Just arrived home from seeing two sets by Jerron at this upstairs Bleecker Street venue here in New York City.
The twenty four year old Paxton is really a full fledged phenomenon at this point. Forget that he plays all the guitar stuff that all of us want to play as effortlessly as falling off a log and with great musicality, he's also become a whompin' good Banjo player and a seemingly excellent fiddle player. But wait! There's more! His Harmonica playing on what I think was a rendition of Gary Davis' "Coon Hunt" with a side order of "Dixie" thrown in for good measure was also surpassingly good. Had there been a piano there we would no doubt have been done in by the sheer accumulated musical avalanche.
At this point Jerron is really the complete Folk Musician. I can't compare him to anyone really other than Mike Seeger, but where Seeger was perfect and somewhat dour in his mission of preservation and revelation, its all grist for the musical mill for Paxton, fun and a very high degree of that hard to define thing, musicality.
What did he play?
in no particular order
Rope strechin Blues which morphed out of an instrumental "Hesitation Blues"
A Lonnie Johnson tune whose name I never knew
Kansas City (the original version, Louis Jordan?)
a John Hurt, Gary Davis Candyman composite
Maple leaf Rag (NOT the RGD version)
The Bowery(Banjo)
A Clifford Gibson classic (tired of being mistreated, perhaps?)
Little Birdie ( Banjo)
a fiddle tune whose name I don't know but is the same one that appears in Aaron Copeland's "Rodeo"
and various early pop-jazz songs.
This sunday gig seems to be a regular thing at this point so if you haven't seen him lately it might be worth the trip.
The twenty four year old Paxton is really a full fledged phenomenon at this point. Forget that he plays all the guitar stuff that all of us want to play as effortlessly as falling off a log and with great musicality, he's also become a whompin' good Banjo player and a seemingly excellent fiddle player. But wait! There's more! His Harmonica playing on what I think was a rendition of Gary Davis' "Coon Hunt" with a side order of "Dixie" thrown in for good measure was also surpassingly good. Had there been a piano there we would no doubt have been done in by the sheer accumulated musical avalanche.
At this point Jerron is really the complete Folk Musician. I can't compare him to anyone really other than Mike Seeger, but where Seeger was perfect and somewhat dour in his mission of preservation and revelation, its all grist for the musical mill for Paxton, fun and a very high degree of that hard to define thing, musicality.
What did he play?
in no particular order
Rope strechin Blues which morphed out of an instrumental "Hesitation Blues"
A Lonnie Johnson tune whose name I never knew
Kansas City (the original version, Louis Jordan?)
a John Hurt, Gary Davis Candyman composite
Maple leaf Rag (NOT the RGD version)
The Bowery(Banjo)
A Clifford Gibson classic (tired of being mistreated, perhaps?)
Little Birdie ( Banjo)
a fiddle tune whose name I don't know but is the same one that appears in Aaron Copeland's "Rodeo"
and various early pop-jazz songs.
This sunday gig seems to be a regular thing at this point so if you haven't seen him lately it might be worth the trip.