Tag Archives: Pharis and Jason Romero

The Return of Easy Ed’s Broadside – Spring 2022

Colorful Comments and Music From A Common Man

As you may have noticed, The Broadside was broadsided in April, so I’ve combined it with the month of May to give you two-thirds of a season. I won’t trouble you with my troubles, but there are some glitches on the website that are beyond my skill set, and since we’ve last connected I have moved from one place to another which took a lot of time and energy. It felt quite liberating making trip after trip to the local recycling center and the Goodwill drop-off, as I said goodbye to a mountain of possessions I no longer need, as if I needed them in the first place. The albums and CDs, not played in a dozen years, survived. Most books did not. Clothes and shoes older than my twenty-something kids were discarded, and I kept only a few gold records out of the two dozen or so that once adorned my walls. Only two have been hung up, and the rest are resting in the closet.

Here’s the thing about gold or platinum records: they’re handed out like candy to every Tom, Dick, Sally and Carol. They aren’t earned, they are a stroke of ego given mostly to those who had little to do with their success. The first round rightously goes to the musicians, composers, band members, producer and manager, and other people on the creative team. And then the second batch go to us weasels: label people, distributors wholesalers, retailers, radio stations and a whole boatload of freeloaders. Anyway, most of mine hit the trash can because I wasn’t about to go through the trouble of posting them on eBay, like many of my former music biz friends have done.

Meanwhile, since I last posted there’s been a war, the Supreme Court is probably going to take away fifty-years of women’s rights, supermarkets are now considered soft targets for the radical right racists, and we’ve learned that the pandemic isn’t quite over as many musicians are having to interrupt their tours or go out solo while leaving the band behind. This week here in NY, we were told to start wearing the masks again while indoors, as cases are rising rapidly. Other states are following. And as music festival season is kicking off, some returning for the first time since 2019, we’ll likely need to be flexible in our expectations as performers on the bill will likely shift often.

Can We Please Get To The Music Now?

Anybody else notice that there’s been more new music coming out this year than the last two years combined? Likely an overstatement, but there does seem to be a growing list, week after week, and I’m struggling to keep up. I’ve spent the past few weeks trying to listen more while discarding the things I’ve tried hard to like but just couldn’t. Yes, Spring cleaning.

Pharis and Jason Romero

Here’s the first song from their forthcoming album, Tell ’Em You Were Gold, out on 17th June 2022 on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Their seventh album was written and recorded at the couple’s homestead in Horsefly British Columbia in an old barn that they restored themselves, milling their own spruce, hoisting beams, and rebuilding a roof originally covered in tin printing plates, all done between building banjos, adventuring outdoors, and loving up their two kids. I love these folks.

The Hanging Stars

Wearing their cosmic country and late 60s West Coast folk-rock influences on their sleeve, embroidered with seams of Crosby Stills and Nash and The Byrds, recorded at Edwyn Collins’ Helmdale studios in Scotland, The Hanging Star’s fourth album Hollow Heart is their best yet. (folk radio.co.uk) The band is based in London and they cite a long list of reference points from Fairport to the Byrds, but they bring on their own unique sound that borders on psych-folk-cosmic-power pop, without the pop.

Erin Rae

Erin Rae makes gentle music that’s easy to listen to over and over again, and yet it is never boring. The Nashville songwriter’s 2018 album Putting on Airs established this strength with 12 impeccable, minimalist recordings that showcased her subtle vocal style and acoustic guitar playing: It also demonstrated a consistent gift for writing earworms. With her latest album, Lighten Up, Rae keeps the songwriting focused and tight while broadening her stylistic palette, landing on a sound that’s less acutely folksy and more classic, unpretentious pop music. (Pitchfork)

Eddie Berman

His fourth album Broken English (released in January) is a modern folk commentary on our tenuous American life–written before the pandemic. Though performed on guitar, the songs were written on the banjo. “With the fingerpicking, flat-picking style I play there’s sort of the bones of the melody baked into whatever I’m playing. When I come up with a progression I like, I turn on a recorder and just start singing to it off the top of my head — sometimes gibberish, sometimes fully formed thoughts, usually a combination of the two. And then at some indeterminate, later point, I’ll take all that subconscious/left brain shit and try to turn it into something more coherent.” (Spin)

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

For her recent album, Crooked Tree, Molly put together a list of supporting bluegrass and Americana musicians that would catch anyone’s eye: Gillian Welch, Billy Strings, Sierra Hull, Dan Tyminski, Margo Price, Jason Carter, Tina Adair, Old Crow’s Ketch Secor, and Jerry Douglas, who produced the album. With all the songs co-written by Tuttle, the album serves as a reflection of her past in many ways; her love of music as a child, her home town of San Francisco, her challenges and her maturation. (musicfestnews.com)

Billy Strings (and Post Malone)

Hard to connect Billy with Molly, as they represent a new tradition of kids raised on bluegrass festivals with parents who are exceptional players, and have morphed into something new and different. Not surprising that they were room mates when they moved to Nashville, and that their increased popularity seems in synch. Billy has turned out to be more of a live concert creature, constantly on the road and tapping into the work ethic as well as joining the extended family of the Grateful Dead. This video features the unlikely rapper/country-lovin’ Post Malone, and I’m telling you….I sing this song all day, every day since I first saw it.

Kieran Kane & Rayna Gellert

(Wait! Didn’t you post this in March? Yes. What’s your point?)

Kieran Kane’s a folk-music lifer, known for his work in the all-star trio Kane Welch Kaplin and his killer songs, which have been recorded by big names like John Prine and Emmylou Harris. Rayna Gellert’s a world-class fiddler who grew up playing old-time music before finding success in the 2000s with her string band Uncle Earl. Together, they’re not an odd couple, but a finely tuned folk duo whose parts fit together perfectly. The songs on their third album The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring are built from memorable melodies, homespun harmonies, hard times, heartbreak, and the clarion sound of strings plucked, strummed, and bowed. (Bandcamp)

Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage

Making the best of a bad situation, when the pandemic struck, Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage revised plans for their third album Ink of the Rosy Morning and recorded the album while holed up in an old seaside schoolhouse in Hastings. They stripped arrangements back to basics with just two guitars and emerged with a collection of mostly traditional numbers subtitled A Sampling of Folk Songs from Britain and North America. The album opens with their voices mingling on gorgeous harmony for the twin fingerpicking of A Winter’s Night, more strictly A-Roving On A Winter’s Night, an Appalachian folk tune learnt from the repertoire of Doc Watson, followed by some nimble fretwork with Hannah singing lead for the equally traditional Appalachian murder ballad Polly O Polly. (folk radio.co.uk)

Hannah and Ben have released three albums together since 2016, and they each are from the UK but seem to have travelled extensively. They’ve toured throughout North America, Europe and of course the UK, playing a hybrid of American roots and traditional folk music. Spiral Earth wrote ” This is folk music for everyone – a master-class in proficiency, an exercise in individuality and a declaration of love of the folk tradition from both sides of the Atlantic’. This last clip is the song that led me to them, appearing on a playlist built on an algorithm of my taste in music. It worked.

R. Crumb….just because.

How I Picked My Favorite Albums of 2018

Creative Commons 2.0

A week ago, give or take, the columnists and reviewers of No Depression received a note from Stacy Chandler, our chief for all things web related and self-described “killer of spam, keeper of the style guide, friend of good music and the good people who make it and listen to it,” letting us know that if we wanted to send her a top ten list of our favorite roots music titles for 2018, she’d be pleased to do something with them. What exactly she planned to do with them I didn’t know, and since I normally don’t participate in such things because I covet my status as the world’s largest collector of half-empty glasses, I deleted the email. Then I changed my mind.

Many of you know that in addition to writing for this website I also aggregate articles primarily about roots music and its weak-kneed country cousin Americana, posting several times each day on multiple platforms. Over the past few weeks I’ve stumbled upon and read endless lists for best rock, folk, indie, Americana, roots, blues, jazz, country, K-pop, hip-hop, live, and reissued albums of the year. While in the past I’ve just skipped or skimmed over them, this year was different.

While new album releases have dipped from a previous high of 130,000 titles per year to a more manageable 75,000 in 2018, when you’re not actually purchasing music because you’re accessing it through the stream at $9.99 per month, the act of finding and listening to new stuff is like having a giant crack addiction. After you the fill up the tank you still want more. And you can have it. Which leads me to why I’ve been searching through all these lists for things I’ve missed or never knew existed, and then adding them into my library with facial recognition and the flick of a thumb.

I’m not just looking for new music, but also books, films, Scandinavian television series on Netflix, the latest discounts on electronic gadgets that I have zero interest in ever buying, celebrity hairstyle transformations and facts about Dove Cameron, whose first kiss at age 17 was with Luke Benward. Not a clue as to who either of them are, but they must be important. I’ve also come across the ten best record stores in America, the best all-in-one turntables, the 13 best blues guitarists in the world, best concerts of the year, ten best music festivals of the year, seven English classic songs to sing out loud with children, and the best song from every Journey album (which is a bit presumptuous if you ask me).

Publishing your own personal list for other people to see and judge, unlike casting a vote in a poll by secret ballot, seems akin to standing naked in front of your tenth-grade public speaking class, and that just sucks. As you can tell by the photo above, I chose to utilize a rather simple system that I discovered on a Pinterest list of ‘easy home projects for the indecisive person’. And that’s me. Because in the day to day and by and by, my favorite music is usually whatever I’m listening to in the moment. So with that said, and in absolutely no particular order, here are a few of my favorite albums for 2018.

Sarah Shook and The Disarmers – Years

John Prine – Tree of Forgiveness

Pharis and Jason Romero – Sweet Old Religion

Joshua Hedley – Mr. Jukebox

Marissa Nadler – For My Crimes

I See Hawks In L.A. – Live and Never Learn

Milk Carton Kids – All The Things That I Did and All The Things I Didn’t Do

Lindi Ortega – Liberty

The Jayhawks – Back Roads and Abandoned Motels

Brandi Carlile- By The Way, I Forgive You

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com

Captain America and Old-Time Music In Dittyville

Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones/ oldtimetikiparlour.com

On the fourth day of July I took a southbound train and sat across the aisle from a famous superhero. With temperatures expected to soar into the mid-90s, his red, white, and blue latex head-to-toe costume did not seem to be the best option, nor did the bulky round shield he navigated to fit into the empty seat next to him. As I looked around, I estimated that eight out of ten passengers on the crowded train were staring at their devices while listening to music or podcasts, unfazed in the presence of Captain America, who also was plugged in. The mask he wore covered his entire head, nose, and mouth, allowing you to see only his eyes. Every now and then he’d pull it down just a bit to scratch a scruffy beard. For much of the ride I tried to imagine what sort of music the good Captain might be listening to and whether the latex over his ears distorted or muted the sound. And I highly doubted that he — nor anyone else in that car — was listening to the same old-time music that was being pumped into my own aural cavities.

The dictionary defines bogtrotter as a mildly insulting epithet, which led me to spend too much time researching exactly what a bog is. If you’re interested, it’s a wetland that accumulates peat, and they are either classified by their location in the landscape and source of water or by their nutrients. The next time you visit Latvia you might want to check out the Great Kemeri Bog Boardwalk, which may not offer the same thrills as Atlantic City or Venice Beach. That aside, the video above is from a band neither Irish nor Latvian, but that represents some of the finest old-time music from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. As they explain it on their website, “The Galax Bogtrotters are one of a number of local bands over the last century to use the bogtrotters nickname for the Scotch-Irish settlers who migrated to America to find a better life. The first band to embrace the term was the original Bogtrotters — a popular group in the 1930’s featuring fiddler Uncle Eck Dunford.”

Old Time Jubilations was released a little over a year ago and I recently came across it as I was making my way through the various projects of Erynn Marshall, the Canadian-born old-time fiddle player, teacher, and ethnomusicologist who is now based in Galax, Virginia, along with her husband and musical partner Carl Jones. For this project he plays mandolin and they are joined by Eddie Bond doing vocals, fiddle, and banjo; Bond’s wife, Bonnie, on bass; and Eric Hill playing guitar. These videos were shot during their 2017 tour of Australia, and Joseph Dejarnette is subbing on bass. Every track on the album showcases a tight and energetic band of virtuoso players, and it’s interesting to note that this is somewhat of a side project since each member also performs solo or with other musical configurations.

If you are fans of Jason and Pharis Romero there’s a good chance that Erynn Marshall is a familiar name, as she was the third member of The Haint’s Old Time Stringband, which released only one album, back in 2009, titled Shout Monah. Erynn’s move to Virginia allowed her to fully immerse herself in the culture, history, and musical traditions of the area, and along with Carl they established Dittyville, a state of mind as much as it is a website, that lets them offer online lessons for fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and guitar, and post their extensive itineraries. They actively perform at the ever-growing number of old-time music festivals that span the globe and they each lead classes and seminars at summer camps that offer anyone the opportunity to learn from the masters.

That’s an original song written by Carl, and it appears on their first “official” duet album. Sweet Memories … never leave which came out in 2015. They each have released solo, duet, and ensemble albums, produced two instructional DVDs, and are currently working on their own books. The aforementioned online classes can easily be accessed through Concert Window and are downright cheap, with a minimum donation of only $10.

As it turns out, Captain America is himself an old-time throwback who first appeared in 1940 as a patriotic supersoldier who fought the bad guys in World War II and even punched Adolf Hitler in the nose. Over the decades the story arcs have changed, his comic books have had three different publishers, he died and was reborn, and for a time he resided in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, which is also the home of the Jalopy Theater and School of Music. Being New York’s epicenter of traditional music, it may not be so farfetched to imagine that my train companion was also tappin’ his toes to an Appalachian tune. Brothers in arms, all is well down in Dittyville.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email is easyed@therealeasyed.com

Americana and Roots Music Videos: RPM 2

An occasional series of Americana and roots music videos. Sharing new discoveries, and revisiting old friends.

Like many of you, I’m always on the hunt for new music that’ll perk up my ears and lighten my soul. In the past I’ve relied on websites such as No Depression; a handful of blogs that I’ve followed through the years; the Americana Music Association weekly radio charts, which are both interesting lists to check out; and Bill Frater’s Americana Boogie, which offers a list of weekly releases. And since crossing over to the dark side and fishing in the deep digital stream, I’m finding that curated playlists have added another fast and easy way to catch a keeper.

It wasn’t all that long ago when your friends would show up at your house with a stack of their favorite new albums under their arms, and you’d each take turns spinning your faves on the turntable for each other. And the neighborhood record stores that were like Cheers, the bar where everybody knew your name. Maybe you’re too young to have experienced that, or too old to remember. But in that spirit, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

Here’s a handful of new music (or old music that I’ve recently found) that’s been buzzing inside my ears for the past few months.

Sweet Old Religion – Pharis and Jason Romero

It’s hard not to read a review about this Juno award-winning Canadian duo that doesn’t draw comparisons to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. They each dwell in that same valley of old-time music played with acoustic stringed instruments with exquisite vocal harmonies, and there is similar tone and timbre. Their sixth album will be released in May, and I have been blessed with an advance copy that I can’t stop listening to. Here’s the title track.

The Ledges – Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert

Gellert, a vocalist and fiddler who was a member of Uncle Earl before releasing solo and duet albums, teams up with her friend Kane, who is a legendary songwriter, performer, producer, and record label owner. Leaving Nashville for upstate New York, where Kane owns a bunkhouse, they bring a bunch of string instruments, stack some microphones on top of cinderblocks, and record one of the prettiest sets of harmonic wonder and simplicity.

The Orphan King – Ed Romanoff

A “late bloomer” who didn’t begin his music career until his forties, Woodstock-based Romanoff releases his second album supported by an interesting cast of players. Produced by Simone Felice, the collaborators include Rachael Yamagata, Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids, guitarist Cindy Cashdollar, The E Street Band’s Cindy Mizelle, and Larry Campbell along with his wife and duo partner, Teresa Williams.

Playing Chess – Elise LeGrow

It’s been nine years since this Canadian singer was signed to a publishing deal. In 2012, a single she released a single titled “No Good Woman” jumped into the top ten of our northern neighbor’s adult contemporary radio chart. Two years ago she recorded her debut album of covers from the Chess Record’s catalog, where she is backed by The Dap-Kings, and which features The Roots’ Questlove and Captain Kirk Douglas. Just released in February, this project is more about reinterpretation of the originals, and all the more interesting.

Love In Wartime – Birds of Chicago

I got a chance to see JT Nero and Allison Russell, who play as the Birds of Chicago, a few months ago and was blown away. Had no idea who they were, what to expect, or why my friend would book them into a 400 seat theater with less than 70 advance tickets sold. But he knew something I didn’t, because not only did they almost fill the space with walk-up customers, the band also presented a staggering showcase in advance of their new album being released on May 5 by Signature Sounds. This is a little taste from last year’s EP with Rhiannon Giddens on harmonies and banjo and Steve Dawson on guitar.

Motel Bouquet – Caitlin Canty

Like dozens of other musicians over the past couple of years, Canty has made the move from New York to Nashville. Not that it matters all that much, since I don’t think there’s anyone who has traveled more miles criss-crossing America with that big Recording King guitar of hers and that devastatingly clear-as-a-bell voice. I’ve seen her perform alone and in various musical configurations, and she sparkles and shimmers on every occasion. When I listen to the new album it makes me just want to stop, lay down, and set cool slices of cucumbers over my eyes. Every note and word draws me deeper. Two songs: the first from her new album, and the second is a few years old and the one that got away.

The Tree of Forgiveness – John Prine

In the evening on the day when the new album is released, Friday, April 13th,2018, I’ll be inside Radio City Music Hall in NYC on my feet and applauding loudly as Prine comes out on the stage. Don’t know what you might call it, but I believe it’s a blessing. (Alas…all the bad things one thinks about surrounding Friday the Thirteenth are true. Struck with pneumonia, I was unable to attend.)

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Make Americana Great Again: Why We Cherish Those Amazing Polls

That is one helluva picture. You might recall that it surfaced this past June after Neil Young demanded that Donald Trump stop using “Rockin’ in the Free World” at his campaign events. Utilizing his standard and preferred method of statesmanship, Trump went on the morning news shows, called Young a bad name, and then tweeted this: “A few months ago Neil Young came to my office looking for $$$ on an audio deal and called me last week to go to his concert. Wow!”

Young, no slouch himself when it comes to using social media, seemed to confirm Trump’s assertion of capitalistic hypocrisy when he wrote on Facebook: “It was a photograph taken during a meeting when I was trying to raise funds for Pono, my online high resolution music service.”

That Neil Young would choose Trump to get cozy with as a potential partner is enough to cause the price of flannel futures to tumble. Besides, in the past several months, Young’s digital entree has entered and floundered into the ether of a disinterested marketplace.

Pushing that particular random thought-bubble aside, it’s time to talk about the annual readers and critics polls that focus on one type of music or another. These are soon to occupy much of our collective time and space via traditional and social media, using the skill sets and wisdom of random cubes tossed together in a Yahtzee cup and spilt onto the countertop. Can we all agree that this excercise produces an inaccurate and imperfect list of superlatives? At the very least, I hope it will open up new avenues of exploration for some folks, as well as simply serving to bolster our own opinions based on an album’s popularity.

It is the former that most excites me because, with well over 120,000 new albums being released each year, there is no possible way to see all, know all, or hear all. It’s the depth and diversity of new music that makes scanning these polls so much fun. Nothing beats discovering something that slipped through the cracks.

In late October, the editor of No Depression:The Roots Music Authority requested a list of my favorite titles (I think she used the word “best”), and this is the list I sent her:

Jason Isbell, Daniel Romano, John Moreland, Pharis and Jason Romero, Tom Brosseau, Noah Gundersen, Watkins Family Hour, Joan Shelley, Milk Carton Kids, and an exceptional concert compilation called Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of a Dreadful Film. (Note to self: Going forward, try to be nicer.)

I’m sure y’all can spot the problem. It was way too exclusive. Narrowing my favorite albums of the year down to ten is just plain silly.

I also would have loved to include releases from Calexico, Jessica Pratt, the Westies, Kristin Andreassen, Joe Pug, Shakey Graves, Sufjan Stevens, The Kennedys, Kepi Ghoulie, Leon Bridges, Meg Baird, the Lonesome Trio, the Deslondes, Frazey Ford, the Skylarks, Kacey Musgraves, Ana Egge, Darrell Scott, Nikki Talley, Lindi Ortega, Dave Rawlings Machine, Jill Andrews, Darlingside, Decemberists, Daniel Martin Moore, Susie Glaze and the Hilonesome Band, and my friends Spuyten Duyvil.

I really like the duos and duets too. Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield, Anna and Elizabeth, the Lowest Pair, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. Not to mention the Honey Dewdrops, Iron and Wine and Ben Bridwell, Dave and Phil Alvin, and both the Wainwright and Chapin Sisters.

Don’t forget compilations with really long names that may or may not have been released this year, that I’ve been enjoying regardless: Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers, The Brighter Side: A 25th Anniversary Tribute to Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression, Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs By Karen Dalton, and Ola Belle Reed and Southern Mountain Music On the Mason-Dixon Line.

And then there are the names you already know: Iris Dement, Elvis Costello, Los Lobos, Leonard Cohen, Jesse Winchester, Dwight Yoakam, Mark Knopfler, Fairport Convention, and Bob Dylan (the old new stuff, not the new old stuff).

I haven’t counted them up, but this longer list of mine can’t be more than 50 or 60 albums — a pitiful, sickly and puny little list. Seriously, I’m ashamed. There are at least 119,940 or more to choose from and I know that you can do better than me. Whether you participate in the No Depression poll or any of the thousands of others that lurk out there, relax and enjoy. Have fun, don’t stress, don’t argue. It’s all about exploration.

Postscript: For the record, Americana is a radio format and an association, not a genre.

Families That Play Together

From The Sound of Music

New York City, August 13, 2015: This past Sunday, I took the train and then a subway to the Upper West Side, walked up and down Broadway picking at piles of books sold by street vendors for a mere dollar or two, and found shade in a plaza at Lincoln Center as I watched Iris DeMent perform songs from her new album. I looked around to see if her husband Greg Brown’s daughter Pieta was in the crowd with her spouse, guitarist Bo Ramsey. But if they were there, I missed them.

During the show, and as Iris sang, I pulled out my phone and tapped a message to a mutual friend of ours from Iowa City, photographer Sandy Dyas. Although we’ve never met face to face, we’ve had casual correspondence from time to time, over the years, and I’ve written about her work and featured it in my articles. Along with all of the people I’ve met through my connection with this particular website and music community, I consider Sandy a member of my No Depression family.

In life, love, law, politics, society, civilization, art, music, literature, and pretty much everything else in this world, there are threads that bind us together. While a dictionary might tell you that there are only three specific types of families, the American Academy of Pediatrics lists eight and sociologists can quickly rattle off over a dozen. Some folks might tell you that there is only one kind of family, but my own definition is much broader.

Be it a coupling of two or a group of thousands, we seem to have the capacity to create connections that can have the same feel and offer the same support system as what a traditional family does. Sometimes it endures, other times it evaporates as quickly as it came together. But whether bloodlines or lifelines, and despite a high rate of dysfunction, families often and unpredictably can produce some amazing results.

When Teddy Thompson came up with the idea of having his family work together to release an album last year, his sister Kami tried to back out. As quoted in the New York Times Magazine, she asked him “Could I be like that one Osbourne who’s not on the show, whose name no one knows?”

Nonetheless, Thompson’s Family is probably one of the best collections of songs ever created through emails, file sharing, and studio magic. It features music that is just simply beautiful, from divorced parents Linda and Richard, nephew Zak Hobbs, Richard’s son Jack from his second marriage, and the reluctant sister Kami with her husband James Walbourne who perform as the Rails. (If you haven’t heard the Rails’ album Fair Warning, run don’t walk.)

Explaining to the Times reporter how and why this album came about, Teddy says: “It was difficult to make it sound like everyone’s together, because we weren’t – which is exactly the way my family is. If anything, that kind of sums up the whole process. It’s trying to bring everybody from wherever they are, in their own little world. And make it sound like we’re a family.”

At the end of this year, when all of the writers and bloggers and reader polls put together their “best of” lists, if they don’t include Pharis and Jason Romero’s A Wanderer I’ll Stay, they will be sadly mistaken. While I tend to keep my distance from such beauty contests, it isn’t hard at all to point to this collection and scream, “This is why I love music,” at the top of my lungs. While I’ve enjoyed the story of how another married musical couple – Pete and Maura Kennedy – met at the gravesite of Buddy Holly, Pharis comes in a close second because she sent Jason a 1928 recording of Tupelo Blues by Hoyt Ming and His Pinesteppers, and they had a wedding three months after. You can read their whole story here, but you should know they live in Horsefly, British Columbia, he is a custom banjo maker, she was the co-founder of Outlaw Social, they were both in The Haints Old Time Stringband, and as a duo they’ve released three near-perfect albums.

For many years, I lived in a small town north of San Diego and attended services and played music on occasion at a small Unitarian congregation in Vista – the town where Sean and Sara Watkins grew up. While it could be a false memory syndrome thing, I’m pretty sure I saw them play, when they were just little people, at some local events.

Ten years ago, all grown up and based in Los Angeles, they created what I like to think of as an ‘Our Gang’ variety show that features an ever-changing cast of characters. We got to see them at last year’s Newport Folk Festival after-party, and it was the highlight of the weekend, which you can read about here.

When they released an album recently, I made the mistake of sampling some tracks on Spotify and stashing it in the virtual file cabinet. On the way to see Iris DeMent, though, I sat on the train and listened to it end to end, start to finish. Brilliant concept, flawless execution. Coming from a man who dwells in the house of shuffle and prefers my music to pop up unexpectedly like a jack in the box, I have to say: you won’t exactly get the concept of The Watkins Family Hour without putting in the time to go all the way. The only family members by blood in this troupe are Sean and Sara. But what’s so special is that, not only are the other musicians in the cousins’ club, but we – the listeners – are in the family too.

This was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column at No Depression: The Roots Music Journal.

Americana and Roots Music Videos: Spring 2015

Pixabay License

We’re somewhere around a third of the way into this year and I thought it was a good time to flip through the bin and share some of my favorite albums and songs with you. Frankly, I’m doing this much more for me than for you. I’ve acquired so much new stuff lately, and with barely enough time to listen, it’s going to force me to work a bit. But a night or two of just listening to music? Pretty nice job if you can get it.

I visit YouTube several times a day, every day … and sharing videos has become an important tool in discovering archival footage, catching up on old favorites, and exposing new music. Here’s a few things that caught my eyes and ears this season.

The Westies

John Ellis posted a review on No Depression for The Westies back in February, and he said that they “make music that demonstrates how closely related inner city grit and grime is with the softness of a serene Appalachian mountaintop. Americana doesn’t just belong in rural settings; West Side Stories is Americana music embedded in the rivets of Rust Belt cities with connections to Ireland, coal-streaked miners, and dirt under their fingernails sharecroppers.” Great description. This is the track that does it for me.

Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield

I seem to have missed their mini-tour last March, but Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield’s tribute to Elliott Smith presents twelve perfect songs that are handled with care and sprinkled with wonder. I haven’t read much about this project. It’s one that could have easily slipped past you.

Pharis and Jason Romero

I don’t think there’s anybody who has heard Pharis and Jason Romero’s music and failed to fall in love with their harmonies and songs. They’ve got such a great story, and A Wanderer I’ll Stay is probably the strongest of their albums so far. If we could only get them out of Canada and down south, life would be a dream.

Fairport Convention

While Fairport Convention may no longer have the same rabid fan base in America that they still maintain in England, they still make intensely magical music, as demonstrated by the title track of their latest album, Myths and Heroes. The annual Cropready concerts will commence in August.

Calexico

Just about every track on Calexico’s Edge of the Sun has a different guest on it. The first invitation to collaborate went to Sam Beam from Iron and Wine, and then they extended it to Ben Bridwell from Band of Horses, Nick Urata from Devotchka, Carla Morrison, Gaby Moreno, Amparo Sanchez, multi-instrumentalists from the Greek band Takim, as well as Neko Case. I wish we still had Top 40 AM radio because this one would be number one with a bullet.

John Moreland

John Moreland is the most dazzling singer, guitarist and songwriter in America. He’s a very big man. And I think I know why. Deep inside his soul lives Woody Guthrie, a young Bob Dylan, a kid from the Jersey shore named Bruce, and the hardcore troubadour Steve Earle. He’s that f-ing great. And you know what? I first discovered him on YouTube.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.