‘The Portable Herman Dune’ Vol. 3 is the final part of Herman Dune’s acoustic anthology, in which 22 years of songwriting are laid bare, stripped to the most intimate bone.
Though sonically naked, the songs are bundled up in emotion and loaded with life. Each of the Volumes have a slightly different character. The closing song here is a cover of “My Way”
The album was recorded in Ivar’s studio Santa Cruz Records, in San Pedro, California, where he has produced all Herman Dune albums since 2012. Centre-stage are David Ivar’s songs, with his 1954 guitar, his 1930s mandolin, and his voice, plus exceptional guests. On Vol. 3 we have: Caitlin Rose, Mayon (Ivar’s life partner) and Julie Doiron providing vocal counterpoint.
‘The Portable Herman Dune’ is raw and straightforward, the songs played as naturally as Ivar wrote them. His voice has become more gravelly after two decades of singing, and his guitar is without embellishment.
The same guitar - his 1954 Gibson LG, that you would know if you've seen Herman Dune live - and one mandolin, a 1930s Kalamazoo A-shape mandolin that Ivar bought with Canadian Dollars from a show in Montreal, where he was stuck during the Travel Ban and played shows and recorded with his decades-long friend Julie Doiron.
Some songs have accents of harmonica, upright bass, melodica, accordion, or piano, and two pieces have the beautiful violin of Jolie Holland, with whom Ivar was recording the soundtrack for Edouard Deluc's new Feature Film (Petaouchnok, which just saw its release in Nov.2022 in France).
Surprisingly, after years and countless performances worldwide with this minimal setting, it’s the first time that we get such a sober treatment on a proper Herman Dune album.
After not touring for ten years, just playing solo shows around Los Angeles, Ivar recorded 39 songs live in his studio, with the urge to play for diverse audiences and travel the world again. He picked the songs he wanted and needed to play the most, creating a songbook that he could jump in and out of while recording.
All the recordings were made live in Ivar’s wooden cabin of a studio in San Pedro, the harbor of Los Angeles. You can hear the old floorboards creaking, a dog barking, or the neighbours driving loud motorcycles. Feet tapping, birds singing, and the cat meowing when songs quiet down. Harmonica and mandolin are only discreet additions to the core of the songs, Ivar on guitar and vocals
“I don’t know if these are classic songs, but they sure are to me.”
