The Story
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
Old-time and traditional music stay exciting for their contrasts. Exacting instrumentationhoned through mentorships and late-night jams at fiddler's conventions tangles with acommunity-sourced inventiveness that influences variants and new sounds. Joseph Decosimois a master of this genre for this very reason, blending deep technique with an openness andcuriosity that keep his music crackling with life. A "marvelous fiddler" (No Depression) andbanjo player who braids "exultation and veneration" (INDY Week) into his music, on his thirdsolo album Fiery Gizzard Decosimo gathers a close-knit ensemble of friends from his musicalcareer to infuse his interpretations of fiddle and banjo pieces with a contagious communaljoy.As an artist working with traditional music from the South and Appalachia, Decosimo choosessongs based not only on historical significance and lineage but also his own sensoryapproach. For Fiery Gizzard, his ear was tuned to otherworldly tones and mystery, sourcingfrom field recordings such as Virginia fiddler Luther Davis' hypnotic version of "Shady Grove"while amping up the music's psychedelic potential. On the middle Tennessee banjocomposition "Flowery Girls," a VHS of bluesman Abner Jay inspired Decosimo to rig up apickup inside a fretless banjo and play it through a tube amp to capture some of Jay's edgeand funkiness. But to round out the sound and keep it kinetic meant galvanizing a genreeschewing crew to jam out- and not in a "spaced-out drooly" kind of way, he laughs, but as asort of "responsive conversation."Decosimo has always been a community-minded artist. He began playing as a seventh graderin Tennessee, fostering relationships with older players at jams and in homes, a learningmode natural to his inquisitive nature and desire for musical connection. A folklorist byintuition, he later became one by profession, studying with old-time legend Clyde Davenport,teaching in East Tennessee State University's renowned bluegrass program, and receiving hisPhD at the University of North Carolina with a dissertation titled "Catching the 'Wild Note':Listening, Learning, and Connoisseurship in Old-Time Music." In North Carolina, Decosimokicked about in the verdant environment of Durham and Chapel Hill's folk and indie scenes,collaborating with artists including Alice Gerrard, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Jake XerxesFussell. This community has influenced his own music, including his "sublime and strangelyheartening" (Bandcamp Daily) 2022 release While You Were Slumbering and BeehiveCathedral, Decosimo's 2024 "Appalachian mountain music treasury" (New Commute) trioalbum with Luke Richardson and Cleek Schrey for Dear Life Records.
Description
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
Old-time and traditional music stay exciting for their contrasts. Exacting instrumentationhoned through mentorships and late-night jams at fiddler's conventions tangles with acommunity-sourced inventiveness that influences variants and new sounds. Joseph Decosimois a master of this genre for this very reason, blending deep technique with an openness andcuriosity that keep his music crackling with life. A "marvelous fiddler" (No Depression) andbanjo player who braids "exultation and veneration" (INDY Week) into his music, on his thirdsolo album Fiery Gizzard Decosimo gathers a close-knit ensemble of friends from his musicalcareer to infuse his interpretations of fiddle and banjo pieces with a contagious communaljoy.As an artist working with traditional music from the South and Appalachia, Decosimo choosessongs based not only on historical significance and lineage but also his own sensoryapproach. For Fiery Gizzard, his ear was tuned to otherworldly tones and mystery, sourcingfrom field recordings such as Virginia fiddler Luther Davis' hypnotic version of "Shady Grove"while amping up the music's psychedelic potential. On the middle Tennessee banjocomposition "Flowery Girls," a VHS of bluesman Abner Jay inspired Decosimo to rig up apickup inside a fretless banjo and play it through a tube amp to capture some of Jay's edgeand funkiness. But to round out the sound and keep it kinetic meant galvanizing a genreeschewing crew to jam out- and not in a "spaced-out drooly" kind of way, he laughs, but as asort of "responsive conversation."Decosimo has always been a community-minded artist. He began playing as a seventh graderin Tennessee, fostering relationships with older players at jams and in homes, a learningmode natural to his inquisitive nature and desire for musical connection. A folklorist byintuition, he later became one by profession, studying with old-time legend Clyde Davenport,teaching in East Tennessee State University's renowned bluegrass program, and receiving hisPhD at the University of North Carolina with a dissertation titled "Catching the 'Wild Note':Listening, Learning, and Connoisseurship in Old-Time Music." In North Carolina, Decosimokicked about in the verdant environment of Durham and Chapel Hill's folk and indie scenes,collaborating with artists including Alice Gerrard, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Jake XerxesFussell. This community has influenced his own music, including his "sublime and strangelyheartening" (Bandcamp Daily) 2022 release While You Were Slumbering and BeehiveCathedral, Decosimo's 2024 "Appalachian mountain music treasury" (New Commute) trioalbum with Luke Richardson and Cleek Schrey for Dear Life Records.
