Guitarist and prolific producer Joseph Allred has a closer relationship with time than most musicians. Allred, who traveled to Nashville this week from the small town of Crawford, Tennessee for a solo show at the Random Sample concert space in West Nashville, has created a musical world that parallels pop and rock. Allred’s complex and emotional guitar playing draws on traditions including anthems, Piedmontese blues, and rock and roll. You can hear the natural mysticism of their latest albums such as Regeneration of Time and The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh, both due in 2022. Subjective time of rural life.
“My sense of time here is pretty weird,” Allred said by phone from Crawford, which is in central Tennessee, about 30 miles northeast of Cookeville and 30 miles southwest of Jamestown. “We lived in country style. One of the reasons I was able to focus on music the way I am now is because I was able to live in this old house that my great grandparents built. I think”.
For musicians outside the pop scene, this setup makes sense. Since 2019 alone, Allred has released 14 albums, cassettes and EPs, each carrying a collection of traditions reimagined in a stunning stream of guitar techno. On The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh, “Blues for Terry Turtle” – a tribute to late experimental rock band co-founder Baku Guter – paints a dreamlike landscape that lacks the tension that standard blues tunes usually show. Another track on the album, “Emerald City”, hums in 16th notes at a 6/8 tempo meant to push the main pulse.
This is a wonderful job that started in 2013 in the Mandola Valley and is not going to give up. For a composer who usually prefers acoustic guitar sounds, the upcoming LP What Strange Flowers Grow in the Shade is composed almost entirely of electric guitar sounds. The album also features Nashville percussionist Chris Davis, who collaborates with The Cherry Blossoms and promotes the show through the non-profit organization FMRL.
“There’s not a single acoustic guitar note on there,” Allred said of the new album, which has yet to be released. “But there are a lot of layered electric guitars. I create these small orchestras and try to find an interesting sound or expression in them. I like the cleaner, bell-like, ethereal sound of electric guitars.”
Born in Jamestown in 1983, Allred moved to Crawford as a teenager. Initially playing in metal bands, the future acousticians work on the family farm. “I do a lot of chicken coop work,” they say, “and sometimes I build and repair the coop and do what needs to be done.”
They returned to Crawford in September 2022 after studying theology and philosophy for six years at Boston College. Now,” Allred said, “I wasn’t feeling well and it was taking a toll on my health, so I decided to give it a try. ”
On albums like 2019′s Regeneration of Time and 2019′s Hoddmímis Holt, their music cuts through the buzz of a culture that is often at odds with Crawford’s sense of calm on the western fork of the Ob River. Compared to similar work by fellow guitarists Daniel Bachman and William Tyler, Hodmimis Holthand Allred’s 2022 cover of Lowe’s “Laser Beam” looks like an attempt to combat the ravages of popular culture.
“I think I was at odds with a lot of what was going on in the music community,” Allred said. “It’s hard to have any integrity in a society that doesn’t appreciate subtle depth. It’s not that I think Cardi B shouldn’t exist, or that I have a personal grudge against her. But I wish I had a choice, whether it’s worth it or not, I’ve been listening to it.” Sang “WAP” or something like that.”
Indeed, the somewhat limited tradition of lead guitar playing, beginning with John Fahey and going back to works including Skip James’s 1931 recording of “I’m So Glad,” seemed to thwart attempts to circumvent the world of pop music. That’s why Allred, who has played in Nashville for many years, is always popular in the city. The Random Sample show is hosted by local synth-pop artist Bridget Oxhorne, who will perform a set of tracks under the name Munnie Waters. In a world where time is a precious commodity, individual work struggles with the transience that can tire you out.