JEFFREY FOUCAULT: Stripping Cane

Jeffrey Foucault

Stripping Cane

© 2004 Signature Sounds Recording Company Inc. (701237128627)

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With the release of his sophomore record Stripping Cane, Jeffrey Foucault presents a collection of bright, spare songs; an Americana bus-tour that moves from Country Blues to Murder Ballad, Twelve-Bar to Gospel.

notes

A landscape of ghost horses and cowboy elegies, weary lovers and leaving trains. An existential drive-in theatre where memories and icons flicker across lowering skies. With the release of his sophomore record Stripping Cane, Jeffrey Foucault presents a collection of bright, spare songs; an Americana bus-tour that moves from Country Blues to Murder Ballad, Twelve-Bar to Gospel.

Foucault's musical career was seeded at seventeen, when he began playing John Prine tunes on his father's beat up mail-order guitar, and spent long evenings in his bedroom, spinning piles of old records on a hand-me-down turntable. When he was 18 he stole a copy of Townes Van Zandt: Live and Obscure from a friend, and a few years later, having quit school to work as a farm-hand and a house-carpenter Foucault turned to writing songs.

Since the 2001 release of his critically-acclaimed debut Miles from the Lightning, Foucault -- a native of Wisconsin and recent transplant to western Massachusetts- has built an independent career touring extensively in the United States, Canada, and the UK. Along the way, he has played with artists and icons such as Guy Clark, Greg Brown, Chris Smither, Kelly Joe Phelps, Gillian Welch, Richard Buckner, John Hammond and others. MOJO praised Miles as "A striking debut. [Foucault] comes out sounding like the love-child of Chris Whitley and Kelly Joe Phelps... strong songs, a voice and blues guitar that sound wiser than his years."

Stripping Cane sees Foucault collaborating with producer and multi-instrumentalist David "Goody" Goodrich (Chris Smither, Peter Mulvey, Rose Polenzani) to bring the range and color of the songs into sharper relief, employing combinations of mandolin, banjo, slide, electric, and Nashville guitars in deceptively simple arrangements with deft internal logic. Additional contributions from touring partners Peter Mulvey (electric guitar, vocals) and Kris Delmhorst (fiddle, vocals), with Boston area veterans Anita Suhanin (vocals) and Kevin Barry (electric lap steel) rounding out the sessions.

The central image in the title track Stripping Cane -- of the battering work taken to pry the sweetness from an unforgiving source -- creates the context for the record as a whole. With his big and richly-toned fingerstyle work and poetic economy, Foucault triangulates complex emotions; exploring the polarities of dark and light, right and wrong, leaving and left. With Stripping Cane Jeffrey Foucault has created a distinctly Americana record, a hothouse where language, melody and form blend and bloom in delicate variation.

reviews

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  • Great Artists
    author: Brandon M. Royer

    I just bought this cd and I have to say it is the best cd I've bought in awhile. Great job!

  • author: BENICHOU Amos

    happy new year 2008

  • Hard to say what he does best...
    author: C. Aaron McNeece

    It's hard to say what Jeffrey Foucault does best - play guitar, sing, or write. This is even better than his first CD, which was also great CD!

  • Wherever Mr Jeffrey is going, I'll follow him there
    author: Ina Hecker

    Haunting -- haven't heard this kind of balladeering for too long. The songs get under your skin. Sometimes the rub is rough, sometimes tender. Jeffrey Foucoult's musical talent is unquestionable. His voice, his style enviable. Let's hope he gets the airplay and exposure he surely deserves.

  • Wherever Mr Jeffrey is going, I'll follow him there
    author: Ina Hecker

    Haunting -- haven't heard this kind of balladeering for too long. The songs get under your skin. Sometimes the rub is rough, sometimes tender. Jeffrey Foucoult's musical talent is unquestionable. His voice, his style enviable. Let's hope he gets the airplay and exposure he surely deserves.

  • Unique, Talented, Incredible
    author: Trebz

    I came across Jeffrey Foucault indirectly from Whole Wheat Radio (WholeWheatRadio.org). I first heard Mark Erelli play a house concert there and was immediately hooked. Mark later played a house concert which I attended with Kris Delmhorst. After that, I was also hooked on Kris. Turns out, Kris is married to Jeffrey Foucault. Surprise, Surprise, Jeff is incredible. Jeff I am guessing is approximately 30 years old but has a voice and sound much older and wiser than his age could ever be. Amazing guitar, powerful lyrics, and a sound that you just can't put your finger on. Everyone that I have introduced to Jeffrey Foucault is immediately impressed. Even non-folk music fans seem to tune in to Jeff and want more. I recommend both of his CDs and I can't wait for a third to be released.

  • Incredibly skillful, Foucault is a wordsmith, a playing talent, and a mood maker
    author: Fiona McAllister

    I purchased this CD from listening to clips from CD baby. The CD shows off Foucault's guitar talents including his smooth and intricate playing, filled with interesting rhythms and captivating dynamics. But the thing I find most exciting about his works (and rare this day and age) is his way with words. His lyrics poetically and elegantly grab you from your mundane contemplations of you grocery list and throw you into deep introspection. (Although his work is very poetic, it is totally manly... the CD has a very masculine, retrospective, deliberateness about it as it takes you and lulls you with its hypnotic rhythms.) His imagery takes you into a different world. You feel as though you have experienced something "bigger" when you finish the CD. I have spent hours with friends listening and interpreting the lyrics. I had to go and buy his first CD, which is equally hypnotic, although I find his second CD more refined. Both CD's live in my CD changer instead of in their cases... I don't expect that to change for some time. They are captivating.

  • Stripping Cane is a Keeper
    author: Chris

    With Stripping Cane, Jeffery Foucault shows that Miles From The Lightning was not just a flash in the pan. If you liked Miles..., you'll love Stripping Cane.

  • Better than sliced bread !!!!!!!!
    author: Ewen

    This guy ranks as one of the most outstanding talents to emerge in recent years. Again he has come up with an album of songs of compelling listening. He has added the playing talents of Peter Mulvey and Kris Delmhorst to the textures of the sound and created a worthy follow up to Miles from the Lightning. Do yourself a favour buy both his albums and the Redbird album and just sit back and listen to each. He has created an outstanding body of work and also pushed the boundaries of folk music.

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