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!