Review: Dirk Powell shines exploring Cajun and Celtic roots
Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 5 months AGO
Dirk Powell, “When I Wait for You" (Compass)
Because Dirk Powell loves traditional music, and honors it on this fine album, his pledge to banish one category of front-porch favorites from his repertoire is especially powerful.
On the ballad “I Ain't Playing Pretty Polly,” Powell swears off performing tunes about violence against women. The men in such oldies as “Knoxville Girl” and “Rosalie McFall” “don't deserve their stories told,” Powell sings, pairing a timely #MeToo sentiment with his timeless sound.
Powell is a Louisiana-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and his new album, “When I Wait for You,” draws on Cajun and Celtic roots, and more. There are rustic echoes of The Band, whose eponymous album came out the year Powell was born, and his singing recalls both Levon Helm and Richard Manuel. Other cuts sound like bonus material from Harry Smith's 1950s folk anthology, but remarkably, 12 of the 13 songs are original compositions.
“I Ain’t Playing Pretty Polly" ain't the only topical tune. “Say Old Playmate,” a lament about experiencing bigotry in childhood, expertly pairs a sweet melody and sad tale. Powell also sings about the luck of the draw, tug of the road and stages of love.
Guests include Rhiannon Giddens and Sara and Sean Watkins, but this is Powell's show. He has spent much of his career as a versatile sideman, and here he displays his chops on acoustic and electric guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, mandolin, accordion and keyboards, always with his roots showing.
ARTICLES BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hong Kong police arrest 4 from university student union
HONG KONG (AP) — Four members of a Hong Kong university student union were arrested Wednesday for allegedly advocating terrorism by paying tribute to a person who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself, police said.
For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.
For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.