Grand & Failing
- J-Sin @ Smother.net
One thousand. That’s a number that’s going to be quite special in Tony Moreno’s illustrious career whose work as both a solo artist and as a member of Oregon’s Norfolk & Western is already quite accomplished. After his previous album “Leftovers From a Wake” was limited to a mere fifty copies on CD-R label Keep Recordings, which were hand-signed by him and obvious sold-out quite quickly, his follow-up effort “Grand & Falling” gets a massive boost and is limited to a dramatic leap to a thousand hand-numbered copies. Why the jump in numbers you ask? This tremendous folk artist pummels through fourteen of his most adventurous tracks to date with the type of intensity one rarely finds on a lo-fi indie folk album. Joining forces with Americana’s heart and indie folk’s genuine sensibility. In all true-to-life form, Tony Moreno escapes the trappings of the underground lo-fi scene with a record that whispers to the masses en route to groundbreaking textures not properly heard since the farm folk of the early 20th century amazingly re-postured in a timeless package of melodic storytelling.
- Jon @ Blue Mag
Norfolk & Western’s Tony Moreno picks up where he left off on his Leftovers From A Wake LP with Grand & Failing, his second release of sparse acoustic soundscapes, blended field recordings, and hushed vocals released this year. “Moving to California” opens with the disc with a stark tale of illness, poverty and the Great Depression laid on a bed of spartan acoustic guitar. “Raise the Birds” and “Great Train” are two of a number of organic, wordless meditations on Grand & Failing. The mix of acoustic guitars, vintage tremolo, and soft organs color this album as with Leftovers From A Wake, laying out a rustic, yet severe, folk landscape. Sounds congeal and take the shape of songs on the fragile “Longest Day” and “Driving By Moonlight”, the latter featuring the vocals of fellow Oregonian and KEEP Recordings artist Shelley Short. The movements towards songcraft, an obvious gift of Moreno’s, tend to make for the strongest and most resonant parts of the album. While the instrumental interludes and phantom field recordings set a tone of desolation, isolation, and regret, the more conventional songs on Grand & Failing provide the pathos. The roughly recorded “Longest Day Reprise” that closes the album replaces field recording stories with microphone bleed conversations and adds a warm piano to a scene that Moreno has, over the course of two LPs, vividly created for the listener.
- David Jenkins @ Americana UK
An album of folk backed spoken word that’s intent on raising a smile. Perhaps best known as a multi-instrumentalist in the breathtaking Portland, OR band Norfolk and Western, Tony Moreno has elected to fly the coop once more on this his second album proper. ‘Grand and Failing’ is an album of fond reminisces, casual contemplation and didn’t-we-all-used-to-be-crazy retrospection. Wistfully strummed folk is skilfully combined with archival interview/newsreel footage of eccentric Southerners, painting them all to be slightly mad. At a time when the Deep South and its inhabitants (one particular Commander in Chief springs to mind) are regarded with mild scorn for their belligerent and cocksure manner, these songs remain charmingly naïve. On first listen, one could be forgiven for dismissing the spoken word songs as poor taste, or on occasion, racist, but once Moreno slides us a knowing glance, the ironic textures become clear and the songs accumulate a doe-eyed warmth. Although the bulk of the tracks are instrumental, Moreno will occasionally grace us with his whispered vocal. His slightly off-kilter observations on the annals of Southern cultural history are similar in style to Will Oldham. Any intentional “mockery” is carried out lovingly so, and in a sense, proudly portrays a bygone (and perhaps imaginary) era when human error could easily be forgiven with a wry smile. Rose-tinted spectacles aside, ‘Tuesday Failing’ is a bitingly funny spiritual about “A man from Savannah, Georgia who would sell Watermelon” backed with ambling acoustic guitar and harmonica. Sadly, the album falters slightly during its closing phase as one gets the feeling Moreno falls in a circling pattern. There is also a nagging indecisiveness about the album as a whole, mainly due to the eclectic mixture of playing styles which makes it difficult to accept whether Moreno knew exactly where it was all going. There is no denying Moreno’s talent and ‘Grand and Failing’ proves that his best may be yet to come.
- David Jenkins @ Foxy Digitalis
Tony Moreno’s auspicious debut earlier this year, “Leftovers From a Wake,” was a subtly beautiful record. It was quiet and intimate. It told the story of a hundred ghosts who just wanted to be heard. Moreno’s ability to mix samples from interviews with his acoustic-based music is impressive to say the least. “Grand & Failing” is this Norfolk & Western member’s first CD release, and floats toward structure moreso than its predecessor. In a way, it’s sad to see the loose-leaf nature of “Leftovers From a Wake” put to rest, but it’s also good to see Moreno expanding as an artist.
“Grand & Failing” features his voice more than those of others. While the interview samples are still present, Moreno sings quite a bit here. The good news is that he has a good voice, and it’s hushed nature fits in very well with the music. These songs still have undercurrents of Appalachia running through them, but they seem less sparse than their “Leftovers” counterparts. I would never guess that Moreno composed and recorded these pieces in Portland, Oregon.
On tracks like “Longest Day” and “Driving By Moonlight,” Moreno uses his own words and voice to convey a message, rather than samples of someone else. He does this well, though I prefer when he just shuts up and lets some random stranger do all the hard work. “Driving By Moonlight” is vaguely reminiscent of Norfolk & Western, especially with the female background vocals. Layers of instrumentation keep this from becoming a boring, typical pop song. Moreno’s acoustic guitar work is, as always, impressive. “Longest Day” starts off strong with a background of murky piano notes and acoustic guitar plucks laid underneath various ambient sounds. It’s a beautiful mesh of the structured world Moreno is drifting towards these days and the more abstract nature that was prevalent on “Leftover From a Wake.” His haunting lyrics and vocals act like a search light, piercing through the haze of the music. It’s a hopeful song steeped in melancholy that feels like it will break under the pressure of bowed strings and pulsing bass. This is easily one of the album’s strongest moments.
But where Moreno truly shines, is when he takes a backseat to characters he’s unearthed on old interview tapes. This is his real specialty. Tracks like “Moving to California” and “Tuesday Failing” tell the stories of another time in another world. These voices of faceless people add so much life to these recordings that it’s almost overwhelming. Musically, these are once again based around Moreno’s wonderful acoustic guitar playing. Layers of harmonica and field recordings add to the organicness of them. Hearing the woman singing from her soul on the latter, and the story of Sherman Loop on the former and his family’s move to California will move the most hardcore cynics out there. Especially Loop, as his story is the tale of so many families that moved west in search of a better life. Moreno’s playing is sparse which allows the voice sample to breathe. This is perfectly done. This is the best song on “Grand & Failing” and is the right choice to open the record.
Tony Moreno continues making a name for himself outside of Norfolk & Western. As “Grand & Failing” proves, he is a unique voice. His compositions are minimal at times, but in the empty spaces he leaves, his songs really come alive. It’s a testament to his talent and songwriting ability. Honestly, I am far more excited about the next Tony Moreno album than I am the next one from Norfolk & Western. “Grand & Failing” is definitely a winning proposition.
- Caitlin @ IndieWorkshop
Tony Moreno has mixed a good, folksy stew with Grand & Failing. He’s used vintage-era recordings of men and women telling different tales while a soft piano or gentle guitar work plays throughout. “Moving to California,” has an older man explaining why he had to leave his home and the trials of the time while a quiet echo of guitar picking slowly crescendos. My favorite track is “The Fix.” Solely instrumental, the song enters with a twang-like twist and captures the feeling of an elderly Southerner tapping his foot to the steady beat. In fact, the majority of Grand & Failing gives off this old American nostalgia.
If you’re from the South, you’ll get the musical images right off the bat. Sad, drooping houses at sunset, small-town grins and country boy blues; this is what encapsulates the album. However, if you do not live in the land of two seasons, use your imagination and listen to Grand & Failing on a day during the Indian summer or after reading Mississippi’s William Faulkner. The soothing vocals on some of Moreno’s more ambient songs play like a humid, rainy afternoon while others carry a more upbeat mix of acoustic guitar and talk-recordings.
Moreno keeps to an indie-folk acoustic sound throughout while remaining unpredictable and original. Speaking of original, if you count yourself as one of the many who enjoy owning limited edition items, you’d better hurry up and buy one of the 1000 hand-numbered copies of this album. Even if the exclusivity isn’t alluring, definitely check this out. Like a good book, Grand & Failing never gets old.
- Georgiana Cohen @ Splendid
The Portland, Oregon music scene continues to dazzle with the breadth of talent hoarded in its leafy, well-read enclaves. Tony Moreno carries that torch on his second full-length CD (it’s his first available in a release wider than 50 copies, but it’s still limited to just 1,000). In these portraits of Americana, Moreno conveys both an awe and a weariness of the world around him. His songs are rich in content and context — elegantly framed narratives and landscapes that carry the songs with affecting, artful arrangements.
Opener “Moving to California” is a spoken word piece trailed over slow, winding guitar that tells the riveting story of a man who moved to the West Coast from Indiana for his health. An arthritic man’s lament becomes a microcosmic tale of the transcontinental migrant worker. In another spoken track, “Honeyhole Cliff”, a man engages the listener with the story of how the eponymous precipice got its name and reputation. In “Tuesday Failing”, Moreno experiments by meshing the spoken word with the sung, as a recording of a woman singing about selling watermelons in Georgia is followed by a phone conversation. On tracks like the plushly reverbed “Raise the Blinds”, and “Great Train”, with its meteorological assortment of accordion swells, percussive rumbles and boiling cymbals, the keenness of Moreno’s musicianship takes center stage. And when he takes the mic, his non-waking whisper yields the appropriate weight for the songs he sings, like the exhaustion he wisely bears on “Longest Day”.
One of the greatest things about Grand and Failing believe it or not, is its packaging. Keep Recordings has a tradition of releasing hand-numbered or hand-signed limited editions. My copy bears no inked inscription, but the packaging delights with its simplicity and ingenuity. Thin, recycled cardboard comprises a folder of sorts, with a liner notes card tucked into an inside pocket and the CD held in place by a nub glued to the opposite side. The printing on the front and back of the disc look as if the cover was hand-stamped or typeset, giving the disc an even homier feel.
But as great as the packaging is, don’t let it distract you from the shiny round thing inside — that’s pretty good, too.
- Matt Dornan @ Comes with a Smile Issue #16: AUTUMN 2004
Taking centre-stage for his second release on the desirable Keep Recordings, Tony Moreno make for the most reticent front man in music. Employing regukar Norfolk & Western associates Adam Selzer, Rachel Blumberg and David Welch, alongside the vocal support of Shelley Short, and assorted found recordings, multi-instrumentalist Moreno has a voice one could safely classify as restrained. Barely rising above a whisper, his narrative endeavors scarcely encroach on his charming, rustic mood pieces. The music of ‘Grand & Failing’ is even more subtle than that of N&W, as delicately assembled montages of tentatively picked guitars, bells, ambient creaks and whispers shift hazily into focus. The alternate version of “Driving By Moonlight”, heard on this issue’s cover mount – sung by Short – positively screams in comparison to the album’s hushed take. ‘Grand & Failing’ is as intrusive as crackling firewood, or the distant clatter of brass kitchenware signalling an imminent hearty meal.
- Matt Shimmer @ Indieville
Grand & Failing is the second solo offering from Norfolk & Western member Tony Moreno, following a successful, limited-to-50-copies debut CDR entitled Leftovers From A Wake. Continuing in the trend of combining historical themes with folk-based melodies, this album manages to outdo its predecessor, making for an extraordinarily touching collection of Americana-influenced soundscapes.
Tony Moreno’s focus here is on the guitar part, which gives this album its warm, cozy atmosphere. Though there are occasional vocals (“Not Quite Right,” “Driving By Moonlight”), the majority of the album is instrumental – with spoken word and field recordings filling out the rest of the space. The album begins with an interview about someone’s migration from Indiana to California way back when, in the vein of GYBE! (remember the Coney Island speech?) – though it has a stronger Americana element to it. Ultimately, guitars come into the equation, accompanying the spoken part. This formula is used a few times on Grand & Failing (“Honeyhole Cliff,” “Tuesday Failing”), giving the album context and establishing an interesting storytelling tone. The majority of the disc is simply instrumental guitar folk (think Fahey, but less experimental), though hushed singing sometimes enters into the equation.
Over the duration of these fourteen all-too-short tracks, Grand & Failing manages to be both low-key and touching. This album can be something you play in the background, or something you devote all your attention to. Either way, it’s a success.
Leftovers From A Wake
- Jeff @ Delusions of Adequacy
Tony Moreno, multi-instrumentalist for the Portland, Oregon band Norfolk & Western, has a number of other musical projects, including his solo efforts, which combine found recordings and soundscape-style instrumentation. On his latest collection, “Leftovers From A Wake”, Moreno brings to mind the rural American south on an album that flows as much like a work of historical literature as a novel.
There is something intangible but obvious that draws all 13 tracks here together, letting them flow as one cohesive work rather than a collection of songs. Moreno uses recordings of conversations and interviews as an intrinsic component of many of these tracks, weaving around these old-fashioned discussions soft guitar, keys, and other sounds. And even when there are no conversations, there are soft samples, hushed and atmospheric vocals, the sound of a guitar or a saw or synths, perhaps, all blending together into hushed and melancholic sounds.
The overall effect is like traveling back in time. Moreno includes enough of these conversations – about a church fiddle player or making moonshine or just the pleasures of laying in the sun in a pile of freshly raked leaves – to involve you with the character talking, but never draws them out to be boring. The tracks feel drawn together, but there’s enough change between them to keep the album fresh and interesting. It’s as if Moreno is telling a story without words, letting the interviewees do the speaking, letting his instruments paint the picture.
While each of these tracks has soft and melancholy music, most are instrumentals with samples and guitar. There are a few that feature Moreno’s vocals, however, and these tend to feel more like individual songs. “Blood Meridian,” for example, features Moreno’s plaintive vocals over acoustic guitar in what sounds like a small room, a shack perhaps, with the surrounding sounds drifting into the mix. There’s a country feel, soft and rather sweet, to “Far and Wide,” which gives it a very traditional feel. And Moreno almost whispers the vocals on the title track, making you strain for every word and every barely strummed guitar note or background sound.
” Leftovers From A Wake” is the first album from a small label with a unique approach. The idea behind KEEP Recordings is to make every release a keepsake. To that end, the albums are restricted to a run of 50, hand-numbered, hand-signed by the artist, and with unique, homemade packaging. this one comes in a hand-sewn fabric pouch. The pouch and old photos on the packaging add to the backwards-looking theme to this album, help give an old and sepia-toned tinge to the music inside. It’s an album that looks as pretty as it sounds. Highly recommended for lovers of carefully crafted music, melancholy soundscapes, and the Southern heritage.
- Rooney @ Blue Mag
Tony Moreno, a member of Portland’s Norfolk & Western, has released a curious recording called “Leftovers From A Wake” on KEEP Recordings, a label that specializes in releasing CD-R projects with handmade artwork in limited runs of 50 or 100. The CD opens with the voice of a seemingly older Southern man answering unknown questions. The voice and what it says immediately creates an association for the album: field recordings. Throughout the cd various voices, most with noticable drawls, tell stories about some nebulous small towns and times past. While the dialogue suggests some mythical, gothic South now somehow lost, the tone clearly takes precedence over the content. I never really tried to follow what was being said but rather zoned out and settled into a swampy daze. Soon sparse, meandering acoustic intrumentation begins to bubble underneath the dialogue. The music is vaguely rustic in a Dirty Three, Jim O’Rourke kind of way – acoustic guitar, organ, mild feedback and tape loops. On track 6, “Blood Meridian”, actual sung vocals appear for the first time. They’re vaguely Tweedian and sound as if they were recorded through a toy microphone into a cheap boombox. Far away and desperate, the lyrics are pretty much indecipherable. Afterwards, soothing parachoial mumbling returns for most of the remaining tracks (I hesitate to call them songs, in any traditional sense).
“Leftovers From A Wake” is a rich, perplexing recording. It’s both self-indulgent and painfully sparse, textured and layered yet largely inaccessible. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to like about this record if you accept the challenge and the richness laid out by Moreno’s ambition. It’s plodding, contemplative nature creates a soothing, droney trance of Harry Smith-esque Americana. It’s searching and organic, if not chock full of pop hooks.
- Brad @ Foxy Digitalis
“This story, I think like many stories, is partially true and partially fantasy” begins the interview sample on “Phantom Houses” from Tony Moreno’s “Leftovers From a Wake.” This is an excellent summation of what this album is to me. It’s a little bit of reality, and it’s a little bit of a dream. Moreno is a member of Portland-based Norfolk & Western, and this is his first solo album. It’s full of sound bites from different interviews of everyday people and rich, warm textures. Acoustic guitars are the main weapon in creating this portrait of a Northern small town and the different samples are like ghosts; they haunt this album and bring it to life at the same time. It’s a beautiful, if sad, dichotomy of simple places in simple times.
“To me, I like living just where I am” relays the voice that opens the album. This is a voice that could be your grandfather telling you he loves where he lives. I can’t help but picture a small log cabin in Vermont, with this old man sitting in his rocking chair, peering out the window as snow blankets his property. This vision carries into “Waiting Simplified” seamlessly as more spirits clutter the landscape. Delicate piano plucking highlights a woman talking about learning to drive after the war.
The voices scattered amongst the disjointed compositions are the real treasures here. Each voice tells a different story; it captures an era that seems long forgotten. Moreno provides the perfect backdrop for the characters to be reborn. As the child in “Drive the Nail” shows off his different animal calls and whistles (a frog, a freight train, a chicken, a turkey, and a dog), the music moves along sleepily underneath. Quiet, melodic notes on an acoustic guitar are backed by a simple drum beat, and together they feel like a lazy walk around a secluded pond. Crisp air coats your lungs as you skip rocks with the girl next door. It makes me want to visit Mississippi. Moreno makes the South feel so inviting.The interview samples aren’t the only vocals on the album. Moreno lends his voice to a few choice songs like the languid “Blood Meridian.” His use of ambient sounds likes doors opening and floors creaking doesn’t distract from the music, they enhance it. It gives the feeling that he’s playing it in the room. One of my favorite effects he uses on this track is the doubled, whispered vocals, with a higher pitched, more painful vocal track laid on top. It’s chilling.
On “I Had a Time,” he paints the portrait of an old Victorian home, long abandoned and run down. Imagine taking a tour of the grounds and hearing the remnants of strained pianos and soft guitars of an outdoor get-together a hundred years ago. There’s so much history here, and you swear you can hear the sun setting on everyone as they clutch each other to keep warm. Two men discuss the illegality and merits of sharecropping on “Saturdays” while Moreno lays an electronic beat underneath. It’s a dramatic contrast, but works out well. “Far and Wide” is the most straightforward song on the album. It has a typical acoustic guitar, bass, and light percussion rhythm section, with Moreno’s voice quietly highlighting the end. This is a song of hope, and a song that promises you that these ghosts aren’t here to hurt you, they just want to tell you their story.
It’s not easy to incorporate both sound bites from interviews and different sound effects into an album and still keep it cohesive. Moreno does a brilliant job of keeping this album together. His grasp of warmth and texture to paint pictures through music is impressive, and he knows when to use his voice and when to shut up. There are so many nuances here that it can almost be overwhelming. You feel like you’re peering into the souls of these people and they are completely unaware of it. It’s almost uncomfortable, but at the same time you feel like they’re your family; you feel like you’ve know these people your entire life.
- Brett @ Splendid
Tony Moreno, of Norfolk & Western fame has assembled a terrific collection of atmospheric pieces carefully assembled around fascinating found sound recordings, which run the gamut from the elderly reminiscing about their youthful experiences with music, to the retelling of rural ghost stories, to weirdly exotic bird calls. While many albums have employed found sound recordings as an added flavor in their musical offerings, Moreno seems to be constructing fragile acoustic homes where these unknown people’s stories can spread out and find their footing. Several of Leftovers’ tracks make little or no use of found sound (and a few are fairly straight-ahead slo-core vocal offerings), but Moreno’s willingness to share the stage with these surprisingly revelatory snatches of other people’s lives makes the album a rare treasure.
On an album filled with amazing musical and human moments, what is the most arresting? “Saturday” makes as strong a case as any. It opens with a description of the tuning of a mandolin, taken from a 1939 archival recording of American folk songs. Abruptly, a more modern-sounding recording interjects. An African-American man, apparently describing family history to his own relatives, details the real-life struggles of his ancestors (who were apparently brought north to work in coal mines), whose story was fictionalized in the John Sayles film Matewan. These two recordings, each of which says something profound about twentieth-century rural American history, are underpinned by barely-there bass and electric guitar figures, a simple rhythm track and hints of feedback. The music serves to anchor the pieces, adding to their already-considerable resonance without grandstanding.
Each track on Leftovers From A Wake, whether standard vocal/instrumental ballad, gentle instrumental meditation or musical/found sound hybrid, is a fully realized exploration of meaningfully American themes. As if the disc needed another layer of uniqueness and resonance, the pressing of this remarkable album is limited to 50 hand-signed, numbered copies, available from Keep Recordings. Oh, and all of this goodness can be yours for six dollars. If you have any interest in the transportive effect of gentle, well-made music, you should buy one while you can.
- Matt @ Indieville
Tony Moreno’s Leftovers from a Wake is by no means a “pop” record, although it is no stranger to accessibility. The first disc on the newly formed Keep Recordings imprint [dedicated to limited editions of around 50 copies each,] it is a folk-influenced experiment in instrumental soundscapery and spoken word storytelling. Throughout the album’s thirteen tracks, Moreno combines historical interviews with guitar and electronic accompaniment. The results are very moody and often heartwarming, blending modern textures with archaic themes.
While Leftovers from a Wake may face a limited fanbase due to a lack of “single”-calibre compositions, it isn’t the type of album that can be considered flat-out boring. Moreno’s guitar playing is inspired and dramatic; this is especially evident on folkscapes like “Hole the Size of My Heart” and “Saturdays,” as well as straightforward acoustic folk numbers “Blood Meridian” and “Leftovers from a Wake.”
Overall, Tony Moreno’s album is a great accomplishment – while it’s largely a full-length soundscape, the inclusion of many accessible guitar melodies and a few delightfully sorrowful folk ballads will warrant repeated listens. As a whole, this is a tremendously pleasant homemade release – its artwork is beautiful, and the music itself is no different.