Vintage Review: Aashid Himons & The Mountain Soul Band's West Virginia Hills (1999)

For almost two decades now, Aashid Himons has been Nashville’s most adventuresome musician. Sure, there are lots of players making $1,000 a session up and down “Music Row” who claim to be able to play varying styles of music, but few of them give up their cushy day jobs to blaze any new trails. From the moment Aashid first set foot in the “Music City,” however, he’s done whatever strikes his fancy, whether that might be playing reggae, blues, space music or even a bit of country.

From his work with the first incarnation of the wonderfully talented blu-reggae outfit Afrikan Dreamland through a solo career and various collaborations with other artists, Himons has reveled in the sheer joy of making music, commercial considerations be damned. Recently, with the release of Mountain Soul, Aashid sojourned back to his hillbilly roots and created an inspired collection of songs that draw upon a musical tradition almost as old as the Appalachian Mountains themselves.

Aashid’s West Virginia Hills

West Virginia Hills is a live document of many of the songs from Mountain Soul, performed by Himons and his Mountain Soul Band at Gibson’s Café Milano club in Nashville. Comprised of some of the most underrated musical talents that the Nashville scene has to offer, the Mountain Soul Band is up to the task of recreating these songs in a live setting. It is a testament to Aashid’s talents and the respect provided him by Nashville’s best musicians that Aashid can get artists of this caliber together for such a performance. (I count at least three successful solo artists on this roster as well as former members or players with artists like Lisa Germano, the Cactus Brothers and Bone Pony.)

The material on West Virginia Hills is a spirited mix of blues, bluegrass, roots rock and country with elements of Celtic and African music. With spiritual and musical influences that range from the highest mountaintop in Appalachia to the lowest cotton field in the Mississippi Delta, the performances here possess the soul and fervor of a church revival and the energy and electricity of a mosh pit at any punk show. Although many of the songs are originals, such as the joyful title track or the Delta-styled “Country Blues,” there are also the covers expected of such a project, musical homages to the artists who created this music: folks like Willie Dixon, Blind Willie McTell, and Muddy Waters. Aashid’s “The Captain’s Song” is another highlight of the Mountain Soul album performed here live.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

There are fewer and fewer artists these days willing to “walk on the wild side” and embrace styles of music that are completely without commercial potential. Some, like Bruce Springsteen’s flirtation with folk music or Steve Earle’s recent bluegrass project, are natural outgrowths of the artist’s roots. In other instances, however, as with Aashid Himons and the members of the Mountain Soul Band, it is done out of a sheer love and respect for the music they’re performing. The material presented with much skill and reverence on West Virginia Hills is more than a mere throwback to another era – it’s also the root of all the music we enjoy today. For that alone, Aashid and the Mountain Soul Band deserve a loud “thanks!” (Soptek Records, released 1999)

Nashville Rock Memorabila: Aashid Himons Photo Gallery

 

Afrikan Dreamland: Aashid Himons, Darrell Rose & Mustafa Abdul-Aleen

Aashid Himons & The New Dream

Aashid Himons & Ross Smith

Aashid Himons (All photos courtesy of Aashid Himons)

Vintage Review: Aashid Himons' Mountain Soul (1998)

Aashid Himons has been a fixture of Nashville’s non-country music scene for long that it’s easy to take him for granted. One of the founders of the near-legendary “blu-reggae” band Afrikan Dreamland during the early-1980, Aashid has been the voice of conscious of the Music City’s alternative culture for almost two decades now. Whether as a musician exploring the depths of reggae, space music, or the blues; a documentary filmmaker; host of the influential Aashid Presents television show; or as a crusader for many social causes, Aashid’s multi-media talents have always been intelligent, vital, and thought-provoking.

Aashid’s Mountain Soul

Nonetheless, Aashid’s latest musical effort – the Mountain Soul CD – comes as a surprise in spite of his past track record as an innovator and trailblazer. A collection of country blues, hillbilly folk, and other traditionally-styled music, Aashid has shown us yet another facet of his immense talent with Mountain Soul’s enchanting performances. An African-American with his roots in the mountains of West Virginia, Himons explains the lineage of this material in the CD’s liner notes. In the harsh hills of Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, African slaves often played music alongside the poor Irish and Scottish immigrants of the area. The resulting collaboration created a folk music tradition that spawned such genres as gospel, bluegrass, blues and country music.

To be honest, there aren’t many musicians these days exploring the artistic milieu that Mountain Soul showcases so nobly. On Mountain Soul, Aashid works alongside some of Nashville’s best – and most underrated – musicians, folks like Giles Reaves, fiddle wizard Tramp, and bassist Victor Wooten. Himons has created a mesmerizing song cycle that incorporates original songs written in the authentic signature of the hills as well as a handful of timeless classics. Aashid’s commanding baritone is perfectly suited to this material, whether singing a soulful, blues-infused cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child,” the mournful spiritualism of Rev. Gary Davis’ “You Got To Move,” or on originals like the moving “Stranger In Paradise” or with the talking blues and nifty guitar work on “The Crazy Blues.”

One of my personal favorites on Mountain Soul is “Mr. Bailey,” Aashid’s tribute to the first star of the Grand Ole Opry, harmonica wizard Deford Bailey. A talented and charismatic African-American musician from East Tennessee, Bailey’s lively performances popularized the Opry radio broadcast in the thirties and helped launched the careers of such country legends as Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe. Tragically, Bailey’s contributions to the Opry and American music have been forgotten. It has long been Aashid’s crusade to get Bailey his long-deserved place in the Country Music Hall of Fame, and this song is just another reminder of that glaring injustice.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Mountain Soul is definitely not an album for the casual user of music, requiring more than a three minute, radio-influenced and MTV-bred attention span. Although the album’s style and often simple instrumentation might not seem so upon first listen, these are frightfully complex songs – musically multi-layered and emotionally powerful. This is music as old as the earth itself, its origins in the blood and sweat and tears of the common people who created it.

With Mountain Soul, Aashid Himons has paid an honor to both the roots of all popular modern music and the forgotten artists who wrote it. Mountain Soul is an artistically and spiritually enriching listening experience, a musical trip through time that will clear the cobwebs out of your ears, rekindle the fire in your heart and remind you of the reasons you began to love music in the first place. (Gandibu Music, released 1998)