We're proud to welcome the first guest blog from our friend and self-professed hillbilly banjo picker, Clayton Kelly Walter.  This blog is a review of the debut CD from old-time wunderkind Frank Fairfield. We'll let Kelly tell you about it, but please note that Frank is playing a killer show with Blind Boy Paxton and Baby Gramps THIS SATURDAY NIGHT (07/31/2010) at the Columbia City Theater.

THE REAL DEAL

by Clayton Kelly Walter

The real deal. I hear that a lot these days; especially when people tell me about some new old time band they like. “So-and-so is the real deal” or “their/his/her sound is the real deal”. After decades of hearing this type of comment, then actually experiencing the bands, I somewhat bitterly shake my head, or if in a crotchety mood, might roll my eyes. It’s not that I don’t want it to be true; I really do...but it rarely ever is.

So many times I’ve wanted to raise both of my arms, palms extended, and holler, “They are *not* the real deal! They’re wearing work clothes to play at a concert! No real old time musician would wear anything but their Sunday meeting clothes to play for their neighbors! Haven’t you ever been to the South?” this or some related comment usually directed at the laundry list of affectations many bands tote around proudly like boy scout merit badges.

Another comment that really gets me is, “They/he/she sound/s just like they were ripped right out of a 78 R.P.M. record!” Well, anybody that’s reading the reviews on the wonderful Hearth Music blog probably has a cd(or twelve) of 78 R.P.M. transcriptions, so you tell me…is there, if you were alone and free to admit it unpunished, one such band that you can think of? I suspect not.

The only musician today that I now feel accomplishes this in full is Frank Fairfield. His self-titled cd on the Tompkins Square label is the rarest of the rare; a new old time album that sounds profoundly old time. His guitar picking, his fiddling, his banjo playing, his singing…all are so genuine and so rustic, so raw and so…real. I had to stop everything that I was doing and sit, and stare, and listen.

At moments I felt like I was listening to a Dick Justice recording, or Frank Hutcheson or Blind Willie Johnson backing up Leadbelly’s singing…is that Emmet W. Lundy playing that fiddle? The tracks have the honesty of field recordings, mostly due to natural blend of influences in Frank’s playing, but also in the relaxed recording atmosphere of the album. There’s a natural feeling to everything that Frank Fairfield plays. A mesmerizing sense of immediacy; one doesn’t want to turn away, for fear of missing what comes next. The blues permeates every song on this album, yet it is rooted in that rural white country sound.

He looks the part, as well; Youtube has a number of his videos, and I’ll be danged if he doesn’t come off like a young Clarence Ashley. He’d blend right in to the Skillet Lickers or an old timey medicine show hawking magical tonics. He has the relaxed country vibe of a guy like Charlie Poole. I’ve yet to hear him live, but by all accounts this isn’t a show that he puts on…the Frank Fairfield on the record is the one and the same Frank Fairfield that you might meet on the street.

The “real deal”, if you will…
 

"Call Me a Dog When I'm Gone": Frank Fairfield LIVE on KEXP

"Rye Whiskey": Frank Fairfield LIVE on KEXP ("I think everything's just as it should be")

BUY THE CD:

We're BAAACCK!!!  After a long hiatus due to travel and computer crashes, Hearth Music Radio has finally returned! For today's show, the theme is Folk Grrrrls. That is, women folk musicians who kick ass.

---FOLK GRRRRLS---

1.  The Grinding Grain: Mighty Squirrel
2.  Rossignolet:  Bette et Wallet

3.  Hawthorne Gals:  Mighty Ghosts of Heaven
---NOTE: Wonderful primitive-old-time band out of PDX. Singer Kati Claborn left to be in Blind Pilot.
4.  Passin':  Laura Love & Orville Johnson
5.  Don't You Call My Name:  Laura Love & Jo Miller
6.  Hey Little Darlin':  Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers
7.  Sand Lake:  Crooked Jades (tune by Sophie Vitells)
8.  Art of Virtue:  Adrienne Young
9.  Pretty Polly:  Gráda
10.  Song Up In Her Head:  Sarah Jarosz
11.  Leila's Birthday:  Hanneke Cassell
--Note: From Hanneke's beautiful new CD,For Reasons Unseen
12.  Ghost of Tom Joad:  Solas
--NOTE: From their new CD, The Turning Tide
13.  Jailhouse Fire:  Laura Veirs
14.  You Better Mind:  Sam Amidon w/Beth Orton
15.  Sleep In the River:  Crooked Jades
16.  Sister Thou Art Mild and Lovely:  Rayna Gellert & Susie Goehring
17.  Shankill Butchers:  Sarah Jarosz
---NOTE: Lovely song from The Decemberists about serial killers in N. Ireland
18.  Ella & Davie: Emma Beaton & Nic Gareiss 
---NOTE: New album from lead singer of Joy Kills Sorrow
19.  Bob McKinney:  The Haints Old-Time Stringband
Curling Waltz: Ruthie Dornfeld & Morten Alfred Hoirup
--NOTE: Special add for our friend Morten, listening from Copenhagen.
20.  Age Old Blue:  Alela Diane
21.  Washburn Blues:  The Floorbirds
--NOTE: Their CD, Field Recordings, is one of our FAVORITES! You should buy it!
22.  Bitter the Parting:  John Doyle w/Kate Rusby
23.  And Am I Born to Die:  The Macrae Sisters
24.  Mother Earth and Father Time:  Dejah Léger
---NOTE: Song found in the animated Charlotte's Web movie
25.  Wynken, Blynken, and Nod: Dejah Léger
---NOTE: From Dejah's new lullaby CD: Hand Sewn Lullabies
26.  By and By:  Carol Elizabeth Jones & Laurel Bliss
27.  The Running Kind:  Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers
28.  Runaround:  Coyote Grace
---NOTE: From their lovely new CD, Ear to the Ground. Currently touring w/Indigo Girls.
29.  I Love My Honey:  Evie Ladin
30.  Southbound:  Good Ol' Persons
---NOTE: Classic band, first all-woman bluegrass band
31.  Girls Like Me (Summertime):  Coyote Grace
32.  Right Stuff:  Huff This!
---NOTE: Check out their awesome video of this NKOTB song

33.  Untouchable Face:  Ani DiFranco
34.  Willie of the Alley:  Mae West
35.  Five Miles from Town: Rayna Gellert & Susie Goehring

Thanks for listening! We're back next week (Wed, Aug 4, 10am-Noon) with a brand-new show!!

We're gearing up to start promoting Caleb Klauder's brand new album, Western Country. As the frontman of Foghorn Stringband, Caleb has played a defining role in the Northwest's rich acoustic music scene, and we're huge fans of his dry-dusty voice and straight-ahead delivery. Plus we've been delighted to discover what a great songwriter he is! His country songs drip with honky-tonk emotion, and sound like they could be rolling out of a run-down old juke joint full of Okies during the Depression.

Well, we're not the only ones to take notice, and Caleb was recently invited to perform live on KEXP in Seattle. He brought along master Cajun dancehall musicians Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege.  They all joined forces in the studio and mixed up a red-hot session of Cajun Honky-Tonk music. Word now is that they had so much fun that they're taking their act on the road!

Listen to Songs from the In Studio, or the Whole Event
 

KEXP was kind enough to put together some thoroughly kickass videos from the in studio, so you can see the magic (you can even watch in HD!):

 Caleb Klauder Band LIVE at KEXP: Worn Out Shoes

Jesse Lége & Joel Savoy w/the Caleb Klauder Country Band: Ouvre La Porte

Caleb Klauder Country Band w/Joel Savoy: Hole in My Heart

Jesse Lége & Joel Savoy: Valse d'Orpheline

Hearth Music is proud to announce our first VIP publicity mailing campaign. The VIP mailings go out to a select number of grade-A media contacts in the US and Canada and feature CDs that we love and handpick. It's our way to help great musicians get their music out to the world. Check out the featured artists for the June/July VIP mailing:

Ruthie Dornfeld:  Duets Abroad

"Mazurka" from Duets Abroad

 

Master fiddler Ruthie Dornfeld has had one of the most varied careers in traditional folk music. Each album release is different from her last, but as much as Ruthie is known for her boldly original ability to marry different musical traditions, she is also known for her impeccable choice in collaborators. A summary of her musical partners over the past two decades includes guitarist Keith Murphy, accordionist Jeremiah McLane, harmonica player Joel Bernstein, folk instrumentalist John Miller, and countless great musicians from Scandinavia and Western Europe. Ruthie is a deeply eclectic musician who straddles many borders in her music, but brings the same focus and integrity to every tradition she studies. When listening to her music, national boundaries blur together and a new image arises: acoustic world-time music driven by a simple passion for good tunes.

Cort Armstrong:  Chicken Pickin'

"I Don't Mind" from Chicken Pickin'

 

We’re especially excited about the new CD from chicken-pickin’ guitarist/songwriter Cort Armstrong. He’s been one of the best-kept secrets in the Pacific Northwest for quite a few years now and we’re happy to help spread the word about his songs. Cort first came to our attention with his Appalachian “Molassagrass” band, Jangle Bones. They had a great vision of Appalachian mountain music. Unlike most bands, which focus on the relatively small tradition of “old-time” music, Jangle Bones played anything from juke joint country blues, to fiddle tunes, gospel songs, ragtime guitar; their credo was mountain music for mountain people. Cort brings this same philosophy to his new solo release, Chicken Pickin’, named for his signature style of guitar playing. His “heavy-thumb” fingerpicking style evokes both the driving, rolling sound of Rev Gary Davis and the syncopation of Merle Travis. Cort blends these country and blues influences together into a sound that is entirely at home both in Asheville, NC, where he’s made his home, and Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, where he currently lives. Both regions are home to powerful mountain ranges and Cort channels this mountain music in all of his work.

Dejah Léger:  Hand Sewn Lullabies

"Swedish Lullaby" from Hand Sewn Lullabies

 

When singer-songwriter and traditional musician Dejah Leger became a mother, she realized how few authentic, subtle lullaby CDs suited her tastes. In response, she created a refreshingly honest and relaxing lullaby collection. She recorded this album in one afternoon using just guitar and voice. Harmonies woven throughout bring to mind a gathering of mothers singing to a child, and the guitar work is rich and varied. Drawing from her French-Canadian music sources (she is also in the Acadian group La Famille Leger), Dejah sings in archaic French for two berceuses. Her a cappella rendition of All the Pretty Horses is haunting, as is her eery and enchanting Swedish Lullaby. Her musical rendering of the classic poem "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" is already being requested by cover artists, and she even throws on a new song that she wrote for her daughter. Add in the bittersweet rendering of Charlotte's Web's "Mother Earth and Father Time" and you have a lullaby CD that will become a household favorite.