Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile
Sony Classical, 2011
Sunlight streams through the windows of the barn-turned-recording studio set back in the Western Massachusetts woods. The quartet of musicians is in tight formation, not much farther apart than if they were sitting around a kitchen table. The music that’s emanating from the four sets of strings feels both new and familiar. It is composed and improvised, uptown and down-home, funky and pastoral—and uniquely American.
Though these players are among the finest in the world, the songs they are recording are challenging. Multiple conversations break out between takes, all frequently interrupted by laughter, trying to work out how best to navigate a tricky passage. “Well,” says one of the quartet, “this is the magic that makes it a goat rodeo.”
The definition of goat rodeo is a chaotic, unmanageable situation. A situation that order cannot be brought to at any time. It’s a slang term for something going totally, unbelievably, disastrously wrong.
Isn’t it refreshing to hear world-class musicians angling their gifts in creative ways? Each of these artists has recorded multiple, award-winning albums within the genres of their expertise. For this project, they’ve gathered to innovate, and the resulting art is folk, classical, and jazz, all at once. Quiet, thoughtful passages are followed by rousing revolution. It is music unlike any that has come before. Listeners may want to laugh, cry, dance, and, ultimately, give in.
Once in a long while, my life feels too neatly ordered. I listen to this album as a reminder that chaos can be beautiful.
What do you listen to when you’re ready to trade tidy for unruly?
(Click here to listen to National Public Radio’s “Tiny Desk Concert” featuring artists from The Goat Rodeo Sessions.)
