MUSIC FROM NATURE: The back cover of James Popik’s album “The Sourland Symphony” reflects the composer’s inspiration for his latest work, which will be performed in Hopewell on December 7.
By Anne Levin
An avid hiker, Hopewell-based guitarist and composer James Popik has spent a lot of time exploring the Sourlands. His impressions of the wooded region in portions of Mercer, Hunterdon, and Somerset counties — its beauty, its stillness, and its challenges — have inspired him to create The Sourland Symphony, a work for nine musicians that will be performed on Sunday, December 7 at the Hopewell Theater.
Presented by the Hopewell Valley Arts Council and billed as “A Musical Tribute to the Sourland Moutains,” the piece, which is an album, is a collection of nine instrumental offerings that blend elements of rock, jazz, classical, and blues.
“I just try to experience the place,” said Popik. “I think about how that makes me feel, and then the melodies and the rhythm come naturally after that. It’s almost like little chapters of a book.”
Popik, 62, moved to Hopewell 25 years ago. Raised in South Plainfield, he started music lessons as a child. He played piano first; then picked up a guitar in middle school and never stopped. By his twenties, he was concentrating on learning his craft and becoming a professional guitarist. He organized a band, named it Ten Foot Tall, and started composing. His current band is a jazz group, Super Nova.
Popik has played more than 3,000 gigs across 250 venues from Maine to New Orleans, including an appearance at the White House. He has shared stages with Los Lonely Boys, Dave Mason, the Marshall Tucker Band, Steve Forbert, and Robert Hazard, among others.
His introduction to the Sourland Conservancy came through a friend who was involved with the nonprofit. He quickly learned a lot about the region.
“I’m always out on one of the trails. I was stunned to find out that people who live here in the Sourlands didn’t know what it was,” Popik said. “The beauty, the history — it’s just so special. That’s when I started, with others, the Sourland Music Festival, to raise some money for the Conservancy.”
Over the years, Popik had been composing music that didn’t exactly fit with a jazz band or a rock band.
“I realized that these four or five pieces [that became The Sourland Symphony] were coherent, and really something special,” he said. “It all came together as a grouping of songs,
if you will.”
Different areas of the region have inspired Popik in different ways. “There’s a song on the record called ‘Threnody for the Ash.’ A threnody is a musical lament,” he said. “Recently, blight has killed a million ash trees in the Sourlands. So, this is a sad piece, written in a minor key. It has some dissonance to it — as opposed to ‘Woosamonsa,’ which is a beautiful area. So it’s more uplifting. The melodies are in a major key.”
While the record The Sourland Symphony is an hour long, the show runs from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Photographs of the region will be projected behind the musicians, who are on guitar, bass, violin, cello, mandolin, and percussion. Popik will speak about the work. The band will also perform a new piece he has written, and they have prepared a special encore. Vinyl copies of the LP will be available at the show.
“We are fortunate to have so many gifted artists living in Hopewell Valley,” said Carol Lipson, executive director of the Hopewell Valley Arts Council. “To have a local composer debut a major original work rooted in our own landscape is truly something special.”
Popik is grateful for the opportunity. “I couldn’t have done this without Carol Lipson and the Arts Council,” he said. “I have found enormous inspiration from the Sourlands.”
The performance is at the Hopewell Theater, 5 South Greenwood Avenue, Hopewell, on Sunday, December 7 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $60.
Visit hvartscouncil.org.