Kyle Adem is a folk musician from Gastonia, North Carolina, who dropped out of a buisness administration major to pursue his own creative goals. I find myself drawn to this sort of character - people with that extra bit of determination to shun the stereotypical school-college-job-retire route for something risky but rewarding.
Across his work I hear a number of influences. ‘I’ll Get Back To You’ and 'Glorious’ are reminiscent of The Mountain Goats, 'Brother, Follow’ has suggestions of Andy Hull and 'Sunlight & The Sea’ is much more of a rock song, something that Jeremiah Nelson might have made. This isn’t to say that Adem does not have his own sound, the comparisons merely show how varied he is able be.
Adem is a storyteller and his songs are richy created with a passion and anger. 'Brother, Follow’, standout track on the new LP Armour, highlights this perfectly; An age-old disatisfaction with society, exasperation at the situation all underpinned with with a yearning for something, a hope that prevents the song from being downright violent but rather a furious wish for better.
Armour is due for release on July 24. Previous releases can be bought here.
We wrote about Kyle Adema while back, with his album Armour catching our eye with frantic storytelling in the vein of Andy Hull.
Syracuse, his new album, is very different from that record. The title track that opens proceedings is a strange and otherworldly spoken word piece that builds into something cinematic, the soundtrack of a weird old sci-fi film set in a future year that has already passed. It ends with an alarm clock sound just as the song was building toward a climax, as if Adem was exploring an alternate reality where he played with computers rather than guitars. It’s an effective opening that certainly makes you sit up to see where the album takes you next.
The album flits between with traditional songwriting with guitar strumming and experimental nods to other genres, refusing to sit nicely in the ‘folk’ box. With spoken word bits and different instruments appearing throughout, you never quite know what is around the corner. 'St. John’s Ukrainian Catholic Church’ is an urgent message that John Darnielle would be proud of, and the next track 'I am Alright’ is a regular folk song that you might expect after Armour, but then 'I Am Not’ defies all expectations and does whatever the hell it pleases. It’s a tangled jungle of a song with snaking tendrils feeling in all sorts of directions from 80s electronica to hip-hop and rap and even a Paul Simon inspired ending.
There is something admirable about Kyle Adem. We mentioned last time that he left a career in buisness to pursue his creative ideals and that attitude is present on Syracuse. This is the record, these are the songs, listen to them. If they are hard to characterise then, frankly, that is none of his concern. Where he goes next will be very interesting to see.
In fact, it was Statz who alerted us to Nelson’s new release, describing it as an EP he feels strongly about. Trusting his word, and feeling an obligation to finally cover Nelson in a proper post, we dove into Whittier.
On first impression, the EP seems a tad gentler than previous release Drugs to Make You Sober. The tempo is undoubtedly slower; the guitars played down a little, the drums are more relaxed and the swinging harmonica set to the side, leading to a sound that is more reflective and mournful, having a tangible end-of-the-night feel. Opener ‘Heart & Soul,’ is a good example, with neat guitar work accompanying Nelson’s crooning vocals. ’Isolation has taken its toll on me’ he sings amongst other lyrics of regret and remorse. 'Truckers in Drag’ is a slight change of tack - the song is imbued with the weird dream-like feel of a Father John Misty song, as the narrator waits for a storm to pass in Missoula while truckers in drag try to get him drunk. 'Dog’ has a similarly strange atomsphere, with the intensely satisfying build up from near-slow motion drums to clattering crescendo reminscent of Chad VanGaalen.
Nelson’s lyrical capabilities have always stood out, and Whittier is no different. The temptation with folk music, especially jangly good-time folk music, is to allow the energy be the focus and, as a result, lose something from the lyrics. Nelson has a talent for both poetic and narrative-driven songs that seem to owe as much to the written word and they do folk songs. Indeed, 'Truckers in Drag’ works like short story, something Denis Johnson might write, with enough images and clues to set a scene and context.
Even the instrumentals, such as 'Interludes’ (which by definition should be merely filler between the 'proper’ songs) are intricate and delicate and carefully crafted, proving their worth is far beyond beefing up the release.
You can buy Whittier on a pay-what-you-can basis via Bandcamp.
“A study in loneliness and isolation, tracking the effects of betrayal on a man too deeply in love to cope
” - Right Away, Great Captain! (AKA Andy Hull from manchesterorchestraband) is putting out all four albums in one anthology CD.
John Darnielle has just announced details of his 14th album under his The Mountain Goats moniker which will be entitled Transcendental Youth. The album was devised and written during the band’s extensive touring after the release of All Eternals Deck a process which also coincided with the birth of Darnielle’s son. The band’s website has a pretty in-depth write-up on the inception of the new album which I’d recommend reading. The album is released on the 1st of October here in the UK (and on the 2nd in North America).
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Field Guide, a really great album from North Carolina native Sarah Louise. Despite being entirely instrumental, the album is incredibly deep. As we said in our review, “Louise manages to circumvent the skin-deep and decidedly human introspection that occupies most genres in favour of something larger and wider, resonating on a deeper level. The songs speak of an association with nature that makes everything else appear incidental, a connection that humanity has attempted to sever for millennia without ever quite succeeding. In this way the album is both sad and joyous, a reminder of all we have missed and all there is left to experience, the terrifying, heartbreaking and glorious comfort that we, as humans, are an oh-so-small part of an oh-so-wonderful world”.
Luckily for us, Sarah agreed to discuss Field Guide with us, and her answers to our questions explore the album’s themes and inspirations far better than we ever could.
Hello Sarah, I hope you are well! How is life in North Carolina this time of year?
Life is good! In some ways the tail end of Winter is the sweetest time of year because I know there is so much amazing weather ahead of me!
It’s clear that Field Guide is influenced heavily by the natural world. Would you say that nature plays a big role in your life and creative process?
I’m so glad that comes across. Nature is the most constant interest I have had in my life. Even when I was little I felt so bonded to it. I would literally read and memorize field guides, a pastime which still serves me well in my life in the mountains of North Carolina. It’s medicine for me and my greatest source of inspiration.
The other big influence is traditional folk music. How much has this shaped your music? I’m not a specialist in the taxonomy of traditional music but is there a particular branch that you see yourself aligned to?
I’ve enjoyed the diversity of American traditional music for long enough that it is in my DNA and peeks out when it wants to. However, I wrote a couple of the songs on “Field Guide” around two specific lined-out hymns. I thought of my interaction with the material as a way of honouring these amazing women of song,like placing flowers around a sacred object. In some of the songs on “Field Guide” I was dealing with similarities between Appalachian music and Hindustani and Carnatic music. For example, harmony was not allowed in some of the more
conservative southern churches and was instead replaced by drones, rich
melodies and melisma. These characteristics are also hallmarks of Indian music,
as well as many other kinds of traditional music from around the world. To me,
these connections speak to the ancientness of some of these mountain melodies (although
I can’t prove their origins). I certainly don’t want to reduce the complexities
or distinctiveness of these individual traditions, but I find inspiration in
the similarities.
Jeremy Squires is a singer-songwriter from New Bern, North Carolina. You may remember him for his superb cover of Jill Andrews’s ‘Rust or Gold’ which featured on one of our cover mixtapes. He recently released his latest album, When Will You Go…, and it really is a thing of beauty.
The first thing to mention is that Squires is a super talented (and self taught!) musician, here playing guitar, banjo, piano and resonator guitar, as well as providing the large majority of the vocals (which are just perfect, by the way). He recorded, mixed and produced the whole thing on his own, which lends well to the personal atmosphere of the record. He also gets some help from a few friends, namely Anna-Lynne Williams (of Lotte Kestner/Trespassers William fame) and Shane Leonard of Kalispell and Field Report. All of this comes together to create an album of sparse, melancholy Americana reminiscent of artists such as J. Tillman and Richard Buckner.
The second strength of the album is the songwriting, When Will You Go… being an apt title for an album that attempts to deal with death and the fear of losing loved ones. Squires’s voice is candid and confessional, and the listener gets the sense that he is opening up to them, offering a glimpse of the demons that haunt many of us. This is a man who has battled with struggle and hardship and is now honest and open enough to channel that into something really very beautiful.
One of Squires’s greatest skills is his ability to prevent the whole thing descending into cheerless gloom. Yes the atmosphere is sad and lonely, but the album seems to have just the opposite effect, proving oddly comforting.
Having had the album on repeat for the last few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that the opening lines, just eight words, somehow sum the whole thing up better than I ever could.
I dreamt my life away I never told
You can buy the album now via Jeremy’s Bandcamp page. I highly recommend that you do. This is one of the finest albums released this year and one worth every minute of your time and attention.
Redleg Husky are a folk band from North Carolina. They recently released their debut full-length album, Carolina. The album is an alt-country record, with strong influences from traditional American folk and Appalachian music. Some tracks have a rhythm and a foot-stomping drive, while others are more reserved and contemplative. Opener ‘Carolina Heart’ is a perky country song which bops along at a nice pace, and is followed with a change of pace in 'Autumn Heart’, a John Statz-esque folk ballad.
A slight change from the norm: I’m pleased to post our second ever book review. Musicians, get writing and we can justify writing about books more often.
Nowhere does the truism ‘less is more’ apply more than when writing fiction. I recently watched George Saunders tell Google staff that he strives to honour the reader’s intelligence when writing, namely by removing all redundant or even half-justified words and sentences that tell the reader something they could have worked out for themselves. Wolf in White Van is a masterclass in negotiating the trade-off between providing and withholding information to create depth and nuance. Having forged a career writing short songs about long stories, it should come as no surprise that John Darnielle is immensely talented at this.
Wolf in White Van is a story about reality and imagination and how both can be beautiful and both can be scary and both need to be treated with care. The protagonist Sean Phillips, recently disfigured, creates a postal adventure game called ‘Trace Italian’ to pass the time and escape from his injury-induced isolation. The world he creates is a desolate and dangerous post-apocalyptic wasteland, a place which acts as a safe haven where Sean and the players can not only flee their own lives but take complete control of another. In the game, players journey across the land in an attempt of finding the inner sanctum, a mystical place of safety that no player has ever reached. I don’t want to get into the plot too much as I don’t want to spoil things, but the structure of the novel’s narrative is similar to the game, orbiting some central answer or truth that is never quite reached.
In our latest Feet on the Ground post, we featured a track from a collaborative project between folksters John Statz and Josh Harty. The album, 12 August, was released on Tuesday and after a few spins, I’m glad to report that it holds up to expectation.
I’ve been a fan of Statz for a few years now, ever since his album Old Fashioned was released on Yer Bird Records (see our post from early 2012). But I must admit this is my first exposure to anything by Harty, although this is certain to change now that I know the name. The pair recorded the album sitting next to one another in a studio in Denver, using no edits or overdubs, just good old fashioned musicianship. In an age where lots of collaborations are purely digital, it’s refreshing to see that these kind of partnerships, those built on friendship, still exist. And I think this relationship shows in the music. This is clearly the work of two musicians who have full respect for one another, and this respect lays the foundations for what is an honest and intimate collection of Americana.
12 August features songs from both artists’ back catalogs. Opener ‘Home’ appeared on Harty’s A Long List Of Lies, while 'Call Me Last' was on Statz's Budapest Sessions EP. 'Witchita Waltz’ was written a good few years ago at a songwriter's retreat by Statz, along with songwriters Jeremiah Nelson, Brooks West and Brad Hoshaw. It first appeared on Statz’s Ghost Towns, although the version on 12 August is slightly more stripped back and uses the pair’s vocal harmonies really well.
The album also contains a couple of covers. 'Paradise’, which tells the tale of the coal mining industry and its aftermath in rural Kentucky, was originally written by John Prine back in 1971, and closer 'Worrisome Years’ is a cover of Greg Brown.
12 August is out now on Money Wolf Music and availableon both digital and physical formats via Bandcamp.