Fiddler Magazine, Summer 1998
Dan Levenson is the banjo player with the Boiled Buzzards on Ohio old time band. This is his first solo recording on which he plays banjo, fiddle and guitar. The twenty tunes show that he is an accomplished fiddler and it also reinforces that he is one of the best clawhammer banjo players in the country.
He sings a couple of contemporary tunes in a competent, folksy style. But it is his fiddling of several tunes which reveals he has spent the time in the woodshed and by all accounts can hold his own. His tone is strong and his bow is sure. This is a pleasant listening experience with some less often heard tunes thrown in for good measure.
This month I’m glad to have the opportunity to review a new recording by my fellow BNL columnist Dan Levenson. Until I received a copy of his new CD, I was familiar with Dan only through the pages of BNL. The December ’93 issue contained a feature article on him, and Bubba Hutch often cited him as the source for tabs in the Southern Clawhammer column of that period. To make a long story short, I’m glad I was asked to review Dan’s recording as it gave me the opportunity to hear some beautiful playing.
Light of the Moon contains a generous portion of music - 20 selections in all, and though the bulk of them are of the Old-Time genre, there are a couple nicely done songs by Bill Staines (All God’s Critters and Roseville Fair), a Woody Guthrie song, and a couple of original tunes (one by Dan), and a waltz by hammered dulcimer player Rick Thum, who also plays on the record. There are also a couple of tunes arranged in band settings (fiddle, guitar & hammered dulcimer), but the greatest number of tracks are solo fiddle tunes, solo banjo tunes, and vocals with banjo accompaniment.
The packaging, sound quality, and mixing of this recording is excellent, and the notes are informative and well-written. I also liked the cover photo because it gives us a look at the two banjos (one of them a 19th-century minstrel banjo reproduction by Bobby Flesher) Dan plays on the record.
Although all of the music on this recording is done well, my personal favorites are the banjo tunes. I really hadn’t heard any music on the minstrel-style fretless banjo before, and I was bowled over by what could only be described as Dan’s virtuoso performances on the instrument. Rushing The Pepper and Sopping’ the Gravy are especially impressive. I’d assume that only fairly simple tunes could be played on this sort of instrument, but the playing here stacks up with some of the best melodic clawhammer in both complexity and tunefulness. Not to give short shift to the fretted-banjo, Dan gives us a beautiful rendition of Old Rip, a tune by banjoist Lynn Morris in the clawhammer style (banjo made by Kevin Enoch).
A large minority of the tracks are solo fiddle tunes drawn largely from the Appalachian tradition. Even so, the playing here I found to be quite individualistic (not a bad thing). Dan’s phrasing, combined with his ability to draw a sweet, resonant tone out of the fiddle, imbued the music with what I would describe as a Celtic tint. The playing here seemed at home just a little north of the Mason-Dixon. I could imagine the first Scotch-Irish fiddlers in this country sounding like this before they filtered through the Cumberland Gap and their music began to change.
My favorite pieces here are two widely played songs - Cindy and The Yellow Rose of Texas. Both are vocals with banjo accompaniment and show Dan at his best as an interpreter, rather than just a music recreator. The vocal renditions are excellent, and that, coupled with some really sweet banjo playing, gives both pieces a rare poignancy rather than the more raucous manner in which that pair of songs is usually performed. In fact, that seems to be a quality that runs through the entire recording.
My only suggestion would have been to include some banjo/fiddle stuff even if it had required some over dubbing. Even so, the hammered dulcimer worked well in the string-band settings, and was particularly nice on John Stinson’s #2. It was also good to hear Jonathan Levenson’s steady rhythm guitar on Snake River Reel, and to know Dan is passing his music on. All in all, this is a very nice album to listen to more that a little, like a good Tennessee whiskey - sweet and just a bit smokey. In fact, I think I’ll put this pencil down, pour myself a glass and put Dan’s record on one more time.