Bill Frisell Goes South Without Apology
A cinematic variation on country music that sounds original without pretending to be anything else.
Nashville arrived in 1997 as Bill Frisell's ninth outing for Elektra Nonesuch, and AllMusic reviewer Jason Ankeny heard it immediately for what it was: something genuinely strange masquerading as something familiar. Ankeny awarded it 4½ stars, calling it both "genuine and alien" — a phrase that captures the album's actual trick. Frisell and his band weren't deconstructing country music or winking at it. They were just playing it straight through a sensibility that had spent years in experimental jazz and film scores.
The lineup itself announces the approach. Viktor Krauss on bass, Jerry Douglas on dobro, Ron Block on banjo, Adam Steffey on mandolin — these are serious Nashville session players. But Frisell's guitar doesn't sound like it belongs in Music Row. It's spare, sometimes strange, occasionally beautiful in a way that feels sideways to the material. Robin Holcomb's voice enters as a guest, and Pat Bergeson adds harmonica, but they're not smoothing anything over. The whole record has a cinematic quality that Ankeny identified — wide open, a little lonesome, watching from a distance.
This is neither Frisell the jazz instrumentalist nor Frisell the minimalist composer. It's Frisell deciding to meet country music on its own terms and then doing something genuinely his with it. The album didn't become a cult favorite or a statement piece. It just sits there, useful and strange, a record for people who like guitar music that doesn't announce what it's doing.
Who's playing
Viktor Kraussbass
Jerry Douglasresonator guitar
Bill Frisellguitar
Pat Bergesonharmonica
Ron Blockbanjo
Adam Steffeymandolin
Where next?
More by Bill Frisell
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