Gove Scrivenor
Shady Grove

Observe how our decision to purchase an album is made, especially if one is not an expert music lover ready to navigate the many influences from TV, radio, web, and newspapers. This intrusiveness, which began decades ago when the web didn't yet exist, has recently become unbearable with the same through media and social networks, since they alone impose and keep an artist or album alive, or any artistic or intellectual form, no longer the feelings and sensations of us consumers, nor the choices or the state of the art of those who created them, but rather, in the case of music, especially that of the very young, it is increasingly the record companies, and their interference in managing talent shows.

Unlike our country, where to succeed you necessarily need to know some sponsor, and it is impossible, starting from small realities, to freely express your talent, in the States, despite many contrasts, the American dream still exists, where it is possible to bring forth true Musicians from nothing based on their merits; always referring to the music of that country, there are small and appreciated independent record labels to whom the credit goes for discovering first-rate Artists.

With the hope that one day even in Italy sincere and authentic choices can be made, in our case musical and artistic, because perhaps this possibility still exists under the radar, and continues to exist even when we neglect it; it would suffice to enhance those small local contexts where it is possible to freely create, imagine, learn, teach, promote, listen, and play music with a capital M, without necessarily submitting to those who instead only do business, without putting in soul or talent.

Let us be content with what occasionally comes from that other shore (States, Canada), where sometimes new valuable Musicians are still born from small realities, as in the case of someone between a freak and a solitary loner like Gove Scrivenor, and his splendid album, unknown to most, Shady Grove, produced in 1976 by the little-known Flyng Fish Records, one of the independent record labels I mentioned earlier, which I discovered in the early '80s thanks to a specialist magazine of the time, ones that still continue to produce new talents, should there still be anyone in this world made only of business.

Completely different from those circulating in those times, this Artist was a real discovery for me, a virtuosic and quirky multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, fun and amused, halfway between blues, folk, and country music, all to discover, because his is sincere and genuine Art made of small songs; particularly this beautiful album, where musicians like Doc Watson, John Hartford, and Buddy Emmons participate amicably, which includes not only his songs but also classics, embellished by his unique style; it is an exceptional and lively album, where he expresses, in a lively way, his peculiarities as an exuberant, vibrant, and life-enthusiastic person, completely out of the usual schemes, hidden from the recording business; here there are no genres or labels to refer to because music is beautiful without the need to catalog it, it is a beautiful album, of which, without prolonging further, it should be noted some small timeless masterpieces, such as (for example) the classic Sugar Babe and the traditional Cocaine Blues, where he himself sings with his particular, hoarse and powerful voice, and plays acoustic guitar, slide guitar, and autoharp, which is not exactly a harp, but a variant of the Austrian Zither, close to the dulcimer, which is used in the Appalachian mountains region to accompany folk music and bluegrass.

If you don't know Gove Scrivenor yet, once you find this rare Shady Grove on the web, listen to it because he plays beautiful music, this might be the right occasion to get to know him…