Allison de Groot & Rich Ruth – Nervion
Rich Ruth was supposed to produce a solo banjo record for Allison de Groot. That idea collapsed a year into work on it in his Nashville studio; instead, a real cooperation between the two of them produced the album instead.
“Nervion” opens the pair’s self-titled debut, eight tracks out October 2 on Western Vinyl.
De Groot’s clawhammer runs through loops and delay until it starts picking up a rolling, almost krautrock momentum; then Ruth’s synthesizers and Cullum’s pedal steel swell in around it until the acoustic and electronic parts stop sounding like separate objects. Birdsong and radio static sit next to banjo and vibraphone. The banjo is still the thing keeping the track together, just refracted through all else around it; it never gets buried under all that manufacture.
