Our choice of songs for this one perhaps isn’t the most subtle, and might well highlight our naivety/ignorance when it comes to the geographic differences between American folk music, but we just went with tracks which we felt capture the mood of Hinojosa’s work in some way. The tracklisting carries links to the artists we’ve covered in the past, if you want to read our thoughts on their music.

Tracklisting:

1) Will the Circle Be Unbroken – Marisa Anderson
2) Floating Rhododendron – Sarah Louise
3) Out West – The Coal Creek Boys
4) Fable – Sam Moss
5) Impress My Memory – Stephen Steinbrink
6) Sometimes – Noel’le Longhaul
7) Hands in Our Names – Karima Walker
8) Mexican Blanket – Wes Tirey
9) Stained Glass Eye – The Dead Tongues
10) Around and Around – Mountain Man
11) Revelation Drift – dbh
12) Dark Was the Night – Ry Cooder

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The post Wake The Deaf’s Favourite Songs of 2015 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

March has gone and Spring has sprung. If you were too busy trying to top up your vitamin D levels with every weak little sunbeam then fear not, we have collected everything featured on Wake The Deaf in one handy little playlist. Follow the links in the tracklisting to be whisked away to the relevant pages.

We are taking a short break over Easter to gather our thoughts and hopefully return with something shiny and new. No promises just yet but keep an eye here, Twitter or Facebook for developments. Until then!

Tracklisting:

1. i. – Danielle Fricke
2. Dk/Pi – Aero Flynn
3. Summering – Summering
4. Chapter 1 – Human Behavior
5. Dogs 1 – Vio/Miré
6. A Home Just Over Yonder – Frankie Duff
7. M.M.G.A.T.M – Field Medic
8. Broken Necks – Eskimeaux
9. Maybe I’m Wasting My Time – Jake Rollins
10. God is Laughing at Me – Butterfly House
11. Hold Me Like a Child – GOOD, GOOD BLOOD
12. Invisible Cities – Beat Radio
13. Somebody Kill Me Please – LVL UP
14. The Plane – Andrew Hung
15. Roles Reversed – Kid In The Attic
16. Floral Mattress – Naps
17. Tennis – Derek Piotr
18. The Day is Past and Gone – Jean Ritchie
19. The Day is Past and Gone (Variations) – Sarah Louise
20. Buffalo Bones – Wes Tirey
21. Don’t Go – Radical Dads
22. Lucky Man – Joplin Rice
23. Billy Madison Victory Song – Krill
24. Demise – Psalmships

March 2015 Roundup from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post March 2015 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.

In a recent interview, we asked North Carolinan folk musician Sarah Louise to name five acts that ours readers should hear. One of her suggestions was Wes Tirey, a familiar name around here – we have already reviewed his albums, collaborations and indeed even chatted with him too. Wes has since put out the tape Louise mentioned on Columbus label Cabin Floor Esoterica.

‘Old Ohio Blues’ starts the release as it means to go on, a slow, sad folk song surrounded by atmospheric drone which creeps and clings like an oneiric fog. A similar technique is employed across the remaining songs, the combination of traditional folk and electronic effects producing a sound that is disconcerting and alluring, Tirey’s vocals cutting through the mist like an unknown narrator, doomed to repeat his regrets. ‘Ballad of the Black Hills Woman’ plays like the late night echoes of a man who has outlived his company, while ‘The Body’s Better’ tells of someone so indebted to their vices that they have given up pretending otherwise. ‘Akhnilo Blues’ reduces the ambient levels in favour of stark guitar and ‘Mexican Blanket’ offers an evocative instrumental interlude, the ever-present reverb creating a strange sense that the song is a recording of the song, a memory that has not lost its lustre. Closer ‘Buffalo Bones’ is a current favourite, combining macabre dream imagery with a tender beauty, creating a song that’s unsettling and striking and would please any of the past masters.

“And I dream the trees were singing
and I dream the river was on fire
and I dream rattlesnakes were upon me,
and my name was cursed for all time.
And I dream the sky had teeth
and I dream of buffalo bones
and I dream the moon was bleeding
and I dream my body was stone.
And I dream of your lily white hands
and I dream of the flowers on your dress
and I dream wild horses surround you
and I dream your stomach grew.”

The tape is packed with so many vivid images that the bigger picture becomes indistinct, like the recollections of a man so old and tired that the border between reality and fantasy has become porous. Gripped by a fever dream, he is desperate and delirious but determined to say what needs to be said before time runs out on him.

All this is a way of saying that Journeyer/Forward, Melancholy Dream is one of Tirey’s best yet. The release is available as a great little cassette via Cabin Floor Esoterica (see below). While you are there, why not dig into the Cabin Floor back catalogue? But consider yourself warned: it can eat up your day pretty quick.

The post Wes Tirey – Journeyer/Forward, Melancholy Dream appeared first on Various Small Flames.

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Field Guide, a really great album from North Carolina native Sarah Louise. Despite being entirely instrumental, the album is incredibly deep. As we said in our review, “Louise manages to circumvent the skin-deep and decidedly human introspection that occupies most genres in favour of something larger and wider, resonating on a deeper level. The songs speak of an association with nature that makes everything else appear incidental, a connection that humanity has attempted to sever for millennia without ever quite succeeding. In this way the album is both sad and joyous, a reminder of all we have missed and all there is left to experience, the terrifying, heartbreaking and glorious comfort that we, as humans, are an oh-so-small part of an oh-so-wonderful world”.

Luckily for us, Sarah agreed to discuss Field Guide with us, and her answers to our questions explore the album’s themes and inspirations far better than we ever could.

Hello Sarah, I hope you are well! How is life in North Carolina this time of year?

Life is good! In some ways the tail end of Winter is the sweetest time of year because I know there is so much amazing weather ahead of me!

It’s clear that Field Guide is influenced heavily by the natural world. Would you say that nature plays a big role in your life and creative process?

I’m so glad that comes across. Nature is the most constant interest I have had in my life. Even when I was little I felt so bonded to it. I would literally read and memorize field guides, a pastime which still serves me well in my life in the mountains of North Carolina. It’s medicine for me and my greatest source of inspiration.

The other big influence is traditional folk music. How much has this shaped your music? I’m not a specialist in the taxonomy of traditional music but is there a particular branch that you see yourself aligned to?  

I’ve enjoyed the diversity of American traditional music for long enough that it is in my DNA and peeks out when it wants to. However, I wrote a couple of the songs on “Field Guide” around two specific lined-out hymns. I thought of my interaction with the material as a way of honouring these amazing women of song,like placing flowers around a sacred object. In some of the songs on “Field Guide” I was dealing with similarities between Appalachian music and Hindustani and Carnatic music. For example, harmony was not allowed in some of the more
conservative southern churches and was instead replaced by drones, rich melodies and melisma. These characteristics are also hallmarks of Indian music, as well as many other kinds of traditional music from around the world. To me, these connections speak to the ancientness of some of these mountain melodies (although I can’t prove their origins). I certainly don’t want to reduce the complexities or distinctiveness of these individual traditions, but I find inspiration in the similarities.

*Here are traditional recordings of the lined out hymns that Sarah mentions above, and I’ve included her guitar versions so you can compare and contrast. First is ‘The Day is Past and Gone’ by Jean Ritchie:

…and secondly ‘A Home Just Over Yonder’ by Frankie Duff:

It’s not that difficult to notice that the album isn’t a completely happy one, that’s not to say it doesn’t have little bright moments of joy, but it has varying shades of emotion, and sadness is certainly well-represented. This captures perfectly my feelings on nature – namely that it is an incomprehensibly amazing thing, but something facing the dire consequences of us as a species. Did you set out to write something that touched upon not only the joy of natureitself but also the sad fact that so many people are now disconnected from it?

What’s interesting about writing music for me is that sometimes when I am sad, I write joyful-sounding music, and sometimes when I am joyful, melancholy will emerge in a piece. I think that speaks to music’s wideness and strength as an expressive medium that goes beyond language or individual emotions. I didn’t set out to have “Field Guide” express sadness or joy about a particular topic, although it is safe to say that some of my deepest sadness stems from my concern about our culture’s disconnection from nature and the empty consumerism that can follow. And my greatest moments of joy are often in the woods, making little discoveries or feeling connected to the life around me.

*We asked Sarah to share a photograph that sums up Field Guide for her. It was an impossible question and she admitted defeat, but did share this picture of a Wake Robin, a species from the genus Trillium, which is one of her favourite wildflowers native to North Carolina.*

The music on Field Guide feels old – if you played it to a random sample of the general public, I reckon lots of them would place it somewhere in the formative years of the previous century – is that something you set out to achieve, this timeless quality, or is it more a consequence of your inspiration/influences?

It wasn’t an intention to write something that sounded timeless, but I just tried to be as honest and exploratory during my process as I could be. I have never wanted to write music that sounded like anyone else, but it makes me feel good that you think it sounds timeless. Thank you!

Does the album also have a more intimate, personal scope? Track titles like ‘Dog Improv’ and ‘Late Summer Seed Collection’ seem to suggest that the album as also inspired by personal memories.

Some of the titles are definitely inspired by my memories. I kept a seed collection when I was a kid in a large file drawer, which I lovingly labeled and alphabetized. And I still save seeds from/for my garden! The origin of the music itself is more difficult to pin down. I don’t know exactly where it comes from. I’m glad it’s a little bit mysterious.

This new version of Field Guide is entirely instrumental. Was this a conscious choice for this release or did the songs naturally take that direction? How do you decide when to include vocals on your tracks?

I always aim to have my pieces function first and foremost as instrumentals. In most cases I have added vocals only once the guitar part is finished. I’m starting to explore the possibility of writing instrumental and vocal parts simultaneously as a way to shake-up my process if nothing else. Scissor Tail Editions releases almost exclusively instrumental music, and since the pieces for the most part already functioned without vocals, it felt fine to cut them.

Could you list four or five artists/bands you really like and think people should hear? They could be new or not so new or one hundred years dead, whatever you like.

Asheville, North Carolina has a stellar scene, particularly for guitar music. Shane Parish
has a new tape out on Marmara Records called “Odei”, which is incredible for its inventiveness and is an absolute pleasure to listen to. I’m also a huge fan of Tashi Dorji who can say more in 3 seconds worth of guitar than many, many words could express. He has an upcoming album on Asheville-based Bathetic Records. Wes Tirey, who I think you’ve also featured (J: yes we have), is a Scissor Tail alum and a great player/songster (and has new tape out on Cabin Floor Esoterica). And my friend Emmalee Hunnicutt is a hypnotic, soulful cello composer who also collaborates with Shane Parish. That better be the last one or I won’t know where to stop!

The post Interview: Sarah Louise appeared first on Various Small Flames.

We featured Sarah Louise late last year, a brief paragraph that described her American primitive album Field Guide as “a lost disc from Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music” and promised a new year release on Scissor Tail Records. Well I’m pleased to say that the release is upon us. Part of the Scissor Tail Editions series (which includes the Tirey/Weathers split we also covered), Field Guide has been packaged as a quite beautiful cassette with artwork by Dylan Aycock.

As you can guess from the title and artwork, Field Guide is inspired by the natural world, especially the Black Mountains of North Carolina where Louise resides. While every song is instrumental, the title provides clues as to the context of the pieces, framing each track within a specific time or place or situation. The title track is vivid and rich, swirling around the listener and blossoming with tiny details so that there is something wherever which way you turn. ‘Dog Improv’ casts the listener as a canine explorer rooting through the undergrowth, the tempo changing on a whim to follow scent trails or other curiosities, while ‘Waterways’ adopts a steady background rhythm upon which playful picking becomes the rippling surface. ‘Late Summer Seed Collection’ is radiant and breezy and conjures the smell of an earth warmed by the sun, the small intricacies hidden within the flow mimicking the morphological complexity of the seeds themselves.

Musical comparisons will undoubtedly see you looking backwards, but to use the term ‘old’ in describing this album would not quite grasp the sensation experienced while listening. Instead it seems more apt to say Field Guide exists outside of time as we generally consider it. Listen to John Fahey or Matokie Slaughter or Blind Willie McTell and there is a commonality running through the music that seems to withstand the changeable patterns and trends that are adopted and cast aside across the years. There seems to be an unchanging element at its core, a force defeated by stylistic fads in genres such as pop and rock. Both in sound and theme, Louise manages to circumvent the skin-deep and decidedly human introspection that occupies most genres in favour of something larger and wider, resonating on a deeper level. The songs speak of an association with nature that makes everything else appear incidental, a connection that humanity has attempted to sever for millennia without ever quite succeeding. In this way the album is both sad and joyous, a reminder of all we have missed and all there is left to experience, the terrifying, heartbreaking and glorious comfort that we, as humans, are an oh-so-small part of an oh-so-wonderful world.

We are delighted to have an exclusive stream of the album that will be available up until the release date. Grab a tape or digital download from Scissor Tail Records.

So make sure you pick up a tape or download the album!

The post Sarah Louise – Field Guide appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Tracklist:

1. Deserter – Siskiyou
2. Pill – Ought
3. There’s a GIrl In the Corner – The Twilight Sad
4. Kill What You Love – Scotdrakula
5. PS You Still Do This To Me – Kissing Fractures
6. Walls – Two White Cranes
7. Lifetime Warranty – Cyberbully Mom Club
8. The Great Big World – R.L. Kelly
9. Misery Loves Company – Gorgeous Bully
10. Blah Blah Blah – Girlpool
11. My Song – Spencer Radcliffe
12. Summer Lawns – Mike Pace & The Child Actors
13. Crossroads – Sally Fowler
14. Sweet Isolation – Nathan Reich
15. Home At Last – John Statz
16. Our Town – Chalk
17. Mole – The Mountain Goats
18. Easy It Goes – Eric & Magill
19. Slow Thickening – German Error Message
20. Cabin Lights – Lung Cycles
21. The Day is Past and Gone (Variations) – Sarah Louise
22. Holding – Grouper

November 2014 Mix from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

The post November 2014 Roundup – A Mixtape appeared first on Various Small Flames.