Unfortunately, messages will likely not be responded to. Out 11/06/07 on Family Vineyard As Roses Bow: Collected Airs 1992-2002 is a 2xCD assembly of Loren Connors' most melodically rich and stunning miniature compositions. Inspired by O'Carolan's airs and other Irish airs of the past, these works, recorded during a ten year period, are melded with the distinctly personal and iconoclast adaptation of Connors' blues. These 43 pieces are Connors' complete airs, culled from 10 albums (eight of which are out of print) and one single, including his groundbreaking Hell's Kitchen Park (Black Label, 1993), Moonyean (Road Cone, 1994), as well as obscure titles like St. Vincent's Newsboy Home (Item Recordings, 1998) and Lullaby (Carbon, 2001) plus four unreleased airs.
Loren Connors & Alan Licht Live @ Tonic 10.14.03
To accompany guitarist Loren Connors (nee Mazzacane) is to discover a strange and forgotten America, then venture irreversibly beyond. Connors is frequently pegged as an avant bluesman, and the blues are never far from the surface of his art -- but what a shimmering surface it is! The brevity and lyricism of his improvisations bear the mark of haiku; the floating, expressionist tones reflect the influence of Mark Rothko; and as he conjures keening Celtic wails, Connors offers himself as medium to the ghosts of New York City Past.
With "Sails", his 2006 release from Table of the Elements, Connors enters the third decade of such intimate explorations. In the course of these two discs, we pass through saturated phrasings, slowly undulating drones, doldrumic introspection and squalls of white noise. The penultimate highlight is a duet with Connors' aesthetic compadre, the late, great John Fahey. It's an intuitive and seemingly predestined meeting of two enlightened fellow-travelers: wily Fahey as the Dr. Livingstone of raw Americana to Connors' indefatigable Stanley. For his own part, Connors can evoke more clarity and purity in a short cluster of notes than most of his shred-happy contemporaries can muster in a lifetime -- and with Fahey's passing, he may be justifiably considered this country's greatest living guitarist.
Ultimately, Loren Connors' path, while not for the timid, is one of unspeakable treasure: a journey to the heart of brightness; a quest to penetrate a Terra Incognita of the soul.
"Just cause it's timeless does not mean it can wait." -- Cadence
"[Connors] is an American original in much the same sense as John Fahey or Jandek, in that hes chosen a classically American form, in this case the blues, and in true pioneer spirit taken it off somewhere else, crossed it with other forms . . . and shaped it into a uniquely individual vision of the modern American myth . . . [Connors] has created a singularly expressive and unique musical vocabulary. In short, he still sounds like no one else." -- David Keenan, The Wire
"Connors trademarks . . . are consistently prominent and sublime, always inferring something that runs a little thicker than sound . . . It makes sense that the like-minded John Fahey even saluted Connors on his final album with a piece using, in part, the same wandering tones and atmosphere, showing that after the poetries and aesthetics of life are gone, after style and sense are gone, there is something much harder to deal with that innate, tangible void that Connors has spent his life tugging at draws ever near." -- Matt Wellins, Dusted
"Loren MazzaCane Connors isnt a cult hero for no reason. His music is awe-inspiring . . . a one-person gentle tornado, Connors can get deep into human feelings with a single guitar." -- Pop Matters
