Last year we put together a mix of traditional folk music, and mentioned the good work of the people over at Smithsonian Folkways in conserving the musical and culture heritage of the USA. Well, if you believe in reincarnation, it is very possible that you would find the previous embodiment of C.Strøm amongst the archives, picking and strumming his way through life in pre-war America with The Carter Family or Uncle Dave Macon or Blind Willie McTell. But, as far as we know, the current iteration of C.Strøm lives in Ålesund, Norway where he records his songs onto his Craig portable tape-recorder at home.
His new album, I Have Heard of a Land, has recently been released by Dying For Bad Music, and is a wonderful little collection of slightly weird, lo-fi old-timey americana. Only one of the tracks is original. The others follow the age-old folk tradition of reworking the classics, with C.Strøm offering his interpretation of various traditional songs. You will just have to take my word for it that it was recorded in Scandanavia rather than a wooden shack in the foothills of the Appalachians.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/155227154″]
You can buy the album on limited edition cassette via Dying For Bad Music. The tape comes with a super cool recycled tour guide map of North America.