A Closer Listen
Are you lonesome tonight? The country tune was written in 1926 and revived in 1960 by Elvis Presley. In like manner, South London’s Lonesome village first appeared in the 19th century, was lost to the vagaries of time, and has now been revived by D. Rothon on this charming set.
One might say that the mini-CD, also known as the CD3″, is a lonesome format, in this case the perfect choice for the release. Forgotten by many but loved by a faithful few, the CD3″ has found new life on Clay Pipe Music, which sold out its first series and is now on its second. In like manner, the music of D. Rothon, like much of the label’s output, is pleasantly retro, a reminder of more bucolic times ~ even if they never existed. Using Omnichord, theremin and pedal steel, the artist plunges the listener into a technicolor soundtrack for a fraying 8mm film. One thinks of Ricky Nelson’s “Lonesome Town” (a place where lovers go to cry their troubles away) but then remembers that lonesome also means remote, desolate and unfrequented.
Once upon a time, the lavender fields of Mitcham graced Lonesome with a lovely scent. But then chemical, fireworks and gas mantle factories began to open, polluting the air. “A Waft of Lavender, a Tang of Sulphur” is mournful, slow and sad, its sweetness endangered by the oncoming breeze. Rothon’s late woodblock tries to perk up the residents, but it’s too late; they’ve already started to relocate. The flute offers a requiem. “Piggery Pokery” uses snare to suggest the onset of a new era in which industry would rule. The music slows in the mid-section, as if the extend the reverie as long as possible; but at the end, there is only snare, the last resident of the song.
“The Wagons Roll at Night” is the go-to track, beginning with a thunderstorm, signaling a shift in the weather, both physical and tonal. Mallet instruments hold the fort until drums descend and those wheels start to (rock and) roll. The Morricone feel is cemented by the theremin, riding into the sunset of the fade. The twinkling “Lammas Lands” emerges in its wake, like the stardust of memory, preserved by the “odd street and building name,” and now by this musical tribute.
Are you lonesome tonight? The village of Lonesome is here yet not-here, like a lost love, gone but not forgotten. (Richard Allen)
Thu Nov 23 00:01:27 GMT 2023