Search - Rainer :: Farm

Rainer's touching final recordings

Nobody important | 06/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These are among the last tracks recorded by Rainer Ptacek. He was ill at the time, but he managed to pour his soul into this album. The sound is similar to that on Alpaca Lips, but here, Rainer is joined on most tracks by bass and drums for a more rock-oriented sound than on Alpaca Lips. (I will refer again to Alpaca Lips, so see my review of that album). The dominant sound is still his National steel guitar and slide, and his playing was as loose as it was on Alpaca Lips, but strangely, he sounded more alive here, when death was so close. Luckily, though, the recordings retain the informality of Alpaca Lips to again give the listener the feel of listening to an intimate living room concert. If you are looking for clean, precise picking, you won't find it here. What you will find is some very strange, blues-inflected, National steel guitar playing, some "American primitive" (to use John Fahey's term) type instrumentals, a few more aggressive Chris Whitley-type songs, and the heart and soul of Rainer Ptacek poured out before his untimely death.



Further listening: Aside from Chris Whitley and John Fahey, try John Hasbrouck."