Home on the Range; the origins of the album “Ghost Republic”

First there is living in the high desert. Lancaster. Quartz Hill. Littlerock. Pearblossom. A far flung corner of the county of Los Angeles. A forgotten place for those inhabitants the rest of the city wishes to forget. The Last Outpost. Land of the Joshua Tree. Land of the Rattlesnakes. The Mojave Green. The Devil’s Punchbowl. An inhospitable place that men have forced themselves upon in an uneasy truce between cheap land and great ambition.  This land still has teeth and venom. It is the border between here and there.

Heading east, the next stop is Mojave, Death Valley or the Eastern Sierra Mountains where towns have names like Lone Pine and Independence. And the road negotiates with places like Convict Creek and Mono Lake. A road less travelled.

Then there is Bodie. A ghost town high in the Sierras. Closed and abandoned to time and elements, this once thriving mining town is now frozen as it stood when the gates were locked and the town was returned to the ground it rose from.

It is the subject of a hallucinatory group of collaborative poems written by a loose confederation of poets for a book conceived and organized by the California based poet and artist Nicelle Davis.

Nicelle asks Robert Fisher to add a character to the book. 

The words begin to flow and they begin to sound like music.This results in a record called Ghost Republic, where the impressionistic songs create a slip in time.  A sleight of hand. A waltz between real and imagined worlds. There and not there.

“Ghost Republic” is the first album from Willard Grant Conspiracy since “Paper Covers Stone” (2009) and the first album of entirely new music since “Pilgrim Road” (2008) and was written and recorded in Massachusetts featuring the collaborative songwriting of Robert Fisher and David Michael Curry.

 Curry is the band’s principle viola player and a longtime musical foil for Fisher’s evocative baritone. The viola and other instruments that Curry plays on “Ghost Republic” offer terrific examples of his unique style that has made him a valued member of WGC during the history of the band, as well as a constant member of the Thalia Zedek Band, Hidden Tooth noise ensemble where he works with guitarist Chris Brokaw and his own Empty House Cooperative.

Live and on record, Curry makes every note sound as if it is the first time it has been played; he embodies the concept of always being present and reacting to the moment. It is a roller coaster of twists and turns that keeps the listener on the edge of their seat.

Although the band was formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1995 and was based there for many years, Fisher moved back to his native California and has been living in the high desert since 2006. The ensuing years have seen numerous incarnations of the band. 

But one of the most enduring partnerships seems to be the one Fisher has with Curry.  If you have seen the band live, you will notice that Fisher takes a quiet delight when Curry slides his bow across the outer edges of an idea, adds the urgency of layers of feedback or delicately plucks a small melody from his strings.

Over the last four years, Curry and Fisher have toured numerous times as a duo and the idea of doing a recording was born out of the simple success of those endeavors; the two have an easy immediacy between them and it makes every night a little bit different, rewarding both audience and musicians with one of a kind experiences.

In many ways, “Ghost Republic” is a celebration of this musical partnership. The most obvious expression of this is contained in the credits; the record was written, played and recorded entirely between the two of them in Curry’s studio in Massachusetts.

Managing at turns to sound skeletal, fully fleshed and all stages in-between, they make a kind of elemental music that does not fear simplicity. 

Ghost Republic: The book, the record and the film each stand alone but also make good companions. The road less traveled is sometimes better travelled with others.

Ghost Republic, the Record is available on Loose and at your favorite digital download venues. Ghost Republic the Book, is being published by Ampersand Books. The Film of Ghost Republic, will be available for viewing on your favorite media sites.