In our latest Feet on the Ground post, we featured a track from a collaborative project between folksters Josh Harty and John Statz. 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 available on both digital and physical formats via the Josh Harty and John Statz Bandcamp page.