Scott Tuma - Dandelion

Scott Tuma
Dandelion
(2010, Digitalis)
RIYL = Aaron Martin, Box Ensemble, Peter Broderick

Oh boy, it’s good to be back. There is so much good stuff to relay and folks, I have been sitting on this new Scott Tuma LP for far too long. First off, I’m pretty sure this is Tuma’s first solo album on wax, so that there is a pretty good reason for snatching this thing up quick (because if it’s not gone already, it will be). The second reason, which should really be the first, is it's Scott Tuma making the music. And yep, Mr. Tuma is in blessed form, ever the torch bearer for consistency and beautifully skeletal folk majesty. Dandelion is full up to every cobwebbed nook an cranny with Tuma’s elegant guitars and banjos pinging gently over the top of one another, laying a subtle hay strewn groundwork for lurching organ melodies and airy field samples. If you are familiar with Tuma, these types of descriptors are pretty standard. Tuma has pretty much mastered the art of phantasmically gorgeous folk. However, this time around, in addition to ghostly gorgeous, is the frenzied spooky. Dandelion is intermingled with a couple heavy slabs of tin rumbling drone to mix things up and add an extra layer of crystal jingling depth to his already hyper layered formula. It is, at turns, a bit darker, but no less evocative, and amidst this low rumbling hums, the flecks of carefree nostalgia float even higher. It’s a beautifully nuanced give and take. Seriously wonderful stuff, as always, from this perennial FG favourite.

-Thistle

Scott Tuma on MySpace

48.

Scott Tuma
Hard Again
(Truckstop, 2001)

I think Scott Tuma is a gypsy and his ability to make acoustic guitars stumble like a softly like a beautifully content, drunken bride is the stuff of magic. Hard Again is absolutely magical and totally supernatural, gorgeous and, most probably, what I want to soundtrack my slow peaceful death.

-Thistle

Scott Tuma & Mike Weis - Taradiddle

Scott Tuma & Mike Weis
Taradiddle
(05.2009, Digitalis)
RIYL = Zelionople, Niagara Falls, Grails

Under the name of Scott Tuma, I have not found one unworthy release. After the demise of Souled American, Mr. Tuma’s solo work has been impeccable. While I’ve watched as a steady stream of average to incredible instrumental guitar players have jumped on the John Fahey train, Tuma has carved out a little niche of instrumental guitarisms that are all his own. And those guitarisms, those bits of laconic acoustic strumming and plucking, haphazardly layered on the backs of each other like war corpses just ooze a certain hollow beauty and cultivate a miniature hope that is as resonant as the Tuma’s wavery-stringed guitar. I can’t harbor anything but pure love for the guy for such a purity of sound imagination that seems solely his. So what could his coupling with Zelienople’s Mike Weis add to the mix that wasn’t already there? Apparently a whole lot. In fact, I’m fairly convinced that the success of Taradiddle weighs more heavily on Mr’ Weis’ shoulders than Tuma’s. Sure, my previous adulation holds true for Tuma. He still provides that mystically friendly, abstract guitar to the table with nary a miscued note, but it is Weis’s unconventional patter, his cymbal scrapings and clinking bells that swirl up a back drop that of commotion that fits Tuma’s playing so perfectly that it makes a Tuma admirer, such as myself, rethink the possibilities within his guitar. Taradiddle is every bit as breezy and drone-esque as Tuma’s previous work, but with an added umph that really anchors things. Weis provides a hefty dissonance that, coupled with Tuma’s fingers, has birthed this new pastoral doom that is as bright as the summer sun and as dark as a coffin buried six feet under. Really wondrous stuff.

-Thistle

"Dropsy" from Taradidle

Scott Tuma - Not For Nobody

Scott Tuma
Not For Nobody
(03.2008, Digitalis)
Verdict = Blissful Guitar and Experiments

Usually albums focused on a single instrument are bent on either the virtuosity of the player and the extremes of the instruments capabilities. On Scott Tuma’s third album, Not For Nobody, Tuma leaves himself and his acoustic guitar out of the spotlight and has chosen to highlight an albums worth of simple, beautiful melodies with entrancing results. The whole of the album whispers of Tuma’s humble genius with his subtle, alluring musical motifs. I suppose calling this simply an acoustic guitar album is a bit of a disservice to Not For Nobody seeing as how Tuma has painstakingly added a series of sparse experimentations and simplistic instrumental accompaniments (the pinnacle of which is Jason Ajemain’s string addition on “Loversrock1”) throughout his magnificently blissful opus, however, it is his acoustic guitar which strings the tracks together like a lazy piece of windy old yarn. And Tuma’s yarn carves a beautiful path indeed, folky ballads reminiscent of the heartfelt innocence of childhood, Not For Nobody is the perfect antidote to stress and the best companion to sentimental memories. The album opens and closes with ghostly reverb laden vocals that seem to mark your entrance and departure from an album that inhabits a place that is truly otherworldly, magical and unique. Not For Nobody is absolutely timeless and definitely one of the best releases of the year thus far.

-Mr. Thistle

Clips from Not For Nobody on Boomkat