Artist: Che Apalache
Album: Rearrange My Heart
Label: Free Dirt Records
Release Date: 8.9.19
For years I have heard the phrase “There are only two kinds of music, good and bad,” from the likes of folks like Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Doc Watson and Pete Seeger. It’s something I have always felt and believed in, long before it was reinforced by great artists like that. I did not know just what to expect from this group, led by a refugee from the mountains of North Carolina, along with two Argentineans and a Mexican, using basic bluegrass instrumentation, but it certainly isn’t bad music. In fact it’s mighty good and interesting.
Leader/ fiddler Joe Troop’s lyrics of social justice, carry a spirit that was there with Woody Guthrie, and carried on by Woody’s disciples through the ’60s. Troop smacks the old rusty nail on the head very timely with songs like “The Dreamer” and “The Wall.” The harmonies they use are straight out of the Blue Ridge Mountains, but with the Latin fusion in the music, you have a viva la difference you can both hear and feel. I’m betting it was just that difference that caught Béla Fleck’s ear when he first heard them perform, then signed on to produce this set. I have only one suggestion: I would have wished that Béla called on one of his many friends to add in a string bass.
I looked up the definition of the group’s name. In Argentina, Che means pal, friend, bro, etc. I found no definition for Apalache. After listening several, times I’d say it means “mighty good.”
—Ken Spooner
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