It’s time for another Folk Roundup bonus column featuring a bunch of Tracks that we hope you’ll enjoy, covering as they do a very wide range of folk. Hey, there’s even some bluegrass this time – with a folk twist naturally. Is there a theme? Other than great music, no – no theme. But, isn’t great music enough? I guess a slight theme is that we travel overseas on every song this time…and further than Ireland. Don’t worry – we’ll return to the sacred isle of Albion and touch on Erin’s green shore in the future. probably next month. No promises though, depends what crosses our desk and floats our boat. Crazy times.
Starting with the least cheerful song of this roundup, ‘Grief‘ is the new single from Canadian Harry Lee Follon and is taken from the new EP ‘Uncle’s Lament.‘ It’s a song that deals with the need to recover from an emotional hit – whatever it may be – in the way that is best for you, there’s no simple solution. As Follon says: “One thing I’ve learned over time is, never let anyone tell you how to grieve. Grief is personal. Grief doesn’t wait until you’re ready. Vulnerability is accepting grief. It’s okay to let go. Hopefully this song helps someone feel less alone.”
And so to that Bluegrass we promised – The Seldom Scene are a band with a long history of playing – 53 years in fact – with plenty of line-up changes along the way. The next album they’ll be releasing is actually their first without any founding members of the band playing on it – the title ‘Changes‘ is perhaps both apt and not chosen accidentally – althpugh this is also their most stable line-up, as they’ve all been in The Seldom Scene at least 25 years.
They’ve shared their take on Tim Hardin’s ‘Reasons to Believe‘, and it is pretty good.
Whilst we’re talking about long times in music, let’s take a chance to mention the new song from the new album ‘Terra Madre‘ from Italian Beppe Gambetta who has a fifty year singing history. Here he can be heard with with Tim O’Brien, backed by the mandolin of David Grisman, the low guitar harmony of Dan Crary and the bass of Travis Book. ‘Sit And Pick With You‘ is nostalgic – and quite old time folk-country – but it’s also warm and shot through with the pleasures of music making. See how many familiar faces you spot in the video, quite a few we reckon.
As we dig around in the post bag (for our younger readers, a post bag was a clichéd way of setting up a feeble joke) we can’t tell you how often we find a postcard with: “Hei, Americana UK, miksi et koskaan esitä psykefolkia Suomesta, vai mitä?” written on it. Well, today is the day we fix that oversight – with this new instrumental from folk band Tuomo & Markus. They recorded with Finnish jazz trumpet virtuoso Verneri Pohjola, who also wrote this track called ‘Anyhow Lane‘ which will appear on the upcoming album ‘Music For Roads‘ will be released worldwide on November 1st. Tuomo & Markus are just wrapping up a US tour, before they left they noted “It’s great to return to North America. We played SXSW in March, but it’s been two years since our last visit to the East Coast. There’s so much new music and the band is in top-notch right now – we can’t wait to cross the Atlantic again.” Theya re no strangers there anyway, as the band recorded their debut album ‘Dead Circles‘ in Tucson with help from various Calexico and Wilco members.
‘Paint Me Blue‘ takes us to a modern folk sound – you know, this one could be called outright Americana couldn’t it? It’s from the latest release ‘Darkness Is A Bright Sound‘ by Portland singer Jeremy Ferrara, probably best known right now for being the guitarist in Margo Cilker’s band. His own music is relentlessly intense, with a close in intensity that highlights the emotional veracity. These songs ring true.
We finish off with the least depressing song of this roundup, taken from their new album ‘Circus For Sale‘ out on Big Stir Records, Hungrytown bring a light touch to their chamber-folk sound, it’s a balm for cares. Hungrytown are Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson, who met in New York in 1993 and were married a year later. Both worked day jobs and pursued separate musical interests until a mutual friend, dying of cancer due to a tragic misdiagnosis, gave them her nylon-stringed guitar and a stack of old folk albums, with a request that Rebecca sing ‘I Know You Rider’ at her memorial service. Before long, Rebecca was learning the guitar in order to accompany her singing. She soon began writing her own songs that had an uncanny consistency with the folk songs to which she’d been listening and learning. A claim to fame for Rebecca is that her first album helped get her a slot supporting John Renbourn, and also got a listen by Roger McGuinn who said “I love the sound of Rebecca Hall’s voice. There’s a sweetness and a worldly wisdom, in perfect balance.” That’s pretty cool.
