louis Ledford

The unstoppable power of a simple message

Listening to Adios King is about as close as you can get to listening to someone play guitar and sing on their back porch on a hot summer’s night, without actually being there.

What Louis Ledford has done with Adios King is demonstrate the graphic beauty of simplicity. Put plainly Adios King is an album of dustbowl blues in the great traditions of Woody and co, it’s a plain talking, almost humble kind of a record. But it has a an integrity and depth of feeling that you can almost reach out and touch.

There’s always an implied romance attached to this kind of music, times may have been harder but it’s somehow comforting to think they were better. Viewed through the rose-tinted glasses of hindsight, the music that reminds us of depression-era America and somehow makes us yearn for what we believe was a simpler time. Even the 2007 version comes with its own rosy glow, which is at odds with the harshness of what Louis Ledford is actually saying , in his own sweet way he tells it like it is on Adios King.

Ledford achieves what Woody Guthrie was so good at, making an instant connection with the listener. It’s an intimacy that is hard to pin down, he sings from the heart, plays the guitar beautifully and his songs are those of everyman , a combination that creates magic. But there’s also the sense that what you are listening to is all that Louis Ledford has to give, nothing is held back.

Adios King isn’t about production or performance, it’s about the ability of one man to distil music down to its rawest and most powerful form, creating a feeling within the soul of the listener that they’ll never forget.
- Americana UK

It took me a couple of go-rounds before I figured out that Louis Ledford, vocally, sounded like one of California's finest, Joel Rafael, and on other occasions there's a hint of young Jack Hardy, with his cowboy hat firmly in place. I guess the foregoing allusions establish the fact that there's a resigned, melancholic feel to the lyrics of this Richmond, Virginia-based song poet.
A pair of acoustic guitars, a clearly audible mandolin, the constant thwack of the double bass, plus muted drums and percussion, amount to the instruments that dispense the melody on the opening "All Of My Dreams/Most of The Time." Set in autumn, it's a meditation on the passage of a day in the life of the narrator and his hometown. As the song opens the "sunlight bends softly" and the narrator awakes from "another moonless night." Elsewhere, there's a poetic reference to one's mind being stolen by the sound of the scraping wheels of a passing freight train as it crosses an old wooden trestle, while Ledford's location is geographically pinpointed by "Tobacco hangs in the air, like clothes on a line." Employing the same instrumentation as the opening cut, in the up-tempo "Make It Home" Louis takes on the persona of a soldier, far from home, who explores comradeship in the face of adversity - "And remember as long as we're together, you are not alone, So stay alert, do as I say you'll be OK, And we will make it home." One hundred and forty years ago, the American nation literally tore itself apart by indulging in war, and "Belle Isle" relates, in the first person, the story of a Union soldier captured at Harper's Ferry - "It seems so long ago" - whose life ebbs away while incarcerated on the island. Belle Isle lies in the James River just west of Richmond. Ledford based his lyric on the diary of a Union soldier, Jacob Osborne Coburn, who reflects, as his end approaches, "I hope my time here was not wasted."

A jaunty mandolin supports Ledford's vocal and acoustic guitar on the love (in crisis) song "Are You Listening," while in "Lonesome Road" at the outset the world-weary narrator, down on his luck, mentions "Just three cars stopped here today, One for gas, two for direction" and goes on to recall crucial episodes in his life. Possessing a Rockabilly feel at the outset, "Maury Street Cemetery," a real location in Richmond, eventually settles into a loose jazzy shuffle. Opening with a harmonica refrain, "Lately" is a Blues tune that features the repeated line "This crack cocaine just suits me fine" and, later, the lowlife narrator reveals that he has murdered a man - "I wish he hadn't tried to fight, If he'd just done what I told him to, I would not have taken his life," while "Strange Dangerous Flower" is a pleasantly oddball love song.
According to the liner booklet, Louis penned "September" soon after playing a show in New York City on September 21, 2001. At almost eight-and-a-half-minutes duration, (the six-minute-plus "Belle Isle" apart) it's by far the longest cut on Reverie. In terms of content it amounts to a series of observations Ledford made as he drove north, and during his time in New York City. No blame is apportioned or finger pointed for the cataclysm of 9/11; "September" is simply one man's closely observed diary. The song opens with mention of snow lingering on the ground in Virginia, and accompanied by his wife and young child, Ledford goes on to trace a series of extraordinary events in what would, in normal circumstances, have been another mundane road trip. There's mention of singing a dusty old Woody Guthrie ballad and how, just across the Hudson River, you could "almost feel the heat," singing songs "about loss and redemption" at the concert, meeting weary firemen mourning lost friends and comrades, seeing "a mass of white smoke rising up into the darkness" from a Brooklyn rooftop at night time and, the following day, making an emotion-filled visit to Ground Zero. Truth to tell, Ledford's "September" is easily the equal of Mark Erelli's 9/11 classic "The Only Way."
- Folk Wax U.K.

In the nineties Louis Ledford from Richmond, VA was the singer and songwriter of alt.country outfit Used Carlotta. With his powerful, well-crafted narrative songs and his charming, laid-back voice, he established a solid fan base far beyond his home turf. On Reverie, his solo-debut he effortlessly picks up from where Used Carlotta's engine stopped so many years ago.
Accompanied by a fine selection of local musical talent- including ex-Used Carlotta bassist Rusty Farmer and drummer Roger Wright - on mainly acoustic and traditional country instruments (guitar, mandolin, double bas, pedal steel) - Ledford tells tales about the American Civil War ("Belle Isle"), war in general ("Make It Home"), and there is a very moving personal account about a show he played in Brooklyn after 9/11 ("September").
Actually, telling personal stories is what Ledford is best at. "Are You Listening?" sounds so endearing and tender as if Tom Paxton had a hand in writing it. "Lonesome Road" with its gorgeous acoustic guitar solos and a discrete, but oh so lonesome pedal steel in the background makes your heart melt as snow in the morning sun. And the jazzy road movie-like "Maury St. Cemetery" with Penn on guitar, Rusty Farmer on double bass and drummer Roger Wright starring in the main roles, draws you right into its story as do the best of Tom Wait's songs. My personal favorite, however, is "Lately," which is about addiction and frustration and anger and, finally, murder. This is a song even Townes van Zandt or Steve Earle could have been proud of.
Reverie creates an atmosphere that is intimate and subdued. Thanks to the fact that the songs were recorded "live" in the studio with the window open at times, they sound as if the musicians are standing on your front porch on a sunny day and that gives the listener a very pleasant and warm feeling, in spite of the often dark and gloomy lyrics. This album deserves a lot more attention than it will probably get. Irresistible and luminously beautiful!
- RockZilla World

On Reverie, Louis Ledford reminds one a little bit of an early Bob Dylan. He's a little scruffy around the edges and world-weary, giving the impression of someone who's done some hard traveling. This impression only holds true for the first two tracks ("All of My Dreams/Most of the Time" and "Make It Home") before shifting abruptly to alternative country on "Belle Isle." In both cases, though, Ledford retains a melancholy mood and has a lot to say about life's hard knocks. One gains the impression on "Lonesome Road" of lives that somehow fell short of their potential as possibilities narrowed. "Belle Isle" is a very long tale about the horrors of prison life during the Civil War, while "Lately," to borrow from Ledford's notes, is "about addiction, deception, anger, and violence." This makes the occasional deviation a relief. "Maury Street" combines a nice bit of blues with a bouncy backbeat, the kind of thing that Tom Waits might tear into. The lyrics here may sound just as desperate as anything on the album, but the bouncy beat gives the song a romantic edge. These songs, like some of Dylan's, are often long, and may try the non-folknik's patience. Ledford, however, has made a solid album, updating folk and, on occasion, country for the post-millennium. - All Music Guide

LOUIS LEDFORD, Adios King, (Waterbug 74). It doesn't get more intimate than this. Louis Ledford is strictly solo throughout. He plays guitar, banjo and harmonica. His songs are very human sized chunks of life, his performances ingratiating. Bob Rupe is more enabler than producer here. Hearing Louis Ledford's Adios King is like meeting a brand new old friend. - Sing Out