As I started checking over my list of possible musicians to review for this week’s Music Monday, I looked again at Joe Rollin Porter. I had to check over my blog posts, because it really felt like I had reviewed him before. There is something very familiar about him and his music.

On his SonicBids press kit it says

Joe’s fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing and vocals transcend genre and style, viscerally connecting with music lovers of widely diverging tastes. His live performance can bring a room full of loud distracted drinkers to a hushed silence, hanging on every note...

Joe does not attempt to “authentically” replicate old-time music. Nor does he try to modernize the old songs to make them appeal to contemporary commercial tastes.  Rather, after years of absorbing and internalizing traditional folk music, the songs flow out as natural self-expression.

Okay. Maybe that is why he sounds so familiar. So many of the press kits say the same sort of stuff. I clicked on play for the first song in his press kit. It was Black Jack Davy. Black Jack Davy is an alternative title to The Gypsy Laddie. It is in number 200 in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads as collected by Francis James Child.

Last may, I reviewed The Sweet Colleens. The first song in their Electronic Press Kit was “Wraggle Taggle”, which is another name of the same ballad. It is two very different interpretations of the same ballad and both stand very well on their own.

The second song that he has is the traditional American folk song, The Cuckoo Bird. Both songs illustrate nicely his “very advanced and unique fingerstyle guitar technique”. I like to listen to folk musicians with great finger style pickin, and Joe Rollin Porter fits nicely in this category.

What makes it all the more enjoyable is that he has a voice that matches his guitar picking. It has often seemed like many of the better pickers rarely sing.

I like to end off my reviews with YouTube videos of the performers, when I can find them, and MyUncleJoe666 has a good video of this song being performed. It is in black and white in what looks like an empty apartment. It switches back and forth between different views of Joe, sometimes cutting off the top of his head. Yeah, traditional American folk singing, performed in a unique way, shot as a YouTube video which is fairly traditional in certain aspect and unique in others.

I still haven’t figured out why the music and the musician seem so familiar. If I did review him already and you find the review, let me know. Maybe it is just because I’ve checked out his music a few times, or maybe it is just some timeless quality to the performances. Whatever it is, you might want to get more familiar with Joe’s music as well.

Here’s the video: