Michael Roe

Back in the day (as they say), when you were in a serious relationship, the moment would come when one of your parents would say to your potential spouse, “who are your roots?” The oddly phrased question was not only designed to explore the past as to predict the future, or at least to understand the present. On We All Gonna Face the Rising Sun, Michael Roe tells us about his roots and – just like with the The 77s’ Holy Ghost Building project – we understand a little more about Roe’s musical DNA, how he eventually contracted the rock & roll bug, and why we’re all infected, too.

What’s 80 years or so among friends? A good deal of the songs here were originally recorded in or around the early 1930s by the likes of Charlie Patton, The Delta Big Four, and the Bailes Brothers – not exactly household names these days, but running-mates of legends like Blind Willie Johnson, The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, and Mitchell’s Christian Singers. These were the days when Gospel music was recorded on the fly, brimming with energy and raw creativity, breaking the rules and stirring the soul – laying the groundwork for what would eventually become rock and roll.

Unlike last year’s gospel roots project by The 77s, We All Gonna Face the Rising Sun is not a rock & roll band album, but essentially a solo project, featuring a less rock/more roots version of Roe playing most of the instruments most of the time (77s bassist Mark Harmon and percussionist Bryan Meyers help out on one track), and handling all of the vocals. The artist takes on several different guises, including two surprisingly effective a cappella turns, featuring a quartet of Roes, perfectly capturing the sound and ambiance of those gospel recordings (including the snap, crackle, hiss and pop) of the thirties.

The album (available from Roe’s and The 77s’ websites) is produced by Roe with an obvious respectful nod to those that paved the way before. Free from excessive studio manipulation (other than the necessary over-dubbing of multiple parts), We All Gonna Face the Morning Sun is a minimalist delight, with tracks like “Jonah in the Wilderness, “ Woke up This Morning With my Mind,” “Paul and Silas in Jail,” and “I’m Going Home” all sounding as if they could’ve been recorded at the end of a long day of field work – authenticity wins out over technology here, and rightly so, since the purpose of the original recordings was to simply tell a simple story or convey a sense of hope to the listener.

“Come to The Savior” is the gentlest moment on the recording, with Roe sounding uncannily like Simon and Garfunkel gone country-gospel. The poignancy and gentleness of the vocal ‘duet’ are almost startling in comparison to the raw quality of some of the more Blind Willie Johnson-influenced tracks like “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down.” While not exactly a hoe-down, “You Can’t Go Halfway” is, well, half-way to one, and Roe sounds a bit like a thirteen year-old Bob Dylan at a carnival on “Paul and Silas in Jail.”

The album’s title track and its companion-piece, “I Know My Time Ain’t Long,” are particular stand-outs for authenticity and execution. Roe has totally submerged himself and reproduced the a cappella quartet sound of the Gospel groups of the period with such care that you might think you were actually listening to one of those old records (record: round thing with a hole in the center that plays music when scraped with a needle).

By the way – don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is just a music history lesson. Michael Roe is still Michael Roe, and he injects into this project a good dose of fun and a double-dose of ‘cool.’ We all gonna have a good time when we all listen to We All Gonna Face the Rising Sun.

Tagged as: Michael Roe, We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun

↓ One comment

#1 Aaron on July 28th, 2009 at 8:39 pm

Everything Mike Roe touches pretty much turns to gold. Thanks for the review!

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