Durham, North Carolina band Dowsers brings together some of best preservers of and experimenters within the area’s rich folk tradition. Evan Morgan and Courtney Werner (Magic Tuber Stringband, Weirs) are joined by Oliver Child-Lanning (also of Weirs, plus Fust and Sluice), Austin Cash, James Gibian and Alli Rogers, and together they create songs that feel at once fresh and timeless. They have just put out a new double single, Dogwood / Three Forks of Cheat, via Gar Hole Records, and the two tracks function something like a calling card for the outfit.
A heartfelt folk song backed with fiddle and steady percussion, ‘Dogwood’ explores rhythms both natural and human, evoking the aching melancholy of changing seasons. “‘Dogwood’ is a song that I wrote in the spring of 2020 at my friend Hunter’s grandparents’ house in Hayesville, NC,” as Morgan explains. “The dogwood tree that grew outside this house in Hayesville was the center here for my reflection on humans growing older but natural cycles reappearing.”
And it’s time that the season starts a’changing
When pink turns to white turns to brown
And it’s time for us to be leaving
Before the pedals all fall down
Offering a glimpse at a slightly different dimension of the Dowsers sound, b-side ‘Three Forks of Cheat’ is a reinterpretation of an old-time West Virginian fiddle number, starting sparse and patient before building to a thunderous climax. “I wanted to try to draw out the atmospheric qualities of this strange tune with Dowsers,” explains Morgan, “ending in a cacophonous sludge section inspired by the great Athens band Harvey Milk.” The result is a neat summation of a project which, as per the notes of label Gar Hole, “seeks to bend the old world towards the new.”
Dogwood / Three Forks of Cheat is available from the Dowsers Bandcamp page.