Dec 132019
 
michael chorney hollar general

These days, composer and guitarist Michael Chorney is probably best known for his work with Anaïs Mitchell on her recent Broadway hit Hadestown, for which he won a Tony Award earlier this year (he plays in the band every night too). But a dive into his extensive discography wouldn’t uncover many other numbers meant for the stage. Half of his albums are ambient guitar instrumentals, and even the ones with “songs” tend toward the weird and woolly.

“Bewildered” comes from that latter group, a slippery composition played with his quartet Hollar General. A jazz combo playing folk music, the band takes a simple enough template and expands it in strange and sublime directions. It works beautifully to kick off their enigmatic and wonderful 2012 album Dispensation of the Ordinary. Just don’t expect to see it on the Great White Way anytime soon.

Check out more entries in our month-long series on The Best Songs of the 2010s.

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