“Fundamentally a record of time and space.” That’s how we described Cameron Knowler‘s new album CRK last month. The songs offer “a meditation of Knowler’s hometown of Yuma, Arizona both in its physical presence and historical weight, all achieved via a style of instrumental folk both traditional and visionary.” Single ‘Felicity’ introduced the audience to this style, painting a soundscape “littered with features of the past, indeed shaped by their weight,” as we continued, “yet one which is neither overburdened by the load nor bewitched by the seductive will to return to that former place.”
With the album coming soon on Worried Songs, Cameron Knowler has returned with new single, ‘Secret Water’. A cast of musicians join the track, adding fiddle, upright bass and mandolin and highlighting how Knowler expands the traditional guitar instrumental style into something richer. Imagine the guitar work of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn combined with the older string band tradition from Appalachia and you’d be getting somewhere close. But true to the CRK spirit, the result is also specific to Arizona, working to conjure the landscape in both fine detail and broad strokes.
