Pandora Sessions, Robert Connely Farr’s latest effort, was inspired by his mentorship under elder statesmen of the blues in his home state of Mississippi. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes has been guiding Farr in the Bentonia Style of the Delta Blues, and he’s also learned directly from Mississippi Bluesmen RL Boyce and Terry Harmonica Bean.
Of the album, Farr tells me, “We let the songs come to us as opposed to writing them (most of them) first, and we recorded those first takes. The cover image itself was taken down at my dad’s shop at home on the place – a gurney, a stool, and a rope. Lots of these songs are about hurting or dying or trains to nowhere. All in all there’s a darkness to this album that is very real in our lives.”
Premiering on American Blues Scene is the video for “Oh Lord.” A master stroke of lyrical economy, with guitar and vocals that beautifully underscore the blue devils of a weary soul, this important slice of Delta is a prayer during hard times.
His drummer and musical co-conspirator on this album and for the last 15 years, Jay Bundy Johnson, made the video. “(He) pretty much did everything you hear and see. He happened upon the Prelinger Archives online awhile back, and Jay – who’s a respected art teacher and kinetic sculptor – he’s been making our videos from these archives for a while now.” The Depression-era footage, insightfully dovetailing with the song’s meaning, is fitting for the state of the world today and “the hardships that we may feel and finding a way through that,” Farr says.
But this prayer is a particularly timely one: “My father is dying of leukemia now. As we speak, he’s terminal in our living room.”
Farr recorded the album at a private studio on Pandora St. in East Vancouver, Canada where he has been residing nearly 20 years now. He shares his thoughts on the scene, “Soon after I moved there, I’d go to the Railway Club downtown to see local legends like Herald Nix, Mac Pontiac & Rich Hope. When I arrived, there was this great alt-country scene kicking (which kind of died out while at the same time spawning the likes of Orville Peck). DOA has roots in Vancouver, great bands come to record there, and lots of legends dot the soundscape.
“My favorite things about moving to Vancouver is discovering Canadian Gold as I call it – bands I’d never heard of being from the south: The Blues Shadows, Ladyhawk, Mother Mother, Dan Bejar, Corb Lund, Leeroy Stagger; the list could go on and on. But the scene itself is dynamic and thriving and writhing like a snake, it seems. I can’t remember who wanted to name the album Pandora Sessions – very well could have been Jay as he did damn near everything else in the making of this album, but I do remember both of us having a good chuckle and great chat about the meaning of the word Pandora and how dark this album is and the irony of it all. And then we found that cover image that Jay took; it all just fell right into place, kind of like the songs.”
These sessions took place on a Friday and Saturday night. “Jay Bundy Johnson and I’d been recording first takes on my iPhone for years and were quite enamored with them, as well as inspired by some of the earlier blues recordings of Alan Lomax – especially the inconsistency /sonics of them. So one weekend we spent the Friday night mic’ing the room and we recorded on that night and on Saturday got quite a few tracks. A few covers we didn’t put on the album for licensing reasons. Maybe we’ll get around to it,” Farr says with a laugh.
On his timeline of the better part of a dozen albums, it’s this latest one that marks a pivotal point. They broke away from constraints. They didn’t go to the studio. They didn’t even write and rehearse. And yet, “This album is huge for me,” he effuses. “Some of the songs (‘Night Train,’ for example) are so elusive to me – that vibe and how we got into the groove at the beginning of the song. Hell, we haven’t been able to recreate that and we’ve tried. We dove into the darkness and the inconsistency. It’s the most vulnerable I’ve ever felt releasing music. To be honest, it feels like the realest album we’ve ever released.”
All of the songs on the Pandora Sessions were captured at point of origin, save for “Getting Tired of Getting Old” and “Take It Slow.” He says, “I had written those two songs, but Jay had never played ‘GTOGO.’ In fact, ‘Take It Slow’ was the only song on the album that Jay and I had written and rehearsed. All the other songs, we’d just get set up and either I’d hit a lick and Jay would come in or vice versa. We’d find a vibe and get ‘er buckin’ (as they say in Canada)!”
He had just played with RL Boyce at the 2023 Bentonia Blue Festival when he learned of his passing. “Man, it broke my heart. I remember he took a set break, and on his way back up to the stage he grabbed my wrist and was pulling me up, literally grabbed my wrist. I leaned over to him and was like, ‘RL, I cant hang with you!’ He turned and looked at me with his beautiful smile and said ‘Im’a show you how!’ That’s how it was with him, and Jimmy for that matter. Very hands on, almost like they’re peeking into your soul.”
Farr lights up when he talks about Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, explaining, “It’s hard to put into a few words what that man means to me. He didn’t have to teach me anything, but he’s been such a huge influence on where we’ve been heading since 2019. His generosity has brought my music home for me. I’m indebted to that man. And the best thing about it all, is that he and I are good friends. It feels like I’m coming home when I go to see him, and his place and his presence have been very healing to me while my father is passing. My father was there the day I met Jimmy. He and I were the only people in the room when Jimmy played me a song. And that minute, that gift, in the presence of my father – I’ll never forget that moment.”
Standouts on this album for me are “Night Train,” “Gettin Tired of Gettin Old,” and of course “Oh Lord.” In the same tunings as their last few albums, Farr says he is still developing and understanding the art of Bentonia Blues. But the main contrast on this album is his playing. “It had been a while since we recorded, but I’d still been practicing a lot of what Jimmy had shown me. I’m particularly enamored by his picking, strumming, and fretting techniques. It feels as if some of that is starting to poke through in my playing (‘Night Train’ and ‘How Am I,’ for instance). And it feels good, natural. Jimmy encouraged me in 2017 to be patient, that it’s not something that comes overnight. He’s right, and it kind of blows me away.”
The Bentonia style of Delta blues is always in an open C or D minor tuning, with the songs having less formal structure than what a 12-bar song might have. Due to the lack of a more formal structure, “there is a drony-ness to the songs, kind of like a train chugging along down the track.” Jimmy’s juke joint, Blue Front Café, just so happens to be on the railroad track connecting New Orleans to Chicago. “And you can’t play out there without the train coming through once during your set!”
The only amp Farr uses is all he could ever need: a vintage, early ‘70s Harmony 15 watt amp that drummer Jay gifted him. “It sounds so damn good when it’s all hot and bothered. It was his older brother Guy’s, who passed away last year, so using Guy’s amp and having him live through our sound is very special to me. And to be honest, this ol’ country boy don’t really know a lot about mics, but I can make one sound alright if it’s not shocking me (laughs). Otherwise I’ll just holler.”
Listen to Pandora Sessions
