Funzalo
2004
These Chains
About This Album
On These Chains, renowned instrumentalist Tony Furtado has turned the tables on his own career. Long heralded as one of the finest banjoists progressive bluegrass ever spawned, and highly regarded for his inventive, dizzying, slide guitar playing as well, he's added "singer/songwriter" to his resume on this set. Sure, he's written songs before, and he's no stranger to singing. But until now, Furtado has been regarded primarily as an instrumentalist who indulged other muses. Furtado wrote nine of the 13 tracks here, and collaborated on three others. In addition, there is only one instrumental on the record. Producer and bassist Dusty Wakeman (Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam) assembled a smoking band for the sessions, including drummer Jim Christie, Skip Edwards on keyboards, drummer/percussionist Michael Tempo of the Bonedaddys, and Williams' guitarist Doug Pettibone. Vocalist Gia Ciambotti from Badly Drawn Boy adds backing touches here, as do Kat Maslich and Peter Adams from Eastmountainsouth. The number of styles here is dizzying. The set opens with the title track, a burning electric blues rocker. The cut time shuffle and snarling blend of electric and acoustic guitars underscores the protagonist's tale of terror and darkness.
Track List (try tracks 3,4,9 and 13)

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