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Susan Alcorn Quintet: Pedernal

by Troy Dostert
Pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn has achieved the enviable feat of commanding her own instrumental niche in the jazz world. Much like Toots Thielemans' harmonica, Gary Versace's accordion or Béla Fleck's banjo, she seems to have a unique role all to herself, at least until her substantial talents eventually spawn a host of imitators. From her beginnings playing traditional country and western in the 1980s, she has branched out considerably, in the last decade forging creative partnerships in the free ...
read moreSusan Alcorn and Dr. Eugene Chadbourne: An Afternoon in Austin...

by Dan McClenaghan
Think country music, and crisp, three minute twangin' story songs float through your head; think harmolodics, and the extended free-flowing instrumental improvisations championed by Ornette Coleman come to mind. A combination of the two? Get on outta here.But as strange and incompatible as this musical marriage might sound, a couple of listens to An Afternoon in Austin..or Country Music for Harmolodic Souls by steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and vocalist/guitarist/banjo man Dr. Eugene Chadbourne suggest a logical, perhaps inevitable ...
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