We get a lot of music at Hearth Music HQ, and are currently working on a stack of about 30 CDs up for review. We listen to everything we get, of course, and we've been blessed to have received so much great music recently. Still, some songs stand out. Way out. These are the songs we keep listening to over and over. We keep coming back to them for more. It's not always something we can describe, but this music hits deep and stays in our mind for days, weeks, sometimes months.

Thanks to a miserable Winter/Spring (we'd call this blog post "Spring 2011" except we never got a Spring) in the Northwest, we've been listening to lots of dark Celtic and old-time music, so that's seeped into this list for sure. It's now mid-May and still feels like deep winter. Dive into these old, eerie ballads that have been keeping us awake at night.

Furnace Mountain: Winter's Night


I first heard this song from Doc Watson and have loved it ever since, collecting all the versions of it that I could find. Virginia based neo old-time band Furnace Mountain just turned up one of my favorite versions, and it's mostly due to lead singer Aimee Curl's beuguiling voice. She sounds kind of like one of the Be Good Tanyas (except you can understand what she's saying). Her voice is breathy, even translucent, and it brings a slightly eerie edge to the music. The rest of the band is hot as well! The burnin' mandolin riffs between the verses, and the shuffling fiddle are testament to that. But I just keep coming back to Aimee's voice, there's something there that I just can't get enough of. The rest of the album is recommended as well. It's a great blend of traditional old-timey songs with instrumental tunes that successfully ride the line between razor-sharp bluegrass and funky old-time picking.
 

Nicolas Pellerin et les Grands Hurleurs: Corsaire

Nicolas Pellerin is a young Québécois musician from a beloved musical and storytelling family. His brother, Fred Pellerin, is a storytelling superstar in Québec, where the Irish gift of gab has been whole-heartedly adopted by French-Canadians. I first met Nicolas when he was touring with Yves Lambert, the clown prince of Québécois traditional music. He's got a fiery fiddle style and a great love for the powerful ballads of the French-Canadian tradition. You have to have a special kind of charisma to pull off these epic songs, and Nicolas was one of the few young musicians I'd seen who could really do them justice. Now he's branched off with his own band, Les Grands Hurleurs, and managed to turn a trio of musicians into a full band sound. The two other members of the band, Simon Lepage and Simon Marion, both come from Montreal's ridiculously advanced jazz scene, and have huge chops. This old sea ballad is our favorite track on Pellerin's debut album. It's the story of an unlucky ship, le Grand Hurleur, and its many misadventures on the high seas.
 

The Outside Track: The Turkish Revery


The Outside Track are one of the best Celtic bands we've heard in a long time, and that's saying something! They effortlessly combine a number of Celtic traditions into a smoothly polished sound that's as complex and virtuosic as it is accessible. No easy feat! A cross-Canadian, trans-Atlantic band, fluter and lead singer Norah Rendell hails from Vancouver, BC, fiddler Mairi Rankin comes from the prestigious Rankin Family of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, guitarist Cillian O'Dálaigh has a background in Irish music from the University of Limerick, Scottish harpist Ailie Robertson is from Edinburgh, and accordionist Fiona Black is from the Scottish Highlands. Whew, this kind of band is only possible in today's global music world, and it must be tough coordinating all those schedules. But the good news is that their sound is totally unified, despite their many national origins. And what a compelling sound! You can hear it on the song "The Turkish Revery". Norah's gorgeous voice soars over the old ballad, anchored by eerie side melodies from the harp and finger-picked guitar, while Fiona's accordion buzzes beneath like a roiling cauldron. But the clincher for me is the face-punch of Mairi's Cape Breton fiddle bursting through the canvas on the breaks. Cape Breton has the most hardcore, raucous fiddle style I've ever heard, and also one of the most beautiful. This band is a bold experiment in Celtic crossover and they don't slip up once. Definitely a must-have album for Celtic music heads.
 

Susie Glaze: Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender

The high lonesome sound is rarely used to describe women in bluegrass and old-time music, but it's there. It's not as raw and keening as Roscoe Holcomb, but it's a sound that flies over the tops of our heads and nestles in the high rafters of our music halls. Susie Glaze has this sound in her voice, and she knows how to use it.We found this gorgeous cover of the old Childe ballad, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender," on Susie's tribute album to the music of Jean Ritchie. Ritchie, a seminal bard of the Appalachian mountains, is known for singing unaccompanied ballads. These epic songs are melodically difficult to pull off, especially since tradition forbids the cushioning use of vibrato. So the fact that Susie Glaze would approach this song in the spirit of Ritchie, who grew up deeply immersed in the tradition, is impressive. We love Susie's voice on this song. It's as delicate as a crystal goblet, immaculately shaped and conceived, but too pure to survive anything but the most perfect of moments. There's something magical about her singing here, especially when you consider the deep heartbreak in these ancient words.

NOTE: You can hear more from Susie Glaze in Hearth Music's Online Listening Lounge!

Finnders & Youngberg: Fiddlin' To My Grave

We're running promotion on the new album from Finnders & Youngberg, and proud to do so. It's a wholly original album that well represents the new bluegrass sounds coming out of Colorado's mountain festivals and picking parties. This song, "Fiddlin' To My Grave" is absolutely our favorite song of the new album and it's on constant rotation on our computer. It's a dark and honest look at the life of a touring musician, told from the perspective of a professional bluegrass fiddler. Mike Finders' voice is perfect for this song, with a knife-blade edge that cuts through the song. There's no nostalgia for sepia-toned Americana here, this is bluegrass the way it was originally built: rough and raw and full of life.

NOTE: You can hear more from Susie Glaze in Hearth Music's Online Listening Lounge!
 

Brazilian Choro is Starting Fires in the Pacific NW

Guest Blog By Zak Borden

Dudu Maia with Douglas & Alexandre Lora: Santa Morena


Choro, also known as chorinho (“little cry” or “little lament”), is a style of Brazilian music from the turn of the century in Rio. The music is a virtuosic blend of intricately syncopated rhythm, melody, counterpoint, and chords characteristic of early American jazz. Choro features a variety of different instruments, among them: mandolin, clarinet, 7 string guitar (rhythm and bass lines), cavaquinho (a tiny 4 string guitar playing primarily rhythm) and pandeiro (a tambourine played with the attack and swinging bounce of samba).

Like many mandolinists, I was introduced to this music through composer Jacob Do Bandolim after David Grisman had reissued some of the classic recordings on his Acoustic Disc label. I later took a choro master class with Grisman’s former band mate Mike Marshall and soon developed an addiction more consuming than my obsession with bluegrass. I now play in a trio called The Brazillionaires out of Portland, OR.

The appeal of this music for me lies not only in its passion and romance, but the challenge of it all. It is a musical workout on every conceivable level. Its acrobatic rhythms, romantic melodies and harmonies are all threaded together with playful, often aggressive lines that seem to hit their targets at the last possible moment. Attempting such a style can be very humbling for a self-taught northerner. So I have sought the counsel of Brazilian masters like mandolinist Dudu Maia. He will be here with 7-Stringed guitar maestro Douglas Lora in April performing several concerts. They will be also be teaching a four-day intensive at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA. Also on faculty are Andy Connell and Brian Rice (members of Mike Marshall’s band) as well as the brilliant Jovino Santos Neto who now lives in Seattle after a long stint on tour with Brazilian musical genius Hermeto Pascoal. Yikes!…Let me catch my breath.

I live in Portland, OR, a far cry from the sweltering, busy streets of Rio. But something strange is happening here. Choro seems to be exploding. Between April 12 and 23rd, there will be a plethora of events all around the Northwest including a big benefit for Japan in Portland featuring Dudu and Douglas (see below). All of this hoopla, in part, will be to celebrate the birthday of Brazil’s most beloved choro composer Pixinguinha (April 23, 1897).

Check out mandolim master Dudu Maia playing the classic Tico Tico:

Sat, April 23rd (DAYTIME 2pm-7pm)
DIA DO CHORO!
With: Rio Con Brio, Infinite Bossa, Rio Nights, Na Mesa, The Brazillionaires, Guitarist Allen Mathews, Eastside Choro Project, David Ambrose and more!
The Lucky Lab
Multnomah Village, 2nd floor
7675 SW Capitol Highway
Portland, OR

Sat, April 23rd (Evening)
Rio Con Brio featuring Alexandra Buys singing fado
Old Church
Portland, Oregon
1422 SW 11th, Portland, OR, 97201. Show 7:30pm.
Tix $15
 

Sat, April 23rd
Jovino Santos Neto Quarteto
(with Jeff Busch on drums and percussion, Chuck Deardorf on bass and Ben Thomas on vibraphone)
Bake’s Place
4135 Providence Point Dr SE, Issaquah, WA 98029-7222, (425) 391-3335

This is what we played for Hearth Music: NW Roots and Beyond, a radio show on Radio23's Cascade Community Radio that airs every Wed at 10am!

[Song Title/Artist]... Google artist names for more info

Grand Tasso: Red Stick Ramblers
Innocent Road: Caleb Klauder
Le Jug au Plombeau: Cedric Watson
Hard Time: Scott H. Biram
Blackbird Pickin' At A Squirrel: Water Tower Bucket Boys
Wild Hog in the Woods: Foghorn Duo
I Can't Be Satisfied: Muddy Waters
Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad: Golden River Grass Group
Southern Can is Mine: Blind Willie McTell
Ragged but Right: The Inkwell Rhythm Makers
Story from Strawmouth: Blackbird Raum
Dirt Dozens No. 1: Speckled Red
Cort's Blue Rooster Rag: Cort Armstrong
I'm Going to a City: Brother Mike Halcomb
Working on a Building: David Goliath
Honey Baby: Cahalen Morrison
Titanic: Scott H. Biram
God Moves on the Water: Blind Willie Johnson
Nonc' Yorick (La Bataille de 1916): Red Stick Ramblers
When a Gator Holler, Folks Say it's a Sign of Rain: Margaret Johnson and The Black & Blue Trio (1926)
My Suitcase is Always Packed: Red Stick Ramblers
Suitcase Blues: Hersel Thomas
Lost Indian: The Hammons Family
Pretty Polly: Old Sledge
Washington's March: The Tallboys
Chicken Pickin': Cort Armstrong
La La Blues: Pokey Lafarge & The South City Three
Farmer's Daughter: The Tallboys
Cock-a-Doodle: Eamonn Coyne & Kris Drever
Gardes là bas: Cedric Watson et Bijou Créole
Can't Be Satisfied: Hillstomp
Heaven: Water Tower Bucket Boys
Fall on My Knees: Sam Amidon
Set of Reels: Amidon Alderson Murphy
Across the Black Prairie: Black Prairie
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: Bruce Molsky
Climbing High Mountains: Sam Amidon

THANKS FOR LISTENING!
We'll be back on Wednesday, 5/12, from 10am-noon
ONLINE @ Cascade Community Radio
 

What We're Listening To is a new type of blog entry intended to give all our friends a quick sample of the various CDs we've been listening to over the past month. Take some time to explore these different mini-reviews and to listen to this great music.

Sean Hayes: "Run Wolves Run"
Self-Released, 2010

While it seems that there are a lot of singer-songwriters mining their inner folk-nerd these days, Sean Hayes has been tapping the folk vein for long enough that his music has a truth to it that's rarely heard in his genre. His previous albums had a mellower vibe, perhaps born of the deep deep bohemian roots of San Francisco, where he lives. I guess you could say he took Gary Snyder's path out of San Francisco's beat corridors, aiming his sights on the emptiness and quiet of the Northwest's natural environment, instead of the frenetic kinetic path of Kerouac. But his new album, Run Wolves Run, has an edge that I haven't heard before in his music. Maybe the cover photo of a woman wrestling a snarling wolf to the ground has influenced my listening, but the music here is harder, angrier, more serious than what I've heard from him. He's also joined by a full electrified band in this recording, a departure from his lo-fi roots.  Happily, his cracked voice has remained the same. It's the hallmark of his distinctive sound and a delicious pleasure to me.

Open Up A Window


Garden

 

Eamonn Coyne & Kris Drever: "Honk Toot Suite"
Compass Records, 2006
 

Now, I'm the kind of folk music nerd that would buy a duet album of Irish trad music on banjo and guitar without blinking an eye, and settle back to geek out on the sparkling triplets and Old World twang of the Irish tenor banjo in all its glory, but the good news here is that you don't have to be a nerd like me to appreciate this amazing CD.  Through the sheer power of great musicianship, Irish banjoist Eamonn Coyne and Orcadian (look it up, it's got nothing to do with Lord of the Rings!) singer/guitarist Kris Drever manage to completely transcend their humble instruments.  It's no small feat, and makes for one of the nicest CDs I've heard in a while.  I'm tempted to say that their effortless playing lends a certain lift and joy to the music, especially on the surprisingly fun "Lakeside Barndances", featuring some faboo vintage lilting. But then Kris slips into a dark, heavy ballad like "The Viking's Bride" and you realize that same effortless spirit can touch a lot deeper than you would have thought. I think the real secret with this album is that both artists just sat down to make a record of their favorite tunes and songs, regardless of that material's country of origin. Their joy and passion for the music translates well.

Lakeside Barndances (Eddie Duffy's/The Stack of Oats/Eddie Duffy's)


The Viking's Bride (written by Kris' father, Ivan Drever)

 

The Tallboys: "Around the Bend"
Self-Released, 2009
 

For those of us who like our Southern old-time music to move as fast as one of those freaky zombies in 28 Days Later, the Tallboys can sure deliver. This is folk music that's not afraid to nut up.  Each member of the Tallboys is a hardcore traditional musician in their own right, and after having cut their teeth on countless square dances, busking spots at Pike Place Market, and festivals in the NW, they've got a ridiculously polished sound.  Joe Fulton leads the tunes on fiddle, with the loosest bowing arm I've ever seen. He's a powerhouse fiddler and one of the best kept secrets in our Northwest old-time scene. He's a great singer too, and has a fun twang in his voice that goes well with his fiddling. Banjoist Charlie Beck matches Joe on both clawhammer and five-string banjo, a rare feat. With his musical partner, Charmaine Slaven, he also leads a number of songs. Charmaine's a great performer, and happily her dynamite clogging is featured here on a number of tracks. John Hurd lays down the bass lines throughout, and after watching the band live at Conor Byrne's this past weekend, here's hoping he joins in on more songs in the future! Yep, The Tallboys are a tall glass of about-damn-time for us hardcore old-time music-heads and are bound to be a revelation for anyone interested in straight-up American roots music.
 

Cindy (old-time tune from Melvin Wine)


Bound to Ride (w/Charmaine's clogging!)


PSSSST: You can check out Charlie & Charmaine's fun duo, Squirrel Butter, in our Listening Lounge.

Chris Coole & Ivan Rosenberg: "Farewell Trion"
Vol-O-Tone Records, 2010

I'm a sucker for a good dobro player; there's something about the dreamy way the notes slide around, letting in all kinds of silence while creating such rich tones. It's kind of a zen instrument, I guess. On this newly released duet album, the zen-like quality of Ivan Rosenberg's dobro contrasts nicely with the choppy rhythms of Chris Coole's clawhammer banjo playing. Both players are virtuosos on their instruments, but have the good taste to leave the flaming solos behind here and focus on the power of the music. Each song and tune is tastefully arranged and played with such a soft touch that you start to hear all kinds of different sides to the music that you didn't expect. A rowdy ballad like "Willie Duncan" with lyrics like "Cruel Willie ain't you sad, for makin' all the women feel bad" takes on a darker, more melancholic atmosphere than I'd have thought possible, thanks to the Chris Coole's gentle voice and Ivan's sweeping dobro passages.  Though Chris hails from Toronto, he has such a wide knowledge of old-time banjo traditions and such a nice twang in his voice, that I really thought he was born and bred in the Appalachians. Ivan's a well-respected session musician from the Pacific Northwest. Currently living in Portland, Oregon, he guests on many albums and composes original music that has been featured on national TV shows. I hope both these artists will continue to play together and tour, and with a CD like this, they deserve to be much better known on the national folk scene.

John Hardy


Willie Duncan

Walter Spencer: "A Sunday Night Roast"
Self-Released, 2010

I  know Walter Spencer best as the bass player for the Northwest's premier alt-old-time band, The Water Tower Bucket Boys. He's got a crazy sense of humor in the band, and when I saw them live at El Corazon in Seattle, he led the band in a rousing rendition of "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap", a song he wrote about the true story of a friend that got busted for contraband thanks to a bottle of Dr. Bronner's. This song has the excellent chorus "It makes my baaaaallls tingle, but it don't get me high!". While a treatise on testicular tropes in American folk song may not be appropriate for this blog, suffice it to say that Walter joins a rich history of folk musicians drawing from this particular aspect of the human condition. Walter was kind enough to send me a copy of his new CD, A Sunday Night Roast, which features all-original songs and tunes and guest appearances from his many friends in the old-time/bluegrasss worlds. These friends range from Irish accordionist Johnny B. Connolly to French Acadian singer Nadine Landry, old-time fiddler Sammy Lind of Foghorn Stringband, and Josh Rabie and Cory Goldman of The Water Tower Bucket Boys. It's a fun CD and it sounds like it must have been a blast to record. There's a laid-back vibe to the album that I can only attribute to Walter's roots in the punk and folk communities of Los Angeles. These are the kind of songs you'd hope to sing along with at beach bonfires in LA, or in hippie communes in the hills of Southern California. It's not the most-PC album you'll hear (thank God!), but Walter's good nature shines throughout and welcomes you into to his delightfully warped worldview.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap

Wedding Song

PSST: It's not on Walter's CD, but he gave me permission to post my favorite song of his:

Fuck Work

Just a quick note to let y'all know that we'll also be blogging on No Depression's website:

Hearth Music on No Depression
http://www.nodepression.com/profile/HearthMusic

They've got a great site going for Roots/Americana artists and lots of good bloggers. For topics that are a bit outside the bounds of Hearth Music, I'll be blogging there exclusively.  Check out a guest blog from our good friend, Zach, on chamber-folk group Black Prairie's debut concert in Portland.

http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/black-prairie-concert-review
 

Here at Hearth Music we're pretty obsessed with traditional roots music. You know, like Irish fiddle, old-time banjo pickin', Cajun accordion, French-Canadian foot-tapping, and so on and on.  But what we REALLY like is when master artists jump across genres and look for inspiration in other traditions than their own.  The resulting musical melange is nothing short of delicious, in most cases. 

One of our favorite genre-jumping inspirations comes from traditional Irish musicians playing American old-time music.  There's something about the blend of deep-rooted Appalachian rhythms meeting the florid embellishments of the Celtic lands.  Guess it's kind of a mystical thing.  Or something.

 So imagine how happy we were upon hearing that the great Irish singer Cathy Jordan, of Irish super-steamroller-group Dervish, had joined up with her Americana-leaning bandmate Seamie O'Dowd and American folk musician Rick Epping, to record an album of songs and tunes that cross back and forth over the "watery main" (as the Atlantic used to be called).  The group is The Unwanted, and the CD, out now on Compass Records, is pretty awesome.  I can't stop listening to this track in particular, a Leadbelly song called "Out on the Western Plain", that brings the rough-and-tumble cowboy experience of the West back to some of its Irish immigrant roots.

Out on the Western Plain: The Unwanted

Did you notice the bass in that track? That was Cathy Ryan playing the basslines on her Irish bodhran (frame drum)!!  The Unwanted are pretty great instrumentalists too, and here they are trying their hand at a popular old-time tune, Shove the Pig's Foot A Little Further in the Fire, followed by a rarer American version of the Irish tune Greenfields of America:

Shove The Pig's Foot Set: The Unwanted

This got me to thinking about the other examples I had of powerhouse Irish trad players jumping into the old-time pool at the deep end.  So here are some great tracks from my collection.

Accordionist Sharon Shannon is probably the Irish trad musician best known for jumping traditions.  She's included old-time tunes in her CDs, as well as French-Canadian, Scandinavian, Klezmer, really whatever catches her fancy. Here's a spectacular rendition of the old-time tunes Billy in the Lowground and Lost Girl from Shannon's collaboration with Irish fiddle god Frankie Gavin.

Billy in the Low Ground: Sharon Shannon/Frankie Gavin/Mick McGoldrick

Actually, Shannon's home county of Clare in Ireland is home to most of my favorite Irish old-time tunes. The music of Clare, renowned for its long-drawn out melodies and thoughtful rhythmic phrasing, has a lot in common with Appalachian music, and these connections seem to remain to the present day.  Here's a fun version of the old-time chestnut Stone's Rag, transformed into a memorable Irish tune with an even more memorable title.

48 Dogs in the Meathouse: Kevin Griffin (Irish tenor banjo)

And then there are those fiddlers in Clare that just sound like they came out of the Appalachian old-time scene.  The best example is Mary Custy, who often tours with Sharon Shannon.  Custy's playing is certainly Irish, but to me seems to dip towards old-time fiddling at times.  You can judge for yourself, but I hear some kind of connection there that bridges the divide between the traditions.

Road to Miltown: Mary Custy

Of course, some artists have gone looking for the connections between Irish and old-time music, sometimes with spectacular results!  The Transatlantic Sessions united the best musicians of Ireland and America in an exploration of common roots. The results were pure genius. Check out this super-group of musicians from both side of the water playing that familiar tune, Shove That Pig's Foot A Little Further In The Fire: