Alcorn, Susan – “Curandera ” – [Majmua Music]

The pedal steel, rightly or wrongly, is so closely associated with Country Western music that any explorations outside that genre are inevitably colored by the association. But a few brave souls have escaped the shackles of the honky tonks by moving the pedal steel to another space entirely…Susan Alcorn does so here with unaccompanied improvs and variations on standards — both country and otherwise. She clearly has the skills required on this difficult-to-master instrument, but she applies them in such a way that you might instead be reminded of Fred Frith’s experiments with tapping and spare parts, rather than the wide open spaces evoked by the pedal steel on a million country classics. Even the few “songs” here are just signposts to improv journeys, rather than faithful navigations of melody and chord sequences. Fans of other pedal steel outsiders like B.J. Cole will find this a challenging road out of the country and into uncharted territories. (crimes)