Cory Seznec
@coryseznec
Photos
About Cory Seznec
New album "Backroad Carnival" (2017)
Attention, discovery! Never has world music so widely disseminated music styles from so many origins to produce hybrid sounds as now. Here is a fine example, thanks to a Franco-American multi-instrumentalist who mixes old blues, contemporary folk, rock, Nola funk, Congolese rumba, Abyssinian swing “chucked in my own gumbo to see what new flavors emerge.” A virtuoso instrumentalist, Cory Seznec is an incisive and subtle lyricist. Every musical scene he creates seems to stem from organic sources, whether with the instant hit Sell You My Soul, or Hawk on Haystack, where banjo, calabash, and pedal steel evoke a Trinidadian steel band! An amazing cocktail and one of the most original and exciting albums we have heard in a long time. -Jean-Pierre Bruneau, Soulbag, Juillet/Aout 2017.
Much more than a casual appropriator of cultural tropes, Seznec is an artist whose work locates the commonality in diverse musical cultures and whose guitar playing connects the past and present. Anyone on an errant’s quest to find the rightful heir to the Ry Cooder slide-guitar globetrotter mantle should start here. -Steve Hunt, fRoots, November 2017.
Seznec’s supporting cast (bass, drums, harmonica, and guitar) is excellent and he himself reinforces his reputation as one of the finest ‘world’ musicians out there on this superb set. -Jeremy Searle, RnR Magazine, July/August 2017. Read the 4 star review in English here.
Undoubtedly one of the most fascinating albums of the year. –Dani Heyvaert, Rootstime (Belgium). Read the review in Dutch here.
Reviews of "Beauty In The Dirt" (2014)
A debut solo album of original and traditional songs that merge old-time and country blues with off-beat African grooves to create a distinct new-folk sound.
Rough diamonds of African-tinged country blues… The title track has Afrobeat-style high guitar riffs, with earthy ngoni interjections played by Seznec (whose banjo picking is equally pert), which somehow seamlessly weave with the southern blues of the song’s main melody. The instrumentals that provide the album’s framework are a laid back mélange of Malian-style blues and rustling percussion. It’s a subtle and fresh type of fusion and one that is further boosted by Seznec’s voice, a dextrous, resonant drawl that brings out the colour of his songs. The New Orleans flavour of the purely country and blues tracks, such as the speed-pop of ‘East Virginia’ or the raunchy, electric ‘Build Me A Weapon’, hold as much appeal as Seznec’s more experimental concoctions. This more than the sum of its parts.
-Tim Woodall, Songlines, October 2014.
Music that sits somewhere just outside the bluegrass-blues-folk-country-world music time-stream, dipping its toe in all of them, sometimes in the same song, creating whirls and eddies of gloriously natural and earthy traditional music…Beauty In The Dirt is the bastard offspring of a creole-swamp style that Alan Lomax would have loved and which would have graced Robert Crumb’s cartoon archive of American musical origins…You could be excused for not knowing where you are by the time the record finishes, but this is so good and the joins between styles so seamless that it’s best to remember that it’s the journey, not the destination that matters. Excellent.
-Paul Woodgate, Folkradio.co.uk, May 20, 2014.
These are new songs drawn from deep wells, incorporating styles, themes (and occasional floating lyrics) from familiar American folk song sources and casting them into something fresh and distinctive as, for example, in the beautiful combination of banjo and calabash on East Virginia or the Appalachian ngoni deployed on Crab On The Line. Gospel, jazz, blues, early country and (not least) a terrific melodic pop sensibility are all evident at various points on this album’s path, while the recurring short Malian and Congolese-influenced acoustic guitar instrumentals Southern Bound (I-IV) provide welcome signposts and rests for the intrepid sonic traveller.
Happily, all this cross-continental cross-referencing is executed without ever sounding like a square peg being bashed into a round hole. This isn’t some worthy-but-dull project album, but rather the work of a virtuoso musician and gifted songsmith doing what comes naturally. While Ry Cooder comparisons are the most apposite, there’s also something in the joyous lightness of touch here that evokes American Beauty-era Grateful Dead at their most beatific, while anyone who bought Martin Simpson’s Vagrant Stanzas will find much to appreciate here too.
-Steve Hunt, fRoots , June/July 2014.
Attention, discovery! Never has world music so widely disseminated music styles from so many origins to produce hybrid sounds as now. Here is a fine example, thanks to a Franco-American multi-instrumentalist who mixes old blues, contemporary folk, rock, Nola funk, Congolese rumba, Abyssinian swing “chucked in my own gumbo to see what new flavors emerge.” A virtuoso instrumentalist, Cory Seznec is an incisive and subtle lyricist. Every musical scene he creates seems to stem from organic sources, whether with the instant hit Sell You My Soul, or Hawk on Haystack, where banjo, calabash, and pedal steel evoke a Trinidadian steel band! An amazing cocktail and one of the most original and exciting albums we have heard in a long time. -Jean-Pierre Bruneau, Soulbag, Juillet/Aout 2017.
Much more than a casual appropriator of cultural tropes, Seznec is an artist whose work locates the commonality in diverse musical cultures and whose guitar playing connects the past and present. Anyone on an errant’s quest to find the rightful heir to the Ry Cooder slide-guitar globetrotter mantle should start here. -Steve Hunt, fRoots, November 2017.
Seznec’s supporting cast (bass, drums, harmonica, and guitar) is excellent and he himself reinforces his reputation as one of the finest ‘world’ musicians out there on this superb set. -Jeremy Searle, RnR Magazine, July/August 2017. Read the 4 star review in English here.
Undoubtedly one of the most fascinating albums of the year. –Dani Heyvaert, Rootstime (Belgium). Read the review in Dutch here.
Reviews of "Beauty In The Dirt" (2014)
A debut solo album of original and traditional songs that merge old-time and country blues with off-beat African grooves to create a distinct new-folk sound.
Rough diamonds of African-tinged country blues… The title track has Afrobeat-style high guitar riffs, with earthy ngoni interjections played by Seznec (whose banjo picking is equally pert), which somehow seamlessly weave with the southern blues of the song’s main melody. The instrumentals that provide the album’s framework are a laid back mélange of Malian-style blues and rustling percussion. It’s a subtle and fresh type of fusion and one that is further boosted by Seznec’s voice, a dextrous, resonant drawl that brings out the colour of his songs. The New Orleans flavour of the purely country and blues tracks, such as the speed-pop of ‘East Virginia’ or the raunchy, electric ‘Build Me A Weapon’, hold as much appeal as Seznec’s more experimental concoctions. This more than the sum of its parts.
-Tim Woodall, Songlines, October 2014.
Music that sits somewhere just outside the bluegrass-blues-folk-country-world music time-stream, dipping its toe in all of them, sometimes in the same song, creating whirls and eddies of gloriously natural and earthy traditional music…Beauty In The Dirt is the bastard offspring of a creole-swamp style that Alan Lomax would have loved and which would have graced Robert Crumb’s cartoon archive of American musical origins…You could be excused for not knowing where you are by the time the record finishes, but this is so good and the joins between styles so seamless that it’s best to remember that it’s the journey, not the destination that matters. Excellent.
-Paul Woodgate, Folkradio.co.uk, May 20, 2014.
These are new songs drawn from deep wells, incorporating styles, themes (and occasional floating lyrics) from familiar American folk song sources and casting them into something fresh and distinctive as, for example, in the beautiful combination of banjo and calabash on East Virginia or the Appalachian ngoni deployed on Crab On The Line. Gospel, jazz, blues, early country and (not least) a terrific melodic pop sensibility are all evident at various points on this album’s path, while the recurring short Malian and Congolese-influenced acoustic guitar instrumentals Southern Bound (I-IV) provide welcome signposts and rests for the intrepid sonic traveller.
Happily, all this cross-continental cross-referencing is executed without ever sounding like a square peg being bashed into a round hole. This isn’t some worthy-but-dull project album, but rather the work of a virtuoso musician and gifted songsmith doing what comes naturally. While Ry Cooder comparisons are the most apposite, there’s also something in the joyous lightness of touch here that evokes American Beauty-era Grateful Dead at their most beatific, while anyone who bought Martin Simpson’s Vagrant Stanzas will find much to appreciate here too.
-Steve Hunt, fRoots , June/July 2014.
