I can’t necessarily say this sounds like a band (i.e. You knew Stevie would be #1, right? I mean, come on. ġ ) Stevie Wonder: “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)”
And some people are eligible but just got bumped out of the top 10 by others (sorry Dave Grohl and Lindsey Buckingham and Nicholas Payton and others). I’ve also stayed away from the “Youtube One Man Band” phenomenon, hence the omission of ridiculous talents like Giulio Carmassi and Jacob Collier. So if there are only two instruments (sorry Eddie Harris – I love your piano/saxophone duets), if the instruments are all in the same “family” (sorry Pat Metheny – I love your bazillion-guitar textures ditto Bobby McFerrin and others with one-person a cappella excursions) or if there is (sorry Andre 3000 – if you had played the bass part on “Hey Ya,” you’d be here) then the track isn’t eligible. In other words, from a process standpoint, I can see the appeal, even though there are obvious benefits to having a real guitarist, drummer, singer and so on.Īs I feel the itch increasing to mess around more with this (a couple years removed from my last wave of such activities), I find myself reflecting on some of my favorite examples.īefore we get to the list, here are the ground rules for inclusion: there have to be at least 3 instruments (voice does count as one), those instruments have to represent at least 2 distinct categories (keyboards/electronics, stringed instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments) and the recordings have to be the work of one man or woman alone. Rest assured that I would never venture to try to make a jazz recording myself, but the semi-closeted singer-songwriter in me loves having that level of input into the product, even though the results are borne of all the things with which I have limited proficiency. Though I’m long overdue for a technology upgrade, I secretly (oops, secret revealed) love creating songs this way. At their best, though, these songs not only avoid these pitfalls but also display as close as one can reasonably get to an unfiltered view of the sounds going through that artist’s own head. Indeed, at their worst, songs recorded in this manner sound artificial, not to mention wonky due to the virtual inevitability of the artist having limited proficiency on at least one of the instruments. As my friend and colleague Dave Kopperman (himself an underappreciated master of this approach) has pointed out, there is the potential for the results to have a synthetic quality. The albums released under the PPJ name have increased in quality each time out, beginning with 2006’s self-titled debut, and all the way to 2014’s widely-acclaimed There Will Be Nights When I’m Lonely.I have long been fascinated with music that was recorded by a single person. The mix of roots and emotional electricity at a Possessed by Paul James show is akin to a live electric socket missing its cover as stripped wires spark with flickers of enthralling danger. Indeed, whether Wert is percussively stomping on an old wooden box, sawing a dusty fiddle, picking a banjo, or yelping a song as his head bobs and weaves from a seated position, fans are never under the impression they are seeing and hearing something of this earthly realm. And until very recently, he worked as a full-time school teacher while perform live on the side. Konrad Wert came up with the Possessed by Paul James moniker as a way to channel the spirits of his late grandfather, Paul, and his father, James. Some of these may take a member or two on the road with them occasionally, but it’s when the artist creates alone that the one-man band magic undeniably reveals itself in a gut-tugging, rib-wrenching fashion. While some of the more ambitious artists of this ilk manage to command control over a number of instruments-both acoustic and plugged-in-others are able to give a plucky banjo and some dramatic boot-stomps the feel of a surging power trio.
Thankfully, there are plenty of acts that fit well into a rustic, gritty middle ground between such extremes. Depending on who you ask, the one-man band might be defined as a carnival worker stacking as many instruments as possible onto his back and squeaking and squealing as much as possible, or it may more simply be comprised of a single, overly-earnest artist and a humble guitar. The one-man band is a curious, nebulous concept.
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