Description
Ten Silver Slide Trombones is a solo album by the American singer and songwriter Don Peris of The Innocence Mission, independently released on Umbrella Day Records in 2001. All songs written by Don Peris.
Don Peris provides vocals as well as all instrumentation: acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, organ, bass, and drums.
Now, it REALLY would have been interesting if they had just called this the new Innocence Mission album. Really, that’s what it is, in style and in sound. But this time Don Peris is doing the singing AND the playing. Sure, his wife Karen has one of the most gorgeous and haunting voices you’ve ever heard. But this album hints that Don is contributing more than just strumming and solos to previous efforts… the melodies he sings sound suspiciously similar to those Karen has so beautifully sung over the years.
Maybe you’ve never heard of The Innocence Mission. If you haven’t, it’s time to discover them. Start with their second album Umbrella and proceed through Glow and Birds of My Neighborhood. (Then go back and check out their self-titled debut, where they were playing with a more commercial rock sound and hadn’t yet discovered their lush, signature ambiance.) I find myself continually drawn to imagery of candlelight, cathedrals, fireside singalongs… places where music is offered as a personal gift, as a raw and vulnerable thing.
The same can be said of Ten Silver Slide Trombones, Don’s first solo effort. Here we have 12 slow, simple, and slightly sad compositions rich with references to friends who have moved away, joy-filled memories, and the sustaining power of unconditional love. There are also songs about and for the God that the Innocence Mission has so uniquely, intimately, and unashamedly exalted in their music. Never stooping to the clichés of Christian contemporary music, they have developed a quiet, seemingly private dialogue with their creator in their personal book of psalms. The sacred music they explored in their little-known album Christ is My Hope seems to have set the tone for this project as well.
The nicest surprise of the album is that Don’s voice is more than adequate to the challenge. There’s a bit of Art Garfunkel in his gentle touch, and a bit of the Neil Young you hear on Harvest Moon and Silver and Gold; I could easily hear Neil trying a version of «Firefly» someday. And «Catherine-Anne» has an echo or two of «The Sound of Silence».
His lyrics seem simple at first, but they deserve close attention; they’re not just journal entries. These personal accounts and letters will speak to your own stories, your own regrets, your own longings. They will make you want to call up old friends and rekindle neglected relationships. (The song «Ten Silver Slide Trombones» about a friend of his from California made me call up a good friend in Alaska, my own trombone-playing buddy who I hadn’t seen in awhile.)
During the hushed assurances of «Anytime», you can see the nursery lamp on, see Proud Daddy brushing some hair from the baby’s face, singing “Your parents love you/ Sweet Jesus loves you… there are shoulders that can carry you… anytime at all.” A child couldn’t ask for a better lullaby. In the very next song, Peris is no longer the comforting parent, but the struggling child, calling out to Daddy Upstairs, “Help me out, help me out of this/ I’m down in a hole, I’m stuck in my life/ I’m falling apart…” And he’s not afraid to call specifically for the one who understands. “Jesus Christ, you know…” I’m not sure if he says “you know” because he’s reminding himself of the Shepherd, or if he’s saying directly to Jesus “You know what this is like.” Either way, it works.
If the album needs anything, it might be a more varied pace. Peris is so good at the slow and ambient melancholy sound, he runs the risk of luring us into a deep and peaceful sleep. Hopefully next time out, he’ll share some of the higher energy, contagiously exuberant sounds he’s cooked up with the band in the past.
Still, that’s not a complaint; merely a suggestion. The more I listen to this, like other Peris projects, the more these songs creep into my memory, ministering with quiet skill to my spirit. The world has enough rock bands. What the world needs now is more music like the stuff the Perises do. Their still small voices encourage and reassure us that, yes, we leave good things behind, but the memories are treasures in themselves, and the future is full of glorious surprise.
If we’re lucky, the future will bring plenty more of The Innocence Mission, and plenty more solo projects from Mr. Peris himself. I need more of this in my life. [Jeffrey Overstreet, The Phantom Tollbooth, 7/12/2001]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/ten-silver-slide-trombones/1604363113)
CD tracklist:
01. Spin – 3:45
02. Firefly – 4:07
03. Catherine-Anne – 2:42
04. Your Friend – 4:21
05. Butterfly – 2:48
06. Ten Silver Slide Trombones – 2:42
07. Anytime At All – 2:07
08. Help Me Out – 2:55
09. Banjos And Trampolines – 3:49
10. Pennsylvania – 4:32
11. Clement – 2:56
12. Far Or Near – 1:56
Note: The album was remastered in 2021 and re-issued on CD featuring a bonus track (“Blossom of May”) as well as new cover artwork by Karen Peris. Available at Bandcamp: https://theinnocencemission.bandcamp.com/album/ten-silver-slide-trombones-remastered-don-peris
Don Peris – Ten Silver Slide Trombones, 2021 re-issue
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