{"id":2396,"date":"2014-10-20T11:05:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T15:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=2396"},"modified":"2014-10-27T11:59:23","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T15:59:23","slug":"maggie-bjorklund-shaken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/maggie-bjorklund-shaken\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie Bj\u00f6rklund <br>Shaken"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/maggie_bjorklund-shaken.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2397\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/maggie_bjorklund-shaken.jpg\" alt=\"Maggie Bjorklund, Shaken\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/maggie_bjorklund-shaken.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/maggie_bjorklund-shaken-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Even if you\u2019re a solo artist, you never do it alone. And even if you have one-man band skills, once it\u2019s time to take it on the road, you\u2019ll need some help. So when Jack White decided to tour behind his first solo album, he assembled two crack bands to tour with him, an all-male ensemble, The Buzzards, and an all-female version he dubbed The Peacocks. Both bands were monstrous, musical Avengers as far assemblage of talent goes. One of the members, Maggie Bj\u00f6rklund, the pedal steel player in The Peacocks, is a solo artist in her own right, as well as being featured on White\u2019s latest, <i>Lazaretto<\/i>. She also knows a little something about putting good people around her, and it\u2019s a skill she puts to good use on her second solo album, <i>Shaken<\/i> (Bloodshot Records).<\/p>\n<p>Bj\u00f6rklund has pulled together a crack band that includes Calexico\u2019s John Convertino; Portishead\u2019s touring bassist Jim Barr; utility cellist Barb Hunter, who played in a mishmash of projects from Bette Midler to the Afghan Whigs; and John Parish, best known for his work with PJ Harvey and who contributes guitars, electric bass, and production work. It\u2019s an eclectic band, but it makes sense that you\u2019d want a flexible group when your frontperson\u2019s primary instrument is pedal steel. In a non-country context pedal steel is a tricky thing simply because it invokes that high lonesome sound. To be fair, that seems to be 90% of the reason of why it\u2019s used. So it takes some doing to make sure that it doesn\u2019t fall into those traps. Maybe it\u2019s the fact that Bj\u00f6rklund is from Sweden or maybe it\u2019s just the people around her, but <i>Shaken<\/i> rarely, if ever, seems country. Instead, there\u2019s a gothic elegance about the songs that at times gets a bit orchestral, at times a touch alt-rock, and sometimes folksy but never subsuming to the pedal steel cliche.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, the pedal steel isn\u2019t front and center as one might expect. Bj\u00f6rklund varies her sound by alternating between the instrument and acoustic and electric guitars. She has a nimble, fluid playing style that melds quite nicely with the atmospheric production. The closest comparison would be Lambchop, fitting because Lambchop\u2019s Kurt Wagner stops in for a guest vocal on \u201cFro Fro Heart.\u201d The variety of experiences of the backing band creates an interesting melting pot where the collaborators have just as strong a voice as Bj\u00f6rklund. So if it\u2019s time for Hunter\u2019s cello to take the stoplight or for Parish\u2019s timpani to have a moment, it doesn\u2019t feel like an interruption. <i>Shaken<\/i> feels like the work of a band and not a collection of hired hands. It\u2019s a testament to what can be done with a little help from your friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even if you\u2019re a solo artist, you never do it alone. And even if you have one-man band skills, once it\u2019s time to take it on the road, you\u2019ll need some help<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,942,941],"class_list":["post-2396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-bloodshot-records","tag-maggie-bjorklund"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Maggie Bj\u00f6rklund Shaken - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/maggie-bjorklund-shaken\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maggie Bj\u00f6rklund Shaken - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even if you\u2019re a solo artist, you never do it alone. 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