Tag: "folk"

Kathy Mattea has done it again.

When the two-time GRAMMY Award winner released Coal in 2008, many critics thought it’s powerful messages about Appalachia would be impossible to replicate. That’s understandable when you consider the Charleston, W. Va. native wrote the 11 songs on Coal as a way to spotlight the Montcoal, W. Va. mining disaster that killed 29 people. But what Mattea did on the album even beat that lofty goal; she turned the songs into a story of those that lived in the area for decades, continually triumphing over oppression.

Although Mattea has had more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart including “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” and ”Goin’ Gone,” she has no qualms about turning back to her folk, bluegrass roots for her latest album though it moves her away from the country music spotlight. Mattea recently took time to talk about her new album, her time in mainstream country, and how a sense of place plays into her music. Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Kathy Mattea Talks About ‘Calling Me Home’’

On August 28th and 29th, folk rock sensations Mumford & Sons performed at the famous and awe-inspiring Red Rocks Amphitheater near Morrison, Colorado. From this experience, the band plans to release a documentary called Road To Red Rocks, including footage of the live performance, life on the road, and, in an interesting twist, fan submitted home-videos of their experiences before, during, and after the show. Now, after a three part series of promo trailers, the band have released their official music video for new single “I Will Wait” off their upcoming album Babel, which will be out September 24th. Click here for preorders, and check out the video below:

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If you like truly heartfelt folk-rock, then check out The Avett Brothers‘ new album The Carpenter streaming for a limited time on NPR. Followup to 2009′s breakthrough release I And Love And You, this new album carries on the band’s natural tendency to write passionate heart-on-sleeve romps and lullabies with dynamically diverse folky instrumentation. Despite reaching recent stardom the brothers and crew have not lost their knack for soothing honesty. While touching on many of life’s more trying tribulations, they still keeping those catchy feel-good melodies and rhythms alive.

The Carpenter is due out on September 11th, followed by a full U.S. tour starting on the 12th.

Death Cab For Cutie singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard has a solo album coming out on October 16th called Former Lives. Head to Hypertrak.com to hear the single ”Teardrop Windows.” As one would expect, it sounds pretty much like Death Cab, but with a little more of a folky twang and, in contrast to the title and lyrics, it has a nice upbeat and easy-going feel, which is a good fit for the indie/shoegaze singer.

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The all-American folk-rock “Jokerman” himself is back… apparently followed by a posse of young cholos, scantily clad women, and a guy dressed like Gene Simmons. Yes, Bob Dylan‘s new video for his single “Duquesne Whistle” is quite a bizarre one. It starts as some cute and innocent boy-meets-girl scenario, fitting the light jaunty mood of the song, but quickly goes awry in a twisted and hilarious way. Head over to Rolling Stone to see it for yourself. The new song is off Dylan’s upcoming album Tempest, which is due out September 11th.

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Having grown up in a family of truck drivers, OurStage artist Kate Tucker seems to have inherited from them a sixth sense for the state of the nation. It’s a type of understanding that isn’t based on national polls or facts, but on the accumulation of individual tales that, when woven together, depict the full American canvas. On her latest album, Ghost of Something New, Tucker offers acute insights into the national mood through intimate stories of love gone awry. Melancholy, yet hopeful, the collection of songs is at once a rumination on failed previous relationships as well as a depiction of a country that similarly cannot stop contemplating its own path and past.

In Tucker’s lyrics, descriptions of romantic disappointment continuously spill over into distinctly American despair. When she sings “Baby what you’re saying / It ain’t worth a dime / One more deal on main street / And you’ll be doing time,” the empty promises of a dishonest lover sound unmistakably like the deceitful Wall Street dealings that spawned recent financial crises. Populist rhetoric reminiscent of the occupy camps appears over the rollicking drum beat of “Revolution” as well; the singer asks her lover, “Don’t you want to start it / Start a revolution / Take it down to Houston?” While Tucker’s narrators may cling to the particularly American belief that it is always possible to start anew, they are more likely to ruminate on the improbability of that same dream, falling “back into the distance / Searching for some old ancient truth.”

Like her aimlessly wandering lovers who vainly mine the past for guidance, Tucker’s America can only weakly imitate its own outdated victories. Ubiquitous pop clichés are repeated in strange semantic inversions (“I’m gonna get you over”) and familiar instrumental conventions of folk and Americana emerge from the arrangements like ghostly spectres. Lap steel and harmonica hide in the background mix while weary, fuzzed-out electric guitars languish in gallons of reverb. Over the swell, Tucker delivers her lyrics in a breathy alto, at times no louder than a hushed whisper. While this all may give the impression that Ghost of Something New is disconsolate and moody, the album doesn’t discount hope as an impossible commodity. As the closing track “New Orleans” builds to a climax, its single-note piano line becomes subtly dissonant and faltering, but doesn’t fall apart completely. It holds on until the last moment in order to deliver a final delicate chord. In this moment, missteps don’t seem fatal, and the future isn’t bound inextricably to failures of the past. It’s a muted type of hope, but it exists, and it’s as much as the lovelorn narrators of Tuckers songs can continue to long for.

Download Ghost of Something New at Kate Tucker’s Bandcamp page!

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The headliners at this year’s FloydFest—including Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Ricky Skaggs, Brandi Carlile, and the Drive-By Truckers—were  as amazing as you’d expect from internationally known and much-lauded musicians. But the real treat at the 11th Annual FloydFest, a four-day world music festival in Floyd, Virg., was arguably the array of up-and-coming artists certain to burst into prominence not too far into the future.

Amber Rubarth was clearly at the front of that line. Perhaps that’s not surprising when you consider she’s a fixture on New York’s indie scene and has won such accolades as the Grand Prize in NPR’s Mountain Stage New Song Contest. Her recent album A Common Case of Disappearing, which features duets with Jason Reeves and Jason Mraz, debuted at No. 13 on iTunes. Watching her spin her musical web of alt-country, folk tunes on various stages at FloydFest, one couldn’t help but be struck by her poise and warmth, which translated into her music.

“I was really shy growing up,” said Amberth when discussing her set. “Music gave me the outlet to be able to get out my feelings and get out things I wanted to say that were more personal, even if I couldn’t say it in a conversation. It’s really powerful for me. It’s a way of healing, releasing, really.”

Those feelings translated to the audience, too, when Rubarth joined the Ivy League Hillbillies set that had nine up-and-coming musicians on stage and when she played her own sets—including a brand new song “The Maiden and the Ram,” that got the audience dancing.

Continue reading ‘Your Country’s Right Here: Amber Rubarth Wows at FloydFest’

Earlier this year, English folk/punk singer-songwriter Frank Turner announced that he would be starting a hardcore band. This may have come as a shock to some Frank fans, but to those who remember his post-hardcore band Million Dead, it should be no surprise that the artist is returning to his rugged roots. Even his solo songs are riddled with punk influence and commentary on the hardcore scene. This new side project is called Mongol Horde. Check out their debut song and video “Casual Threats From Weekend Hardmen” below:

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David Mayfield needs to come with a warning label.

Anyone who has attended one of this season’s music festivals and been lulled into the mind-numbing sameness of some performers will want to buckle up before Mayfield blasts onto the stage. Not only is his music a high-powered, joyous Americana with a dollop of rock, but Mayfield’s bouncing enthusiasm—jumping into the crowd, prodding them to join him in song—is beyond infectious. Think a Jack Black persona with first-rate Americana folk rock and you’re on the right track. Perhaps that’s why Mayfield is about the only person who may be surprised at his success, which includes recently raising double the cash he sought to fund his next album.

“I had no idea the first one would be so well received,” said Mayfield of his first album. “I’ve had lots of fans tell me that they proposed while listening to “Breathe of Love” or walked down the aisle while it was playing. I feel like it’s almost out of my hands now. I talked to [the Avett Brothers'] Seth Avett and he told me at some point, you will write something from a personal place and people will relate to it and it will become theirs, too.”

In a way, Mayfield has become part of the Avett success story, as well. It was the Avett Brothers—Scott and Seth—who “discovered” him when he was touring as the bassist for his sister Jessica Lea Mayfield. Soon Mayfield, who also wrote songs for Cadillac Sky, was sitting in with the Avetts at Bonnaroo and Merlefest. Not that the musical path has been completely smooth even for Mayfield, who was born into such a musical family and has found support among A-list musicians.

One reason Mayfield calls his group a “Parade” is that players tend to come and go. Sure everyone wants to play at such high-profile gigs as DelFest, which Mayfield and his players did after accepting a personal invitation from bluegrass great Del McCoury, but when the bar gigs roll around some players tend to drop out. But that doesn’t stem Mayfield’s enthusiasm in writing and performing his original songs not to mention an occasional cover or sitting in with Luther Dickinson or other A-list performers.

Continue reading ‘Your Country’s Right Here: The David Mayfield Parade Poised for the Big Time’

Sitting around a fire after a long day of travelling, roasting the rewards of the hunt over an open flame, singing songs of home, of protest, of past adventures; this is the heart and soul of folk music, which has been shared by people all over the world for centuries. Folk music is the original ethos that embodies all attributes of culture, so it’s no wonder that the genre has stuck around for so long. However, in the last eighty years or so, folk music has taken a back seat to other popular genres. There was, of course, the revolutionary folk revival of the ’50s and ’60s that left us with the soothing poetics of Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and Simon & Garfunkel, but this movement ultimately sank back to the shadows as the 70’s brought on new musical trends. What most people don’t know, however, is that folk music has been silently plotting another massive revival.

That’s right, everyone, folk is back. That’s not to say it was necessarily gone, but it’s on its way to regaining overall respect on popular music charts once again. Of course, folk has always had its own niche in the industry, but it has rarely stepped very far from this realm in recent years. The popular music scene is generally overrun with modern rock, R&B, and pop, but there is strong evidence that folk is creeping its way back into the spotlight. In fact, the song currently sitting at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart is Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’, which, to the surprise of many, was actually written as a folk song. This chart has also featured artists like Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes, and Of Monsters And Men who all have strong folk rock influences in their music. The appearances of groups like these on popular charts has since introduced a new generation of fans to the rich heritage of folk music styles that originated hundreds of years ago, thus propelling the cause to return folk to its original status in the industry.

Continue reading ‘Folk The Revival: Traditions Taking Over’