Both Kinds Of Music
Misha Feigin – balalaika, classical guitar in Duos with: Elliot Sharp – dobro | Davey Williams – electric guitar | LaDonna Smith – violin, dancing on a wooden box | Craig Hultgren – cello | Eugene Chadbourne – banjo, guitar
Track 1 & 4 recorded by Elliot Sharp at his home studio in New York; 2 & 5 recorded by John Metro at the Birmingham Arts Association, Alabama; 3 recorded by Sam Gray at the Ramcat Studio in Louisville, Kentucky; 7 recorded at the concert at the Rietschule, Bern, Switzerland. All pieces are improvised, and recorded during 1998. All music by Misha Feigin (BMI) published by Alissa Publishing/PRS. Mastered by Stan Wijnans, LMC Sound. Front cover collage by Misha Feigin. Photo by Oli Jensen. Produced by Leo Feigin.
Tracklist: 1. Both Kinds of Music – [12’02] Misha Feigin – balalaika, Elliot Sharp – dobro 2. Balalaikofrenia – [4’29] Misha Feigin – balalaika, Davey Williams – electric guitar, LaDonna Smith – dancing on a big wooden box 3. Moondance – [9’39] Misha Feigin – classical guitar, Craig Hultgren – cello 4. Zohar Cafe Blues – [3’46] Misha Feigin – balalaika, Elliot Sharp – dobro 5. BBQ-Powered Mission to Outer Space -[11’37] Misha Feigin – classical guitar, Davey Williams – electric guitar 6. String Theory Revisited – [11 ’54] Misha Feigin – classical guitar, LaDonna Smith – violin 7. A Meter Violation – [16’27] Misha Feigin – classical guitar, balalaika, Eugene Chadbourne – banjo, guitar | Total time: 69’56
Both kinds of music
refers, of course, to “Country” and “Western”. Rediscovering country music has been something the avant garde has enjoyed doing in a tongue-in-cheek, knowingly urban way for decades, but more recently something less deliberately parodic has been going on between the two seemingly incommensurable genres. The Bubbadinos certainly play some species of white American folk music, but it’s hardly Nashville, and Misha Feigin is a free improvising Russian Balalaika player; it’s not even clear which kinds of music are being played, exactly, any more. — Richard Cochrane