We've been busy in 2011, sending out new albums to our many media contacts and friends. Here are three artists we're currently promoting. We love their music and think they each have refreshing takes on the bluegrass traditions they love so much.
 

Kevin Brown. The County Primaries.
Bluegrass Picking, Country Twang

Singer-songwriter Kevin Brown hails from rural Eastern Washington, where the arid Columbia Basin Plateau meets the Ponderosa Pine forests of the Selkirk Mountains. His songs explore the lives and thoughts of the folks that live in this region, people who enjoy being close to the earth and living close to home. And like the rough and raw landscape, Brown’s songs have many layers underneath. For a songwriter coming into a solo career in his late 40s, Brown’s debut album is surprisingly self-assured. This may be because of his long tenure with popular Northwest bluegrass band Big Red Barn. One of the most innovative bluegrass ensembles in the region, Big Red Barn covered a wide musical landscape. Kevin continues that same roving musical restlessness with his debut album, The County Primaries. Aided by the production of renowned Northwest roots musician Ivan Rosenberg, Brown has crafted one of the most refreshing roots music recordings to come out of Washington in a long while.
 

Kevin Brown: As Quiet As Grace

 
NOTE: You can hear more of Kevin Brown's music in our Online Listening Lounge.

Michael Connolly & Miller McNay. The Mandolin Casefiles.
Dashing Twin Mandolin Melodies

With a soft touch and quick wit, two stellar mandolinists have come together for an album exploring their love of American roots music. Both Michael Connolly and Miller McNay hail from Seattle, Washington, and both cut their teeth in ace Northwest bluegrass band Captain Gravel. As two old friends, they came together one night at Michael Connolly’s Empty Sea Studios and sat down to cut an album after a few cocktails. Of course, only the best acoustic musicians could pull something like this off (and with no overdubs!), and Connolly and McNay’s virtuosity is on full display on the resulting album: The Mandolin Casefiles: It Takes Two To Mando. They spin around the heart of each tune, pulling out the core of the melody, but flirting with improvisations and harmonies that take them far afield.

Michael Connolly & Miller McNay: Little Sadie

 

Jim Faddis. One More Ride.
A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Folk
 

There’s a reason that great country music comes from a rural life. You need earth on your hands and dust in your voice to speak this kind of truth. The Eastern plains of Washington State have rubbed just the right amount of dirt into singer-songwriter Jim Faddis’ debut solo recording, “One More Ride”. With a soft drawl born of his years growing up picking cotton in California’s dustbelt and a host of ace bluegrass pickers and fiddlers from E. Washington, Jim Faddis’ subtle songs ring with the truth of honest living. There’s been much talk recently of roots country, but Jim Faddis actually knows and lives these roots. He fronts a hot bluegrass band, Prairie Flyer, which tours frequently in the Pacific Northwest, and his voice echoes the famous high tenors of bluegrass history like Ralph Stanley or Del McCoury. But he’s got an obvious sweet spot for simple and touching country songs. Drawing on influences like Steve Earle, Guy Clark and Merle Haggard, Jim paints vivid characters plagued with regret, longing and heartbreak, and sings their stories in his haunting high tenor voice. It’s a little bit country, a little folk, a little everything in between.

Jim Faddis: Lake Charles

 

NOTE: You can hear more of Jim Faddis' music in our Online Listening Lounge.

Dear Foghorn Stringband,

What a long strange trip it's been! From your origins in the punk, DIY world of Portland's urban old-time community to a major label signing with Nettwerk, you've been the seminal stringband of the past decade and you've inspired countless young musicians (myself included) to pick up fiddles, banjos, guitars, and to hop trains over to Portland for all night picking parties and moonshine square dance raves. What amazes me is that throughout you've been the same band with the same mission: to play the hell out of your favorite country and old-time tunes and songs with no hint of irony. We all projected our own ideas and fantasies on to the band, but you guys were hard as granite. You just played and played, never caring for the music industry or the hipsters' world of indie roots music. And that's always been the key to your music. 

So it's with great pleasure that I can report that the new CD from The Foghorn Trio (Caleb Klauder, Sammy Lind, Nadine Landry) is just as wonderfully vibrant and alive as the past albums from the full band. The album keeps the core of the Stringband, the hard-driving mandolin picking and the dry, dusty voice of Caleb Klauder, and the blazing fiddling and rough-and-tumble singing of Sammy Lind, and adds French Acadian bassist/guitarist Nadine Landry. Nadine also adds her beautiful, sparse singing and her knowledge of French for a few Cajun songs. Recorded at Joel Savoy's studio in Louisiana, it's no wonder the Cajun culture of Down South has rubbed off on the band, in fact, word on the street is that Sammy Lind's picked up the Cajun accordion and joined a band with fiddler Josh Rabie of the Water Tower Bucket Boys. But that's beside the point. The point is that these young traditionalists still have what it takes to spin Portland urbanites around crowded dance halls, to lift the feet of drinking souls in bars across the US and to spin up clouds of dust at outdoor festivals. Cajun accordionist Octa Clark once said "You can't go wrong if you play it right" and it's clear that the Foghorn Trio have taken this mantra to heart.

Thank you Foghorn Stringband for all the years of inspiration. Now that you've got a new CD as The Foghorn Trio, we can focus on the high, holy harmonies and face-blasting fiddle tunes that have always been your trademark. We can focus on the fine old songs, and new songs from Caleb. We can focus on this beautiful music, while you all focus on kicking ass.
 

The Foghorn Trio: Liza Jane  (from Kyle Creed)


The Foghorn Trio: Just A Little (Caleb Klauder)

Mighty Ghosts. Aberdeen.
2010. Vertighost Recordings.

I’ve been a fan of alt-old-time band Mighty Ghosts (they used to be called “The Mighty Ghosts of Heaven”) for some years now. They come from Portland, Oregon’s red-hot old-time music scene, but I love them because they have a different sound from other bands in that scene like Foghorn Stringband or The Water Tower Bucket Boys. They seem to have a real affinity for the creepy, dark side of roots music, and their early albums were like wonderful grab-bags of hobo songs inspired by super rare and scratchy 78s from long dead folk musicians. They’d toss in 30 second clips of field hollers, or little songs about werewolves along with the longer tracks and for the most part all of their music was traditional. Following a big lineup change that saw Kati Claborn, co-lead singer, leave the band for Blind Pilot, a popular Northwest indie rock band, Mighty Ghosts are back with a new album, Aberdeen, and a new sound.

Now led by singer/guitarist/harmonica player Gus Smith, Mighty Ghosts keep their old-timey roots strong, but most of the tracks on the new album are originals. Though originals were a small part of the earlier band’s repertoire, they’ve always had the ability to write killer neo-old-time songs, so I’m glad they’ve moved to this new focus. The standout track on this album is easily “The Type of Gals I Know”. It sounds like it’s cobbled together from vaudeville lyrics and Mae West one-liners, it's got a great “banjolele” back beat, and the trumpet solo is a burner! Plus I always love hearing the classic line “I’m a big fat woman/Got meat shakin’ out my bones/ Every time I shake it/A skinny gal loses her home”. I’m also partial to “Mayfly”, a sweet song with a winning melody and catchy chorus. In addition to Gus Smiths’ strained vocals, I also really like the rough-and-tumble fiddling of Linnea Spitzer. As a hardcore folk nerd, I love super-polished old-time fiddlers like Rayna Gellert or Bruce Molsky, but I also love old-time fiddling that really cuts loose and doesn’t worry about each bowstroke. That’s the real deal after all.

This is neo-hobo jugband music, full of strumming banjos, funky gutbucket basslines, bouncy rhythms and 1930s-inspired street smart lyrics. Mighty Ghosts are rough around the edges, so don’t expect any polished “Americana” here. This is a real band that understands that American roots music is more about kicking ass and dancing than trying to please the Nashville blogosphere.

Note: This article originally appeared as a guest post in our new favorite blog: American Standard Time. Pay them a visit!

Mighty Ghosts: The Type of Gals I Know

Mighty Ghosts: Mayfly

Join Celtic singer Colleen Raney to celebrate the release of her second album, Lark, in Seattle on January 20 at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center. Colleen breathes new life into traditional songs from Ireland, Scotland, and England and interprets contemporary songs as if they were passed down for generations. With her stunning voice and ace band, drawn from the best of the Northwest folk and Irish musicians, she's quickly become a bold new voice in Celtic music.
 

Colleen Raney CD Release Party

Thursday, January 20,

7:30pm, Tickets $10 adv, $15 door

Fremont Abbey Arts Center

Seattle, WA

MORE INFO ON Hearth Music's Concert Page
 

Colleen Raney first came to our attention with her stunning debut album, Linnet, a few years ago. But she's been part of the Irish and Scottish musical communities of the Northwest for some time now, both as a singer, a band leader and with the Raney family, a well-known family of musicians and dancers. When it came time to strike out on her own, she tapped into the network of amazing Celtic and acoustic musicians in the Northwest (who'll be joining her this Thursday), drawing guitarist Casey Neill, mandolinist Zak Borden, guitar/cittern player Colm MacCárthaigh, bassist Ezra Holbrook and drummer Matt Jerrell. Each of these musicians bring a solid instrumental base to her music, but it's her gorgeous voice that's been turning heads all around. Singing with a deep love for the tradition, and for the dark poetry of Celtic song, Colleen has been drawing new life from the old ballads and renewing our love for Celtic music. Have a listen to a few tracks from her album, Lark, and we think you'll agree:
 

Colleen Raney: Dark Eyed Sailor

Colleen Raney: Gallant Murray

So join Hearth Music and Colleen Raney (plus band!) Thursday, Jan 20, to celebrate the release of a great new CD of Northwest Celtic music. If you attended Kevin Burke's Open House at the Fremont Abbey, you know what a beautiful venue it is! See you there!

 
 

Here are some reviews that we've been sitting on for a while and kept meaning to post. Each of these CDs surprised us, either with an earnest love of the music, or a fresh take that we hadn't heard before. Have a listen and here's some new music that we think you'll enjoy!

Lakeside Gamblers: La Valse d'Hommage
2010. Salty Bayou Music.
 

I like to think that I'm pretty familiar with Louisiana's Cajun scene, and I've reviewed albums from young hotsters like Feufollet, Bonsoir Catin, and Joel Savoy, but the Lakeside Gamblers came out of the blue for me. I think they must operate at the edges of Cajun Country, which might account for their refreshingly different sound. Cajun dancehall music makes for pretty hardcore listening for people living outside Louisiana. The clash of the accordion and the fiddle, the insistent piercing call of the tit-fer (triangle) and the high-pitched vocals were all technical innovations designed to keep the dancefloor bumping, not for your standard folk music concert hall gigs. I love this sound, but I agree that it's often best in small doses and lower volumes. And too often the beautiful subtlety of the music gets lost in the relentless beat and aggression of the dance music. The Lakeside Gamblers have a much softer and introspective take on Cajun music than I would have thought. As lead singer/songwriter and accordionist Ganey Arsement says, "We play mostly as an acoustic trio which doesn't sit well in the dancehall scene, so we are constantly developing new venues and bringing the music to new people." It helps that their music is so accessible, for they never overwhlem or attack the listener with flashy runs or screaming vocals, but prefer to keep the music mellow and down to earth.

The Lakeside Gamblers all hail from Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city closer to East Texas than it is to the Cajun capital of Lafayette. Clint Ward, the fiddler for the Lakeside Gamblers, grew up in Lake Charles to a Filipino mother and a Texan father. He learned to love Cajun music from listening to Cajun radio stations with his dad, and went on to learn Cajun fiddling from Texas-fiddle influenced mentor Ken Smith (who played with Eddie Lejeune). Ward has a nice fiddling style that can alternate between heartfelt Southern waltzes and rolling Cajun rhythms and he throws some surprising tunes on the album, like his composed waltz "Adrienne's Dance", named for his daughter. Guitarist Mitch Simon comes from the small community of Wright, LA, not far from accordion legend Jesse Lege's hometown of Gueydan and about an hour SW of Lafayette. His mellow style of guitar accompanient goes a long way toward bringing out a softer side of the music. Together Mitch and Clint are a surprisingly soulful duo, and they work quite well with Ganey's accordion and singing.

Lakeside Gamblers: Two Step de Chagrin

Lead singer, songwriter and accordionist Ganey Arsement is the heart and soul of the Lakeside Gamblers. He has a relaxed, raw style of accordion playing that rolls along as easy as a Louisiana river, and a voice more suited to a singer-songwriter than the usual high-pitched moan of Cajun dancehall singing. I have immense respect for Cajun musicians who are writing new songs, and many of the songs on the album were written by Ganey. This shows not only a mastery of the language, but also differentiates him from other Cajun musicians who have lost their language and retain enough only to sing the old songs. As is typical for many Cajuns of the baby boomer generation, Ganey's parents didn't speak Cajun French when he was young, having been harshly discouraged by their school teachers.

Ganey did get to learn Cajun French from a family source, however: his grandparents. As he says: "Both of my parents worked, so I spent a great deal of time with my grandparents who spoke French when they didn't want me to know what they were talking about. It worked out good for me because I had to learn it to know." Ganey first heard Cajun music from his great-grandfather, a well-loved blacksmith and accordionist from Grand Lake who cut a 78 back in the day called "Two-Step du Forgeron" (The Blacksmith's Two-Step). Ganey has a nice story about how he came to play Cajun accordion in his 20s: "I didn't start playing accordion until I was 24 years old. My great-grandfather passed away when I was eleven, and for nearly thirteen years I had very little exposure to the music. A chance encounter with accordionist August Broussard led to my decision to learn to play. He raved about my great-grandfather and said it was a shame that I hadn't learned. I decided to learn to play two songs for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary and gave myself six months to do it. I already played guitar and thought it couldn't be too hard. I talked them into hiring August for the party so that he could call me up and surprise them. By the arrival of the party, I was quite capable, and August allowed me to play the majority of the time while he sang and his band backed me up. That was twenty years ago." 20 years later, Ganey and the Lakeside Gamblers are still bringing their love of Cajun traditions to new audiences.

Try it for a buck on iTunes: My favorite song on the album is "Changer Son Idée." It was written by Ganey and is one of the few examples I know of a Cajun gospel song, though in true Cajun tradition, even the power of God is overcome by the stubbornness of a woman.

Lakeside Gamblers: Changer son idée (G. Arsement) 

 
J’arrivée a ma maison, a ce matin, 
J’ai trouve’ une place abandonnée, 
Ma belle femme m’as quitte’ avec mes enfants, 
Pour joindre son frère et ses parents. 
 
Le Bon Dieu a fait l'arc‐en‐ciel, 
Le Bon Dieu a changé la nuit en jour, 
Le Bon Dieu a fait le vin de l’eau, 
Mais, Il peut pas changer son idée. 
 
J’ai demandé me donner une autre chance, 
Elle m'a dit elle  peut pas m'aimer, 
Notre mariage est plus casser pour sauver, 
C’e st la vie de cette musicien. 

I arrived at my house, this morning, 
I found an abandoned house, 
My wife left me with my children, 
To join her brother and her parents. 
 
The Lord, made rainbows in the sky, 
The Lord, changed night into day, 
The Lord, made wine from water, 
But He can’t change her mind. 
 
I asked her to give me another chance, 
She told me that she can’t love me, 
Our marriage is too broken to save, 
That is the life of this musician. 
 

Dr. Squeeze Guest Review

Andy Young. L'Accroche Pieds
2010. Self-published.

The first thing that caught my attention about Andy Young’s new CD was the title: L’Accroche Pieds. In French, “accrocher” means to catch, snag, or trip up. In this case, accroche-pieds means something that you would trip over or by extension a dance that would be tricky on your feet. I first heard the tune called “L'Accroche-Pied” played by the Québécois fiddler André Brunet on the Celtic Fiddle Festival recording, Équinoxe, that he made with Kevin Burke, Christian Lemaitre and Ged Foley. In that recording he plays a medley of Reel Desjarlis with L’Accroche-Pied. I was overjoyed to find these two tunes on Andy's new CD, along with true Québécois fiddle classics from Yvon Mimeault and André Alain. As an accordion player, I was delighted to find a few gems of French Musette music and as a lover of Irish music, I was enthralled with Andy’s choice of tunes as well as his fine playing of whistle and flute and the great fiddling of Jonathan Whitehall. To top it off, there are a few tracks with John Williams on Concertina ("M. Mimeault/M. Alain" and "Bee’s Wings").

This was definitely a CD I was fortunate to trip over. Andy’s dulcimer sometimes sounds a bit like a wire-strung Irish harp, and on the "Java Manouche" track makes me think of the Gypsy cymbalom. It also doesn’t hurt to have  gypsy jazz guitarist Alfonso Ponticelli helping out. I would recommend this CD to all my French-Canadian, Irish, Gypsy, Musette accordion, fiddle, flute, guitar and, of course, dulcimer playing friends. As an added bonus for Seattleites, Andy uses a Dusty Strings D25 hammered dulcimer and plays a tune from our very own resident fiddler-composer Richard Twomey called "The Long Drop." With this CD, Andy Young follows in the grand tradition of the 1980’s recordings of Malcolm Dalglish, Grey Larsen, and Pete Sutherland.

Andy Young feat. Alfonso Ponticelli: Java Manouche


Andy Young feat. John Williams: M. Mimeault et M. Alain

    

Roots and Branches, vol. 2: Live from the 2010 Northwest Folklife Festival.
2010. Northwest Folklife Recordings.

I'm a completely biased source to review this recording, because I helped restart the Northwest Folklife Recordings label a few years ago when I worked for the organization. But that also means that I know how tricky it can be to produce a CD of live festival recordings. It takes careful mastering and even more careful choosing of the material, and with a festival the size of Folklife (800+ bands, 25+ stages, 200,000+ people in attendance) this task can be overwhelming. So kudos to producer and festival coordinator Kelli Faryar for working so hard after the Festival to put this fun compilation together.

There are plenty of solid folk music performances and a handful of stand-out, amazing tracks on this compilation. Just like the Festival itself, this album lets you browse the many performers who play every year and lets you choose your own favorites. And like Folklife, there's a surprise or a new favorite band around each corner. The biggest surprise for me was Tibetan singer Karsangjamtso "Karjam" Saeji, now living on Lopez Island. Tibetan singing is otherworldly and transcendent, and Karjam's voice floats like a prayer flag in the air. Karjam Saeji is a huge talent in our region and a new discovery to me.

Karjam Saeji: Tserjih Tsomo


Buy Karjam's CD on CDBaby

I was also pleasantly surprised by young folk duo The Parlour Hoppers, who turned in a powerful version of "Wild Bill Jones." I really shouldn't be surprised by this, since mandolinist and singer Ethan Lawton is one of the best roots musicians in Seattle (and one of our best-kept secrets). In fact it's something of a tradition for him to be featured on a Northwest Folklife recording. He's been on the past three (including this one), though no one realized this until recently. He's just so good that he kept popping up on our list of best recordings from each festival!

The Parlour Hoppers: Wild Bill Jones
 

Other stand-out tracks include the Scottish song "Geordie" from Celtic singer Colleen Raney, a beautiful Mexican ballad from Los Flacos (led by monster musician Abel Rocha on harp and vocals), and a fun romp with Portland's Balkan punk band Chervona (think Gogol Bordello).

Of course, if you're looking for polished studio recordings, this wont be the CD for you. The tracks are rough and raw, and the point of the recording is to transport you back to last year's Festival. You'll find yourself recalling your own memories and remembering how much fun you had. I can't guarantee you'll like every song on this CD, but, like the Northwest Folklife Festival itself, I can guarantee that you'll be surprised and inspired by something you didn't expect. 
 

Hearth Music is proud to present a first guest blog from our friend, Si Matta. Si's organization, Gathering the Stories, has been recording elders, family and friends in the Communities (Native and Non-Native) that make the Columbia River Gorge their home. Though the First People were key to Lewis & Clark's explorations of the Gorge, they're mainly remembered today through the haunting Petroglyphs, like Tsaglalal (She Who Watches), that mark the rocks above the Gorge and through the common Folklore of the Region.

Si wishes to reconnect to a deeper understanding of how the Mountains and Rivers and Volcanoes and Animals shaped his Tribes (Watlala/Cascade/Cowlitz) Spiritual and Cultural world view and how that intersects in a Changing World today. It is also a project of redefining identity in this Changing World and recreating his Tribal (Native & Non-Native) Myth into something new, yet from the very source his People came from; The Land!

Si has a keen eye for the ways in which culture and nature interact and his blog has some wonderful stories and musings, not to mention beautiful videos and audio tracks. Welcome Si Matta to Hearth Music!