Back From Falcon Ridge

I know that I said I would start this week with a For a Song post, but my post festival high said otherwise. I had a great time at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and I will be doing a series of posts on the wonderful music I found there, including this week’s review. For now, I am presenting a summary of some highlights of my Falcon Ridge experience.

Old Crow Medicine Show: Wagon Wheel

[purchase]

Old Crow Medicine Show was not at Falcon Ridge, but Wagon Wheel certainly was, and this is the closest recorded version to what I heard. One thing I have heard about at folk festivals, but never had the chance to enjoy, was the after parties, where musicians gather at a campsite after the scheduled events and play more music. At Falcon Ridge, some of these after parties were organized events that were not on the official schedule, but which offered music that was just as good. The intimate setting of these events made it easy to meet the musicians, including several who I had reviewed but never met before. The first night of the festival, I met Pesky J Nixon at one of these events. The second night, I met Pesky J Nixon again, among others. Can you guess who I saw on the last night? The amazing thing about this was that it happened at three different locations. The last two times I saw them, they closed their set with Wagon Wheel. I hope that they record it some day.

Tracy Grammer: Mother, I Climbed

[purchase]

It was a pleasure to see Tracy Grammer again. I had only met her once before, at a festival in Philadelphia, back when Dave Carter was still alive. At that time, they were playing a song that was so new that they hadn’t given it a name yet. I spoke to Grammer then, and suggested Open Up Your Gate, but they eventually went with Mother, I Climbed. At Falcon Ridge, I reminded Grammer of this long-ago conversation, and she remembered me.

The Storycrafters: Beeping Slooty

[purchase Classics With a Twist and others here]

I also got to see The Storycrafters again. I had met them at the Clearwater Festival when my daughter was younger. This time, I was by myself, and some might say that I had no business being in the family music tent. But I love storytelling, and The Storycrafters do it very well indeed. They introduced Beeping Slooty with an apology to the sign-language interpreter for what they were about to make her do, and then thanked her profusely at the end for what she had done. They took Beeping Slooty at a faster pace than on this recording, and this was easily the funniest moment of Falcon Ridge for me.

John Gorka: I‘m From New Jersey

[purchase]

I was a volunteer at Falcon Ridge, and my crew had a mandatory shift on the last day that was supposed to last until 5PM. That meant that I was not going to be able to see John Gorka’s set from the main stage. However, the mandatory shift was for takedown and cleanup, and everyone performed heroically. We finished almost two hours early, and I was able to see Gorka’s set after all, and later meet him. I spent his set in the company of Susan from Star Maker Machine. There were four Star Makers at the festival, including myself, FiL, Boyhowdy, and of course Susan. It was the first time we had all met each other, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Gorka opened his set with I’m From New Jersey. I am from New Jersey, so this song is a particular favorite of mine.

Red Horse - self titled

[purchase]

I have a confession to make. I have always enjoyed everything I have ever heard from John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky, and Eliza Gilkyson, but I don’t have any of their albums. Those aren’t just random names; rather, they are the members of the “folk super group” Red Horse. On their self titled debut as a group, they revisit many of their older songs, but I am hearing them for the first time. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. I cannot comment on how they have reworked the songs for this project, but I can tell you what it is like to hear these songs with fresh ears. It is a treat.

The format here is a sort of songwriters’ round robin. Each of the artists contributes four songs; one of their own, one by each of their fellow group members, and one cover. For their four songs, each artist recorded a basic track with their own chosen backing musicians, and then sent it to the other two to add background vocals. This could have easily sounded like three EPs, but the sound is remarkably consistent throughout.

The cover songs tell you something about each artist. Lucy Kaplansky leads the group through Wayfaring Stranger, a song that has been following me around lately. It’s a folk standard, and if you’re going to do it, you had better inhabit the song, and make its emotions run true. Red Horse does that. Eliza Gilkyson leads on a song Neil Young wrote for Buffalo Springfield, I Am a Child. This version asks the question, “What if Neil Young had instead written the song for CSNY?” The answer presented here is, it would have worked beautifully. John Gorka knows that this album will be heard by many people in the folk world, so his cover is a beautiful song that he believes deserves a wider audience. Coshieville was originally by a group called Men of Worth, and it is a very moving ballad of lost love. Gorka and Co make it sound like a folk standard, and make the case that it should be one.

There is only one new song on the album. John Gorka wrote If These Walls Could Talk for this project, and he also performs it here. It is a fine example of his artistry. The other originals are songs that Kaplansky and Gilkyson had previously recorded on their own albums. But the real fun of a project like this is hearing the artists perform each other’s songs. The highlight here for me is Lucy Kaplansky’s performance of Gilkyson’s song Sanctuary. The song is a hymn, and it starts out sounding like a statement of religious faith, but it turns into a statement of love. Maybe it’s both. Kaplansky performs it with only a piano for accompaniment, and the background vocals add a gospel flavor that suits the song perfectly. This one is a show stopper.
The rest of the songs are all very fine, and I suspect that they will grow on me. Certainly, this is a collaboration that never disappoints. But I will say this. I know of two other groups like this, Red Bird and Cry Cry Cry. Each one delivered a fine album, and then never was heard from again as a group. For Red Horse, that would be a shame. They are currently touring together, and I would love to have them come off the road and go into the studio together and record an album live with no overdubs. I know that there is enough talent here to make a great album that way, and, if it happens, I will be happy to report back. If it doesn’t, I hope to do a better job of keeping track of their solo work. This album certainly gives me plenty of reasons to want to do so.

Red Horse: Sanctuary

Red Horse: Coshieville