Robert Blake
Don’t worry, I remember what I was saying last June about my record player.
In case you don’t, it got exploded in an electrical accident and didn’t work for five years. We finally got around to replacing it, but then that one didn’t work either-- so we had to take it to a specialist in Seattle who eventually fixed it up like new.
I was anxious to listen to some of the records that had piled up during those quiet years, but the repair shop was in Ravenna. Luckily Robert was in the neighborhood and offered to pick it up on his way home.
When I went to his house in the York District to collect it later that day, Robert slid a nice 180-gram copy of his latest album RECITATIVE on top.
“For your listening party,” he said with a wink.
I’d already worn out a copy of the CD, but was jazzed to have a vinyl copy—even if it did say LARRY on the back…
DAY #4: Recitative, Robt Sarazin Blake. Gift from the artist, 2023. Favorite side: Act I side A
If there’s a harder-working man in Bellingham show business than Robert Blake, I guess don’t know that dude. A Pacific Northwest native who’s called Bellingham home for more than 25 years, Blake is seemingly everywhere where there’s a PA, particularly in the summer. For more than 20 years, he has hosted and booked the wildly popular season-long Thursday night Happy Hour series in the garden at Boundary Bay Brewery. He’s toured extensively in North America and Northern Europe, playing small stages and house shows for fiercely loyal audiences of friends. He hosts and books the pandemic-born but surprisingly durable traveling livestream From the Kitchen Table. And of course, he is the founder and ringmaster of Whatcom’s favorite summer festival, the 21-year-old Subdued Stringband Jamboree.
And honestly, he doesn’t always even need a PA. He’ll play your wedding or your funeral, your porch or your pantry. All he needs is an acoustic guitar and some friends.
Robert will bring the songs. How he has time to write all these songs—let alone record and release them, usually on his own Same Room Records—is beyond me. This is his 11th album.
His father was a real live folk musician when he was growing up, so folk music is in Robert’s blood and bones. But his music aint really folk music, any more than all music is essentially folk music. You could call it Americana. You could call it roots. You could call it ‘singer-songwriter’ if you wanted to piss me off.
In the end it’s not all that important what you call it—neither he nor I will even have any way of knowing. Of greater urgency is what’s it sound like?
Like most rootsy Americana singer-songwriter folk troubadours, Robert Blake is a great poet and his songs need words to develop. Lots and lots of words. His streamy singing style is often as conversational as it is melodic, and some songs take on an accompanied monolog format. This works particularly well when the performer is introducing the band or reminding punters to tip their bartenders. The references to Dylan are handy (even though he’s not really-- or at least not only-- a folk singer) but there’s also a lot of Lou (Reed), Prine (John) and Todd (Snider) in his delivery and intent. He’s a storyteller.
And the stories on RECITATIVE are diverse and intriguing. Robert allows the occasional good-time up-tempo no-foul ramble like “Single Women” but also doesn’t shy away from a piercing purpose piece like “Own House, Own Guns” or “19 Shot.” His characters are inked around the edges with suggestion rather than description. You recognize that dude in “The Other Side of Fck it” without being spoonfed his vitals, and the utter hopelessness of his grim situation rings true as punch.
There's lots of humor here, like on the politically-perfect "Keeping Track." Lots of wonderfully wordy wordplay, too-- see: "Couples" and "Work." Other songs are just plain nice to listen to, and I can’t usually walk away from a spin through this record without the melancholy “Sketches” stuck in my head. Often for a week.
The images pile up and so do the reflections. Blake tucks references into verses where you might not expect to find them: same-sex marriage; gun violence; the collateral risks of war; imbeciles being President of the United States. It’s all here if you listen.
Professional musicians these days need to be flexible, and Robert Blake is indeed limber and well-hatted, never seeming to play the same song the same way twice. I’ve seen him do these songs a lot live, and it’s always a different experience. Sometimes it’s him playing solo, or maybe Jan’s to his left. David & Aaron are usually there in a combo of more than three, but not always. Sometimes it’s the whole High, Wide & Handsome Band. But not always.
The backing band on RECITATIVE is a group of friends from the Hudson Valley met on the road and courted into the studio on their turf, way back in 2015. Compared to other sparser Robert Blake recordings it’s practically an orchestra-- featuring keys, pedal steel, rich supporting vocals and the staggeringly lyrical horn interplay of Thomas Deakin.
It’s worth noting that this whole band returned the favor three years later, traveling the opposite direction to back Robert at the 2018 Jamboree, a show that eventually surfaced as the live album ONE SUMMER NIGHT. True to their words, the songs take on new life and dimension in a live setting, culminating with a humbling 13-minute version of the last song on RECIATATIVE, “Really Hard.” It was powerful live, and the recording does a faithful job of capturing some rare Saturday night magic.
The packaging of RECITATIVE is top-shelf. From the Michael Costelloe painting on the front to Larry’s name on the back, this is a heavy and handsome package—beautifully designed and produced. Lots of photos in the gatefold + melodious liner notes by the artist. The 2-record set is actually 360 grams and fully 85 minutes of music—an ambitious project fully realized. A triumph.
It occurred to me that I’ve always wondered what RECITATIVE meant, and that I’d never looked it up. I just now did, and it’s fitting. I won’t spoil it for you. Look it up for yourself (it’s on the internet) and pull it up on Bandcamp if you don’t own a copy of your own. Enjoy!