Derek Piotr's Top 5 Hits From Fieldwork Archive :: So Far

Derek Piotr made one of my favorite albums of 2021. If you missed it, I profiled it here. For that album, Piotr mined some pieces from historical folklore while also including original pieces and instrumentation. This sparked a passion in Piotr to focus on archiving vocal recordings. He began archiving vocal recordings in 2020. Like many archivists, Piotr captures poetry, songs, interviews and the like. But what sets this collection apart, Piotr notes, is the “focus of this collection is on the "non-singer"; in other words, someone with no background in musical performance but who can still relate a song or folkloric memory.”

I recently touched base with Piotr about the project and he was kind enough to highlight five recordings which have really stood out to him so far.

01) :: #208 - Helen Barnes-Rielly performing "Le Carillon de Vendôme"

I had gone to Todd, NC, for the 2-year anniversary of the burning of the Todd General Store, and there was a little local T.V. spot going on with the owner, who is feistily trying to rebuild the site right now. Pretty much the only other thing in Todd is this little bakery, run by Helen. I asked her what I ask everyone, if her grandparents or parents sang anything, and she remembered this little bit of a song, which she called "Chapels of France". It stayed in my head for months, so I called her up one day and asked for it again, on tape this time. Turns out it's a children's song from the 1400's that her mother learned in Cincinnati, OH, from some nuns, who have probably been singing it unbroken these 500+ years.

  • Performed by Helen Barnes-Rielly.

  • Recorded July 27, 2022 in Todd, North Carolina.

  • Telephone recording. Fragment. Learned from her mother, Carolyn Mader, of Cincinnati, Ohio.


2: #103 - Jim Prentice performing "The German Clock Winder"

A rare example of Connecticut folk singing! I had gone out to West Cornwall to visit Jane Prentice, an Old-Time fiddle player, and she recalled one little tiny song for me that her grandmother sang, but mostly played her fiddle for me. Jim came in towards the end of our visit, and, though slightly hoarse from work, sang me a couple of songs right there and then, with no notice, including this one. It seems to have come to America from the British settlers; I have found several traditional versions from the UK.

  • Performed by Jim Prentice.

  • Recorded March 8, 2022 in West Cornwall, Connecticut.


3: #79 - Ian Patterson performing "The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy"

As I walked home one evening from where I was staying in York last summer, I noticed an elderly gentleman supervising construction on his roof. I intuited he might have folklore knowledge and this hunch paid off in spades—Ian's mother was a colleague of Edric Connor's who had traveled to the West Indies when Ian was small to do some field collecting. They collected this song, among many others, and published these songs in a small book. "The Virgin Mary..." in particular found its way into the Cambridge Hymnal, and the rest is history. It was very much a surreal experience to meet the son of the woman who had bridged this carol into broad accessiblity, purely by chance.

  • Performed by Ian Patterson.

  • Recorded September 9, 2021 in York, North Yorkshire, UK.

  • Fragment. Mr. Patterson's mother was a colleague of Edric Connor.


4: #207 - Sandra Noble performing "I've Worked Eight Hours This Day"

I had left a small advertisement in The Dalesman before I left Yorkshire last autumn, and roughly six months later, I got an email from Sandra, who insisted on singing this song (twice!) down WhatsApp for me. "He was a sea-captain, born 1876", she said of her grandfather. "He probably knew more risqué songs than that, but that's the one I remember. I came to live with my granny and grandad when I was 3 or 4." Bonus points for their hometown's name: Robin Hood's Bay! Spry listeners may also note some of Sandra's variation: Johnny Hooligan becomes Patsy Dooligan, and Donegal whiskers become "galigan".







  • Performed by Sandra Noble.

  • Recorded July 13, 2022 in Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire, UK.

  • Telephone recording. One verse. Learned from her grandfather, Robert Watson (b. 1876).


5: #210 - Judy Arrowood performing "Don't Sell Daddy Anymore Whiskey"

Judy is related to the Bares and Turbyfills several times over; she was the last informant I visited In North Carolina this year and lived literally at the intersection of Elk Park Highway and Turbyfill Road. I spent several hours with Judy, who initially could recall Lena Turbyfill vividly, but nothing specifically musical; it was only when we got on the subject of Lena's sister-in-law Ethel Bare Turbyfill that Judy remembered Ethel's children, Shirley and Evelyn singing this song.

  • Performed by Judy Arrowwood.

  • Recorded August 4, 2022 in Smoky Straight, Newland, North Carolina.

  • Fragment. Learned from Shirley and Evelyn Bare.


  • Visit Derek Piotr’s official website

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Staraya Derevnya :: Boulder Blues

Staraya Derevnya is a psychedelic/kraut-folk collective based in London and Tel Aviv. Active since 1994, the group’s newest album Boulder Blues will be out August 5th on Ramble Records. Recorded between 2020 - 2022 in Israel and the UK, the album percolates and bubbles with creativity. A collective of varying size and members, this iteration consists of 11 people, and album credits include “cries and whispers,” silent cello (which apparently is a very real thing, though somehow it would still make sense even if it wasn’t), “objects,” and a marching band kazoo.

How does one make sense of such music? Maybe that’s not the point, but if we need landmarks to help find our way; then maybe the meditative groovy bass foundations of Oren Ambarchi / Johan Berthling / Andreas Werliin and Natural Information Society or some of the murkier moments from Animal Collective or Paavoharju come to mind, but only as touchpoints. They are the friendly neighbors you meet on the path to Staraya Derev. Like the cover artwork, one is left with more questions than answers, and sometimes that’s the point.

My son calls it “spooky alien music but in a good way.” Krautrock grooves underpin an ever evolving sound collage. Instruments, voices, and noises sometimes float by barely notices and sometimes shock you back into the groove. Concrete Islands uses the phrase “murmurations from unknown tongues” to describe the bands music, and that seems about as apt as any description we’re likely to conjure.

The title track emerges from primordial squigglings over an ever-reliably-chugging bassline and builds upon a repeated phrase dervishly swirling and repeating and building and repeating and building and swirling. The piece doesn’t so much resolve as exhaust itself in experimental ecstasy. ‘Tangled Hands’s fleeting fog swirls through the atmosphere punctuated by skronks and ambient waves.

The album’s centerpiece, the nearly 21-minute ‘Bubbling Pelt’ was recorded live at TUSK Festival 2020. The piece bubbles and swirls over minimal but hypnotic bass rumblings. Percussion skitters back and forth until becoming one with the ether. As the bass returns, wind instruments and electronic squiggles reveal themselves from the fog, forming a nice relaxed groove which gives home to all sorts of vocalizations.

Though heavy on krautrock repetition, this is not background music. Though it requires your attention, it grooves in unexpected ways.

Boulder Blues is out August 05th on Ramble Records and is highly recommended.


Watch ‘Bubbling Pelt’ performed live at TUSK Festival 2020 here:



Ernie Francestine's Character of Light

Pittsburgh guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Ernie Francestine’s third album Character of Light will be released July 22 by WarHen Records.

Francestine is a music teacher and plays in multiple acts, including the Buckle Downs. But whereas the Buckle Downs mine soulful R&B, Francestine’s newest solo album takes a quieter turn but demands your attention nonetheless.

Ernie says:

“Character Of Light was born in Spring of 2021 when Warren Parker of WarHen Records reached out about recording a solo album. I dove in and immediately began writing and compiling ideas.

I wanted to record an album inspired by the music I listen to most. Character Of Light brings together hints of folk, ambient, traditional acoustic music and Tropicalia.”

Character of Light feels immediate yet nostalgic. Francestine says he wanted the album “to feel like a welcome guest at any time of day in any season” and he has succeeded. This is music for all seasons; on the porch at dusk, or serenading the sunrise. The music is warm, welcoming and intriguing. Guitar lines weave in and out of one another while Moog synthesizers and field recordings add ambient wash. The music feels lived in (in the best possible way) yet reveals new details with each listen.

Character of Light (both the album and the song) arise in a gentle wash of guitar and invokes whatever may come with a wistful hopefulness. This is instrumental music with a voice. In “Two Birds,” that voice is the sparse but not spare piano melody floating above guitar and building into a worldless chorus that is somehow both hopeful and forlorn. “Everything is Transparent”soulfully saunters down a melody lane that you know you’ve never been down before but somehow feels familiar; like home. “Wild Purple” conveys that memory on the tip of your tongue that doesn’t need to be spoken after all. “The Stone & The Evergreen (Pt. 1).” closes the album with a melody you feel like you’ve known your whole life. And maybe you have and Francestine is just reminding us.

Check out "Two Birds:”


I recently had a chance to catch up with Ernie to chat about the project.

Tell us about the title, Character of Light:

I had been kicking around ideas for a title for a long time and a few contenders came and went. I was having trouble getting the last track of the record (Character of Light) written and recorded and I just stumbled upon this phrase in my head and I immediately knew it was going to the title of the record and of the last song I was finishing up. I like the ambiguity of it and I also think it encapsulates what the record is about. It feels like the record.

This music is very different from your other projects. Was it difficult for you to “find a voice” in instrumental music?

Writing for my other band (the Buckle Downs. is very different and I really wanted to do something that I could see the entire project through to the end myself. One principle I use in writing music is eliminating anything that will slow me down. I have my entire recording set up ready to go at any moment and after recording my first instrumental recording during the pandemic (The Quiet Shift) - I knew I wanted to continue in this genre because it felt like the one with the least amount of restrictions to actually completing a chorus…a song….an album. I am able to see tangible progress without second guessing if it needs drums, a different melody or changing lyrics.

Was there a vision beyond “an instrumental album?”

I think he heard my previous release "The Quiet Shift" and was interested in something with a similar vibe. I would say that this one builds on that release. That one was recorded entirely on my iPad with no more than one overdub on each track. This one is definitely more layered and uses a wider variety of instruments.

You note that you wanted to record an album "inspired by the music" you listen to most. Who might be a few artists that were touchstones or inspirations for this project? What music do you listen to most?

I listen to ….instrumental music the most. Whether that’s jazz, Brazilian music, Afro beat, tropicalia, instrumental folk guitar. I like figuring out the emotion the music is trying to convey without the help of lyrics.

What’s next for you?

Whats next: am really feeling inspired to keep this going and try to work more within the sound I've created for myself. I've got conceptual ideas for a few albums in my head and usually the one that wins out is the one I sit down and start working on. I've learned to always try and make the demo a usable take because we used a lot of demo takes on the final tracks of this record. So I feel set up with more knowledge and better processes to compose in a more efficient manner.


All proceeds from the sales of this album will be donated to Everytown, an organization fighting for sensible gun laws across the country.
www.everytown.org



Jake Xerxes Fussell: Live For Tiny Desk's Home Concerts

It’s only February, but I can already tell you that Jake Xerxes Fussell’s newest album Good and Green Again will be on my year-end favorites list.

Drawing from folk, American and even bits of Appalachian music, Fussell has created a beautiful, challenging and yet hopeful album. His incorporation of strings and horns (sometimes reminding me of Gregory Alan Isakov flourishes) brings a lushness to the music that’s comfortable in all the right ways.

Earlier this year, Fussell recorded his (at home) NPR Tiny Desk Concert. According to NPR: “Fussell recorded at a friend's home in Pittsboro, N.C., with Casey Toll on upright bass and Libby Rodenbough on violin, harmonium and backup vocals. The mantle behind them is adorned with a tiny desk surrounded by various vegetable-shaped candles.”

You’re not going to find much better things to do with 18 minutes. Give it a try:


  1. Setlist:

  2. “The River St. Johns"

  3. "Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?"

  4. "Breast of Glass"


Players:

  • Jake Xerxes Fussell: guitar, vocals

  • Libby Rodenbough: violin, harmonium, backing vocals

  • Casey Toll: upright bass


  • Visit Jake Xerxes Fussell’s website

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Matty Bovan and Derek Piotr Collaborate :: Audio Knit Playlist

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To celebrate Derek Piotr’s haunting new album Making and Then Unmaking (which I profiled here), Derek has collaborated with designer Matty Bovan to create a signature look and a custom playlist providing some of context for Piotr’s new album and the listening that went behind it.

Of the look, Bovan says:

“'When Derek first approached me to create a custom look, I was super excited as I always love special commissions - it allows me to explore real characters wearing my pieces. Derek is very interested in British folk life and music, so we connected instantly. I myself am always inspired by the traditions of the UK in my work. The look itself has a folk element, and we used hand-pleated deadstock Liberty prints, alongside a leather gingham apron, screen-printed with mountains and hand drawn on the reverse. The overall look had to be practical and reusable for many situations for Derek, and like myself and my work, the look had to strike the balance of wearability, but still interesting silhouette-wise.’

The two also collaborated on a playlist; not only to celebrate Piotr’s new album, but the musical heritages of traditionalism and exploration upon which it stands. The playlist features a unique juxtaposition of new and old, traditional and experimental.

Enjoy.

Playlist:

  1. AGF Top Off (Beyoncé remix) [unreleased]

  2. Almeda Riddle I Love my Rooster [Wolf Folk collection]

  3. Derek Piotr The Stake (Territorial Gobbing’s Honking at the Moon Remix) [DPSR]

  4. Madonna Bedtime Story (Orbital remix) [Maverick]

  5. Derek Piotr Odyssey (Matty Bovan score) [unreleased]

  6. Frank Edwards O Lampkins (1 verse) [IU ATM archives]

  7. Björk Bachelorette (Alec Empire The Ice Princess Remix) [One Little Independent]

  8. Björk vs Jean Ritchie Headphones vs Gypsy Laddie (Derek Piotr mash) [unreleased]

  9. Anne Briggs vs Lotic Reynardine x Slay (Derek Piotr mash) [unreleased]

  10. Derek Piotr Bolakins [DPSR]

  11. AGF Antye of Tegea CA 300 BC [AGF Producktion]

  12. Derek Piotr West Redding Woods Field Recording 2021 [unreleased]

  13. Mrs Lena Bare Turbyfill & Mrs Lloyd Bare Hagie Cumberland Gap [unreleased]

  14. Machinedrum The Relic [Ninja Tune]

  15. Derek Piotr Light-Years [DPSR]


  • Visit Derek Piotr’s official website

  • Watch the EPK for the new album

  • Follow Derek Piotr on Twitter

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  • Purchase Derek Piotr’s music at Amazon

  • Purchase Derek Piotr’s music at Bandcamp

  • Read my profile of Piotr’s latest album Making and Then Unmaking

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Derek Piotr :: Making and Then Unmaking

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Nearly every human story centers around conflict and character development. In many of these stories, we find many reoccurring characters.

The wise but enigmatic bearded wizard.

The strong but faithful hero; sure of who they are and their calling but not always sure of their circumstances.

Or, maybe the trickster, who is a cunning, sly usurper of the status quo, who can often shapeshift (including gender). leaving you to wonder who or what you just encountered; or didn’t.

The trickster might know who they are, but most people never will. Leaving everyone to wonder of even the trickster knows who they are. We can only ever know the trickster as they reveal themselves to us; in ever-changing form; in all the ups and downs; the tricks and turns; the slides and tumbles. Derek Piotr’s new album asks us to ask such questions.

Creating what he calls an “Appalachian cowboy record,” Piotr weaves trickster imagery and energy through a powerfully haunting and playful set of songs exploring the question of who we are versus who others think we are. In keeping with the up-ending energy of the trickster, Making and Then Unmaking is a sharp turn for the Piotr. The presskit calls the album his “most musically ambitious and emotionally raw project to date.” Most notably, this is Piotr’s first work to feature the guitar. Piotr has made his name so far in modern classical and DJ settings. He says that he: “had a massive taboo against guitar for my whole career... I felt it was extremely common, pedestrian, coffee-shop stuff, represented the most middling and mundane music on the planet.”

But thankfully, he changed his mind.

Throughout the album, guitar, dulcimer, pedal steel guitar, clavichord and banjo work to support these explorations of identity and loss and Piotr’s unique voice. That voice and its rawness is much of what makes these songs feel like we’re privy to some sort of intimate self-exploration rather than just being academic explorations of a musical genre. Piotr’s presskit says:

“The composer’s voice is foregrounded throughout, operating in a different register to that of the more recognisable singing voice used on previous albums.”

On the opening track, “From Your Window,” Piotr sings “I consume the wind who consumes me” over a hypnotic repeated rhythm and we can’t help but wonder if the life of the trickster; a life of continually changing and keeping up while keeping others at bay will ultimately consume those of us who chase this life.

Diving in to folk, rural, Appalachian, and Irish music. Piotr finds a musical world in which he can explore not only the trickster imagery, but himself. Asked about the album title, he suggest:

"Making and Then Unmaking" refers to building and destroying relationships ... ideas ... past selves ...”

We find this theme of changing, reconciling, growing and the accompanying confusion highlighted in “Invisible Map,” where Piotr sings:

“Things I hold on to make me want to change, but the more I change, the more I find myself holding on.”

It’s this internal struggle of identity that weaves the album together, and here, with slowly stirring strings over plucked rhythms Piotr sings out life’s eternal question: Who Am I? The solo a capella “Bolakins,” (Found at the Wikipedias as “Lamkin”) offers up terrifying answer to that question in the tale of a wronged mason who vows to get even. With only his voice, Piotr lays bear this tale of revenge and sorrow.

While “Bolakins” is certainly a standout track, I wonder if “The Stake/De'il in the Kitchen” most encapsulates the album’s themes. A song with plucked banjo and bagpipes about feeling like cyborg trying to find love seems to get right to the heart of it. What is programmed? What is real? Who can be trusted and why? The organic wistfulness of the banjo plays against Piotr’s mechanical thought: “I am a cyborg.” The bagpipes highlight the confusion; are we programmed? Does it matter? What is free will? Is love free will or something that takes us over? The metallic cyborg tinge plays against the organic instruments and feels like a metaphor for many of the album’s themes.

“Snow in Paradise” continues these themes:

“It’s a wall of snow in paradise / All of us changing for that better life / Did you manifest what means most to you? / Because you can’t resist?”

Later in the song, a saxophone weaves in and out of the melody asking us to reflect on these questions. I have time for music like that, and I hope you do too. These nine songs explore the notions of identity, change, love, and free will; all while Piotr challenges himself to take on a new musical identity. I can’t think of anything better than an artist who models what they explore. Form and function. Cyborgs looking for love, all somehow without losing hope.

Highly recommended.

Pre-order the album at Bandcamp (out 05/14/21). Watch the Electronic Press Kit here.


  • Visit Derek Piotr’s official website

  • Watch the EPK for the new album

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  • Purchase Derek Piotr’s music at Amazon

  • Purchase Derek Piotr’s music at Bandcamp


Greg Brown Live For Acoustic Guitar Magazine

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From the video’s Youtube page:

“He’s the last American troubadour, a complex mix of Midwestern common sense and bohemian Zen appeal inhabiting a poet’s soul. In some ways, there are two Greg Browns: tender and tough, acoustic and electric, funny and sorrowful, cynical and filled with an unquenchable thirst for life. One careens down country roads in the dead of night in a broken-down farm truck, no headlights, a bottle of Wild Turkey wedged between his thighs and pioneering country-star Jimmie Rodgers blaring on the stereo. The other is a sunny child balanced on his grandmother’s knee, sampling her canned goods and drinking in a cool summer breeze.

“I know that I look at life and I see a lot of different colors, a lot of different moods,” says the singer and songwriter when pressed on the subject. “I do see a lot of causes for hope and I do see a lot of causes for despair. I see things that make me proud to be a human being on this planet, and I see so many other things that make me just appalled. All of that gets into my songs. On a particular Friday, I might feel quite hopeful, and by Tuesday I might be feeling that we’re completely screwed. I manage to find balance there between the two.

“But I can attest to being one person,” he adds with a laugh.


Setlist:

  1. Bones Bones

  2. Laughing River

  3. Besham’s Bokerie


  • Visit Greg Brown’s official website

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  • Purchase Greg Brown’s music at Amazon