This animates Places of Consequence, the second album and first solo LP from Cameron Knowler.
Today, guitarist and composer Cameron Knowler shared "Lena's Spanish Fandango" from his forthcoming debut solo album Places of Consequence, releasing July 16, 2020 via American Dreams. "Lena's Spanish Fandango" is a tune nestled in the pedagogical history of the guitar, often taught toward the beginning of one's education. "I sourced this version from the great Missouri guitarist, Lena Hughes," explains Knowler "scoring it with mandolin and a Casio synth guitar on "organ" mode to place it in a liturgical context. I feel this synthetic component gives the tune a toy-like quality, inviting the listener to look back on their own histories. This concept is all part and parcel to the children's book that is offered as a special edition art object for the first pressing of the record. It is also worth noting that Norman Blake, one of my biggest musical heroes, learned Spanish Fandango from his grandmother as his first introduction to guitar." Listen to the track here.
Responding to a comment that the foreground of his Western photographs feels like a stage set, the photographer and auteur Wim Wenders suggests, "that impression is basic to the American West. Everything people have built there has a highly theatrical air." This animates Places of Consequence, the second album and first solo LP from Cameron Knowler, which deploys guitar and banjo as cinematic tools to soundtrack and investigate the region. "Despite the fact that the lightheartedness of youth lifts and the problematic components of the West reveal themselves over time," Knowler says, "there are still ways of harnessing the space to richly creative ends." A lifelong Westerner and recent Los Angeles transplant, Knowler spent his childhood in Yuma, Arizona and Houston, Texas, where much of his learning was self-directed: riding dirt bikes in the desert, writing poetry, or visiting antique stores with his mother, who sold vintage glass beads. At seventeen, a bluegrass concert changed his life, and he began practicing guitar for twelve to sixteen hours a day, developing the quiet focus that permeates his music. As an instrumentalist largely eschewing fingerstyle technique, Knowler's music presents as understated, but has much in common with the music of his peers. Like those of frequent collaborator Eli Winter, Knowler's performances are affecting, his melodies intuitive and learned; like Yasmin Williams, his arrangements are lush and deceptively simple, informed by his jazz guitar studies at the University of Houston.Photo Credit: Laura Lee Blackburn
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