Hidden Headspace of the Heartland

In Episode 46 of the Right Brain Music Podcast we explore a part of the world that is often neglected: the Heartland of the U.S. Better known for soybeans, wheat and corn fields, the Midwest is also home to some phenomenal musicians. We meet three of them and hear lots of their original material.

They are guitarists Scot Ray of Iowa, Cole Kempcke of Nebraska and Max Ridgway of Oklahoma. Each of them has released new music that expands the boundaries of the guitar, if not the map. Flyover? Not a chance.

We start with Scot Ray. Formerly from LA and Montana, he recently relocated to a small town near the Minnesota border. Scot has recorded with the Low Mids, a group we spoke with in Episode 28. He also contributed to the Right Brain Records compilation album Gitaristo Futura. Scot spent the early part of his music career as a trombonist, and brought that sliding sensibility to the steel guitar. He has recorded extensively. Two simultaneously released  albums, titled Chromium 24 and Germanium 32, reveal the wide range of his creativity.

I happened to listen to the Germanium album first. This a collection of “multibender slide fuzz ruminations.” Feeding his instrument through a fuzz box, Scot uses sound and open space masterfully. His own words capture it well: “shadows and howl, the visceral cry. Light shining through smog.”

Expecting something similar, my head turned as soon as I hit play on Chromium. In sharp contrast, this blues- and world music-tinged acoustic record evokes someone experimenting on their front porch on a hazy summer evening. Using a resonator guitar and a variety of objects, including chrome balls, he forges a unique mini-world of prepared guitar sounds, which he filmed. (See his video here.)

Chromium and Germanium are heavy metals, and thus offer a nice segue to our next featured guest, Cole Kempcke. From his home in Omaha, he brewed and released his first record last yea. It’s called The Cole Kempcke Experiment. Filled with original instrumental pieces, the album highlights his astonishing versatility. So different were the styles from one track to the next that I had to check the credits to confirm – yes, this is all the same lead guitarist.

The music here ranges from prog rock to jazz fusion to metal, and Cole leaps effortlessly between these domains. His age – 22 when he recorded this – is no asterisk. He’s a top tier player, period. But that’s not what’s great about this album: it’s a cohesive, smartly produced, always surprising journey through the mind of an emerging artist. We also hear an incendiary clip from Cole’s new album Death in Motion.

Our next stop is Alva, Oklahoma, just south of Kansas, where we meet up with teacher, author and improviser Max Ridgway. He’s another uber-versatile musician who is constantly testing his own boundaries. Max contributed to the Right Brain Records album Guitar Improv Summit Vol. 2, several years ago. His voice appears in Episode 26 of this podcast.

His original music is too diverse to pigeonhole, but we’re focusing on two strands here. The first is a solo project called Zero: The Music of Nothingness. This is a set of meditative guitar-generated soundscapes. Unlike a lot of “mood music,” Zero is filled with compositional nuance.

Max has also collaborated with many musicians. One of them is Michael Unruh. The two of them recorded The Spacetime of Dreams, a freely improvised record that unselfconsciously fuses acoustic and electronically generated sounds.

A playlist from this episode follows, where you can link to learn more and support these Midwestern maestros.

1. Scot Ray - "Thermal Drift" from Germanium 32

2. Scott Ray - "Chromium 24"  from Chromium 24

3. Scott Ray - "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" from Chromium 24

4. Scot Ray - "Atomic Number 32" from Germanium 32

5. Scot Ray - "Snoddy" from Germanium 32

6. Scott Ray - "Perpetual Motion"  from Chromium 24

7. Cole Kempcke - "Intro" from The Cole Kempcke Experiment

8. Cole Kempcke - "King Kong Lives!" from The Cole Kempcke Experiment

9. Cole Kempcke - "Pick Up the Phone" from The Cole Kempcke Experiment

10. Cole Kempcke - "Inside the Sphere" from The Cole Kempcke Experiment

11. Cole Kempcke - "The End of Dreams" from The Cole Kempcke Experiment

12. Max Ridgway - "Sunkenkirk" from Zero: The Music of Nothingness

13. Max Ridgway - "Saṃsāra" from Zero: The Music of Nothingness

14. Max Ridgway and Michael Unruh  "Part Four" from The Spacetime of Dreams

15. Cole Kempcke - "Liquefactive Necrosis" from Death in Motion

Additional note: The name of guitarist Nels Cline came up twice in this episode. So, we should mention that Nels appears on a recent RBR album, In Absentia by Wayne Horvitz and collaborators. Check out the track “Room With a View.”

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