has carried him to a unique place in today’s musical landscape -- one where tradition, innovation, and inspiration meet without borders.
As a child, Dirk learned guitar from his father and banjo and fiddle from his grandfather. He studied classical piano early on, but found that the music being handed to him by family members, with love and generosity, gave him a voice that resonated more deeply with the stories and emotions he aspired to share. This love for traditional music found him spending most of his teenage years traveling around remote parts of the Southern US, eventually landing in Louisiana, where he learned Creole and Cajun music from his mentors Dewey Balfa and Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin. He has made his home in Louisiana since 1993 while continuing to release acclaimed recordings based in his Appalachian heritage.
Dirk’s combination of rural roots and formal training make him a unique force in the world of music and film. His extensive work with Anthony Minghella on the Academy Award-winning film Cold Mountain included on-set consulting, arranging traditional and original music for the screen, performing the banjo parts of a central character, and acting. He has worked with several other world-renowned directors, such as Ang Lee on Ride With the Devil, Spike Lee on Bamboozled, and Victor Nuñez on Coastlines. Dirk has also composed score for several award-winning documentary and dramatic films, including Stranger With a Camera, Stevie, and Thoughts in the Presence of Fear. His end credit composition for In the Electric Mist has received wide acclaim.
Dirk’s television credits include two appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, The Today Show and the American Masters series on PBS. He has appeared on the radio programs All Things Considered, World Café, Weekend Edition, A Prairie Home Companion, E-Town, Mountain Stage, and many others, both in the US and abroad.
Through his recordings with Loretta Lynn, Irma Thomas, Tim O’Brien, and the Raconteurs, Dirk was a featured performer on projects winning Grammy awards four years in a row in four different categories. The recording studio he designed and operates, The Cypress House, counts Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, James McMurtry and others among its clients. Ronstadt’s project Adieu False Heart was nominated for a Grammy not only in the folk category but also in the non-classical engineering category – a tribute, in part, to Dirk’s acoustic design of the space. Dirk’s original songs have been performed and recorded by a wide variety of artists and his production skills have shaped many powerful recordings over the last twenty years.
Dirk is a recognized force within the international musical scene. His bonds with Louisiana and with the mountains of Kentucky are unmistakable – but so is his far-reaching vision and ability to translate the essence of tradition to audiences who need the timeless and sustaining messages that tradition brings.
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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
David Jeffries
He's considered one of the world's leading experts on traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo styles, along with carrying on the traditions of his late and legendary father-in-law Dewey Balfa as the accordion player in the Cajun group Balfa Toujours. But fiddler/banjo player/accordionist Dirk Powell first started playing music in the classical style. The future "Renaissance Mountain Man" started piano lessons at the age of eight, and by the age of ten he had moved on to the harpsichord. It was his grandfather in Ashland, Kentucky who first exposed Powell to Appalachian music and his own mountain heritage. Powell started playing mountain music professionally and felt that it shared the spirit and energy of the Cajun sound he was beginning to love. It was at a 1989 festival in West Virginia that he first met and played with Dewey Balfa, a musician whose performance left Powell "captivated." When Balfa passed away in 1992, Powell joined Balfa's daughters, Nelda and Christine (Powell would later marry Christine) and formed Balfa Toujours. The band would go on to record five albums for labels like Swallow and Rounder.
If I Go Ten Thousand Miles
In 1994, Powell won the annual Mulate's Accordion Contest and started teaching accordion at home and abroad. He released two instructional videos on how to play Cajun accordion, but he also started to refocus on the banjo and fiddle. Fiddle and banjo were upfront for his solo Rounder debut, If I Go Ten Thousand Miles. Hand Me Down followed in 1999, but various projects kept the musician from releasing a follow-up. His banjo playing appeared on the soundtracks to Bamboozled and The Brothers McMullen; his fiddle playing was heard in Riverdance: The Show, and he appeared in the BBC documentary The Irish Empire, discussing the culture of Irish immigrants who lived in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1700s. He scored the documentary Stevie, and worked with Jewel on the soundtrack for Ride With the Devil, and with T-Bone Burnett for Cold Mountain's score. By 2004, he returned to his solo work and issued Time Again on Rounder.
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
**********
''WALKING THROUGH CLAY''
FEBRUARY 4 2014
52:54
**********
01 - Rollin_ Round This Town 04:40
02 - Walking Through Clay 03:55
03 - Some Sweet Day 04:54
04 - Abide With Me 04:23 (Traditional)
05 - Spoonbread 04:22
06 - As I Went Out A_Walkin' 03:35
07 - Goodbye Girls 04:45 (Traditional)
08 - Break The Chains 04:41
09 - That Ain't Right 04:33
10 - Sweet Goes The Whistle 04:48 (Martha Scanlan)
11 - Golden Chain 05:26
12 - My Heart Won't Let Me Stay 02:47
Tracks By Dirk Powell, Except 04, 07, 10
**********
Christine Balfa/Guitar (Acoustic), Percussion
Grant Dermody/Harmonica
Johanna Divine/Vocals (Background)
Jerry Douglas/Slide Guitar
Christian Dugas/Percussion
Eric Frey/Bass (Electric)
Natalie Haas/Cello
Amy Helm/Arranger, Vocals (Background)
Levon Helm/Drums, Featured Artist
Patrick Keeler/Drums, Percussion
Mike McGoldrick/Pipes, Whistle
Aoife O'Donovan/Featured Artist, Vocals (Background)
Dirk Powell/Accordion, Arranger, Banjo, Bass (Electric), Bass (Upright), Fiddle, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Mandolin, Mixing, Percussion, Piano, Vocals
Martha Scanlan/Vocals (Background)
Oscar Utterström/Trombone
Kai Welch/Trumpet
Chris West/Saxophone
**********
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Dirk Powell has expanded on the deeply rooted sounds of his Appalachian heritage to become one of the preeminent traditional American musicians of his generation. In addition to his widely influential solo recordings, he has recorded and performed with artists such as Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, Jack White, Joan Baez, Steve Earle, Kris Kristofferson, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. His ability to unite the essence of traditional culture with modern sensibilities has led to work with many of today's greatest film directors as well, including Ang Lee, Anthony Minghella, Spike Lee, Victor Nuñez and Steve James. He was a founding member of the important Cajun group Balfa Toujours and has been a regularly featured artist in the award-winning BBC series The Transatlantic Sessions. In addition to performing under his own name in a wide variety of settings, Dirk also tours regularly with Joan Baez, playing 7 instruments during each performance.
Dirk’s soulful and emotionally fearless music has carried him to a unique place in today’s musical landscape -- one where tradition, innovation, and inspiration meet without borders.
As a child, Dirk learned guitar from his father and banjo and fiddle from his grandfather. He studied classical piano early on, but found that the music being handed to him by family members, with love and generosity, gave him a voice that resonated more deeply with the stories and emotions he aspired to share. This love for traditional music found him spending most of his teenage years traveling around remote parts of the Southern US, eventually landing in Louisiana, where he learned Creole and Cajun music from his mentors Dewey Balfa and Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin. He has made his home in Louisiana since 1993 while continuing to release acclaimed recordings based in his Appalachian heritage.
Dirk’s combination of rural roots and formal training make him a unique force in the world of music and film. His extensive work with Anthony Minghella on the Academy Award-winning film Cold Mountain included on-set consulting, arranging traditional and original music for the screen, performing the banjo parts of a central character, and acting. He has worked with several other world-renowned directors, such as Ang Lee on Ride With the Devil, Spike Lee on Bamboozled, and Victor Nuñez on Coastlines. Dirk has also composed score for several award-winning documentary and dramatic films, including Stranger With a Camera, Stevie, and Thoughts in the Presence of Fear. His end credit composition for In the Electric Mist has received wide acclaim.
Dirk’s television credits include two appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, The Today Show and the American Masters series on PBS. He has appeared on the radio programs All Things Considered, World Café, Weekend Edition, A Prairie Home Companion, E-Town, Mountain Stage, and many others, both in the US and abroad.
Through his recordings with Loretta Lynn, Irma Thomas, Tim O’Brien, and the Raconteurs, Dirk was a featured performer on projects winning Grammy awards four years in a row in four different categories. The recording studio he designed and operates, The Cypress House, counts Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, James McMurtry and others among its clients. Ronstadt’s project Adieu False Heart was nominated for a Grammy not only in the folk category but also in the non-classical engineering category – a tribute, in part, to Dirk’s acoustic design of the space. Dirk’s original songs have been performed and recorded by a wide variety of artists and his production skills have shaped many powerful recordings over the last twenty years.
Dirk is a recognized force within the international musical scene. His bonds with Louisiana and with the mountains of Kentucky are unmistakable – but so is his far-reaching vision and ability to translate the essence of tradition to audiences who need the timeless and sustaining messages that tradition brings.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
David Jeffries
He's considered one of the world's leading experts on traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo styles, along with carrying on the traditions of his late and legendary father-in-law Dewey Balfa as the accordion player in the Cajun group Balfa Toujours. But fiddler/banjo player/accordionist Dirk Powell first started playing music in the classical style. The future "Renaissance Mountain Man" started piano lessons at the age of eight, and by the age of ten he had moved on to the harpsichord. It was his grandfather in Ashland, Kentucky who first exposed Powell to Appalachian music and his own mountain heritage. Powell started playing mountain music professionally and felt that it shared the spirit and energy of the Cajun sound he was beginning to love. It was at a 1989 festival in West Virginia that he first met and played with Dewey Balfa, a musician whose performance left Powell "captivated." When Balfa passed away in 1992, Powell joined Balfa's daughters, Nelda and Christine (Powell would later marry Christine) and formed Balfa Toujours. The band would go on to record five albums for labels like Swallow and Rounder.
If I Go Ten Thousand Miles
In 1994, Powell won the annual Mulate's Accordion Contest and started teaching accordion at home and abroad. He released two instructional videos on how to play Cajun accordion, but he also started to refocus on the banjo and fiddle. Fiddle and banjo were upfront for his solo Rounder debut, If I Go Ten Thousand Miles. Hand Me Down followed in 1999, but various projects kept the musician from releasing a follow-up. His banjo playing appeared on the soundtracks to Bamboozled and The Brothers McMullen; his fiddle playing was heard in Riverdance: The Show, and he appeared in the BBC documentary The Irish Empire, discussing the culture of Irish immigrants who lived in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1700s. He scored the documentary Stevie, and worked with Jewel on the soundtrack for Ride With the Devil, and with T-Bone Burnett for Cold Mountain's score. By 2004, he returned to his solo work and issued Time Again on Rounder.
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
**********
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