Otherlands:ONE
Red Shoe Records (84 mins)
American fiddler Casey Driessen spent nine months travelling the world, meeting, listening and playing with local musicians until COVID-19 eventually ground everything to a halt. Otherlands:ONE is the result: an album of all-acoustic collaborations with folk musicians from Galicia, Ireland, Scotland, India, Japan and Finland, each recorded on the guests’ home turf.
Although Driessen’s background is in bluegrass, his collaborations here aren’t exactly ‘fusions’ with all the heavy-handedness that term may suggest. It’s a much more sympathetic meeting. Driessen bends his style to that of his hosts, his bluegrass more of a polite suggestion than an imposition.
A lot is explored in the album’s 13 tracks, from the pan-Celtic folk styles of Western Europe to the songs of Baul musicians in Bengal, and even bluegrass itself with mandolinist Taro Inoue in Japan. The sound that binds it all, however, is of musicians really enjoying themselves. You can hear it in the music and the atmosphere, and in the little glimpses of chat we get at the end of each performance – as well as in the perfectly-captured hubbub of a pub session in County Clare.
This is a really lovely album with good vibes aplenty. Hopefully Driessen can get back to globetrotting and collaborating again soon!