We’re figuring it out, one day at a time. Sometimes life can go by so fast, one can forget to savor the moment.
These songs keep us present and feeling alive. Our new album, Growing Pains, talks about the highs and lows of life and the emotions that come along with balancing your career and mental health. This collection of songs is what we’re currently listening to as it’s all happening. – Trousdale
“There’s A Rhythm” – Bon Iver
“Can I really still complain” just hits me so hard. The chord progression, the tempo, the production– everything about this song gets me into a meditative zone of presence and reflection. – Georgia Greene
“Sapling” – Foy Vance
“I wished I could go back in time, but all I could do was apologize. Right then, your eyes were healing…” I mean come on. – GG
“Molly I’m Coming Around” – Annika Bennett
This song just feels like a warm blanket of truth – being honest with yourself and others. – GG
“Don’t Stop” – Fleetwood Mac
This one was definitely a sonic inspiration for the album. It has such a positive vibe and message and helps remind us that there’s always another day to try again. – GG, Quinn D’Andrea, Lauren Jones
“Green Light” – Darlingside
This song just feels like a meditation, the chord progression feels like it’s existed forever, and the lyrics feel like they could be spoken as a prayer. Could listen to this song on loop forever. – QD
“Let’s Be Still” – The Head And The Heart
I need a constant reminder to move slower. This song is perfect for that. – LJ
“My Love For You Is A Straight Line” – Ken Yates
This song feels like coming home to myself. – LJ
“Never Been Better” – Ben Abraham
Coming from an artist who also understands the grind of this life we’ve chosen, I feel like Ben puts this feeling perfectly. Sometimes when we’re overwhelmed it’s just helpful to hear that exact feeling validated and put into words. – QD
“Look Up” – Joy Oladokun
I love this song when I need a reminder to zoom out. We can get so caught up in the everyday stress, and the words of this song coupled with the arrangement is the perfect opportunity to remember that this life is so much more than that. – QD
“You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” – Leo Sayer
Listen to this song for an immediate dose of serotonin. – LJ
As someone who gets pigeonholed as a blues guitarist, I’ve publicly reckoned with what I feel is an othering of blues as no longer really art, but instead what might be seen as a wax museum-ification of a formerly revolutionary genre. Too many established musicians and fans alike don’t want blues to evolve, but to instead be preserved in amber. Yet, its sibling folk music has not only never entirely fallen out of fashion, it has evolved and even prospered specifically because its brightest figures have refused to let tradition and academic codification stagnate the genre. Whether you’re talking about Bob Dylan going electric or Bon Iver collaborating with hip-hop superstars, folk musicians understand that cross pollination and new ideas are vital to growth. To my ears, Yasmin Williams is a proud continuation of that tradition of evolving folk.
To listen to the music of Yasmin Williams is to listen to the thrill of musical mutation in action, to hear and feel playing that is in constant communication, not only with itself, but with myriad styles and personalities. Given how adventurous and playful Williams’ music is, it’s not too surprising that her gateway to music was in fact a video game, specifically Guitar Hero 2.
In a review of Williams’ breakout 2021 album Urban Driftwood for taste-making music site Pitchfork, writer Sam Sodomsky connected Williams’ percussive, tap-heavy fingerpicking style to the mechanics of that game, as well as folk guitar legend John Fahey. Rhythmic intensity and love for the thrill of performance are the unifying elements of Williams’ otherwise impossible-to-pin-down style; this isn’t folk as a study or stuffy examination of tradition, it’s folk as expression at its most pure, music for entertainment, communication, and friendly competition all at once.
Williams’ latest batch of singles from her just-released album, Acadia, impeccably illustrates this eclectic and freewheeling approach to folk. “Hummingbird” is a dazzling collaboration with banjo player Allison de Groot and fiddle phenom Tatiana Hargreaves that recalls Richard Thompson’s lush, melodic picking but marries it to the breakneck intensity of traditional bluegrass.
On the other end of the folk spectrum, “Virga” finds Williams teaming up with Darlingside for a gorgeous and stately slice of indie folk that would fit right in with the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Bibio. Somewhere in the middle is “Dawning,” a bluesy folk number that features Williams dueting on guitar with Aoife O’Donovan of Crooked Still fame, who also provides enchanting, wordless vocals that give the song an almost ambient quality, as if Sigur Rós moved to Appalachia.
Even on songs that are more traditional, Williams playfully inserts pop and experimental elements. Take “Sunshowers,” which opens Urban Driftwood with beautiful fingerpicking that in turn gives way to a simple yet addictive bass-like hook that wouldn’t be out of place on a Post Malone single. Or, consider the album’s title track, which features djembe playing by Amadou Kouaye and adds an almost IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) quality to the song. Or, “Nova to Ba,” a collaboration with Argentine musician Dobrotto that effortlessly transitions from cinematic grandeur to relaxing ambient textures.
As a musician, I can’t help but be entranced by the marvelous skill and tone on display in Williams’ music. But more importantly, as a listener, I’m struck by the immediacy and tunefulness of the songs. Like Williams’ early inspiration, Guitar Hero 2, these songs are hard to put down once you start, and the difficulty never gets in the way of the fun.
“Juvenescence,” one of Williams’ most popular songs, is a handy representation of her skills – the impeccable picking, the daredevil runs that would impress even Eddie van Halen, the self-dueting in the finale. But it’s also immensely listenable and never a chore. Equally impressive is “Swift Breeze,” where Williams utilizes her guitar as an organic drum machine, getting a booming kick drum sound out of the body and rim shot-like hits out of other components, all while arpeggiating like she just got off a tour as the lead guitarist for a Midwest emo outfit.
It might seem odd to bring up emo in a feature on a folk musician, but there is a considerable amount of drama and theatricality in Williams’ music, even though most of it is instrumental. “Adrift,” in particular, has just as many emotional pivots and anthemic hooks as a Panic! At The Disco song. Here, the guitar comes in first, then the strings, but the swaggering hooks and melancholic valleys are there. It’s not hard to reimagine “Restless Heart,” from Williams’ debut album, Unwind, as an emo anthem either; it has a killer riff to kick things off followed by a pick slide and some heavy ringing chords. Even the title sounds like something the Get Up Kids would have used. If Dashboard Confessional was ever looking for their own Tim Reynolds to do an acoustic tour with, all I’m saying is Williams’ name should be high up on the list.
Every genre should be so fortunate as to have an artist like Williams, a performer who challenges herself without losing sight of what makes music a pleasure to listen to. A musician who commits to pushing the boundaries of the genre they call home, rather than maintaining a status quo. No genre should be inflexible and we need more musicians like Williams – period – who push themselves musically just as much as they do technically.
Oscar Wilde said, “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If it is worth having, it is worth waiting for. If it is worth attaining, it is worth fighting for. If it is worth experiencing, it is worth putting aside time for.”
Composer and guitarist Yasmin Williams can certainly relate to the sentiments in Wilde’s reflection. Williams – who went from New York University in 2017 to releasing her first LP in 2018 to performing across the world – says when she picked up the acoustic guitar, it was about “trying to become the best guitarist [she] could be.”
Though a straightforward aspiration, and one that Williams has pursued fervently between the release of her debut album and now of her third record, Acadia, Williams has lived through ups, downs, and unknowns of the music industry, which have shifted her goals along the way. Particularly between 2020 and 2024, when Williams wrote the songs that would become Acadia, the inherent nature of public visibility and the process of establishing herself in the music landscape led Williams to discern what exactly is worth doing, having, waiting for, attaining, fighting for, and experiencing as a musician. It’s this amalgamation of inner realizations and external escapades that make Acadia the compelling journey it is.
Listening to each piece is like exploring a miniature world. Songs like album opener “Cliffwalk” unlock the door to an event memorable to Williams and all the emotions that came with it – performing at Newport Folk Festival and writing most of the song the night before, with the rest unfolding as an improvisation on stage. Pieces like “Virga” and “Dream Lake” reflect the duality of positive and negative challenges that come with nurturing a career as a musician. The two tracks are fittingly written with this direct connection to the other in mind.
Acadia as a whole is brimming with collaboration, a potpourri of artists, instruments, and culture, songs like “Harvest,” “Hummingbird,” and “Dawning” speak directly to what can grow from embracing new friendships, communities, and the unique creative resonance that can be found therein.
Acadia may encompass a fixed window of time in her life, but much like the many meanings of its title and Williams’ own ethos for the album – a place of peace, a place where creativity can blossom – the project endures as an oasis, a reminder from the past thriving in the present that scatters new seeds for music in the future, as Williams continues to walk down a trail of her own design.
Speaking with BGS by phone before a tour that will take her across the U.S. and to the UK later this year, Williams talked about the value of empowerment and patience, the expectations of the music industry, insights that came from producing her own music, and more.
What was the evolution of your vision for Acadia like and how did things develop as you met new artists and had so many new experiences from 2020 to 2024?
Yasmin Williams: I wasn’t really envisioning the album being as expansive as it is. Back in 2020 and even before that, I was still focused on just trying to become the best guitarist I can be, trying to become more confident in my playing and more confident in my abilities.
When I played Newport Folk Festival [in 2021], it gave me the confidence and the encouragement that I needed to realize that I can actually do this for a living – be a professional musician. It definitely lit a spark and after that, I realized I should take meeting people more seriously. Not necessarily networking, but just trying to make friends with musicians that I’m meeting at these festivals since I keep seeing the same people. That’s kind of how the collaborations came about: Just me being not afraid to tell people, “Hey, I really like your music. I’d love to do something with you,” or people telling me that and me not being afraid to follow up with them because, I guess I dealt with some sort of– I don’t want to say, “inferiority complex,” but like, I feel like the musicians that are on the record have been doing their thing for long time. I’d be afraid to reach out to people and ask them to collaborate with me.
After 2021, I got over that fear, which helped immensely. That led to the collaborations and that led to me thinking, “My next record can be what I want it to be but, I can also invite people to do things that I cannot do.” Like, I don’t play saxophone, I don’t play drums. I’m not super comfortable singing on my music yet and inviting all of these people to do those things really created the atmosphere and the universe that I wanted for Acadia. I wanted it to be something that my other two records aren’t necessarily, which is a more expansive kind of universe.
How did you approach conveying themes, motifs, or emotions when writing music to include others versus writing for yourself?
Every song was different. As far as [asking myself], “How does this person fit into the theme or the emotion that I’m trying to present?” What I did was, I told the collaborator, “Here’s what emotion or mood I’m trying to evoke here. Does this make sense to you? Do you think you can do this? Let’s figure out a way to do it.” I gave them slightly free reign, but help if they needed help figuring something out.
Where does your dedication to informing folks about the social and historical aspects of music, and the prospect of personal responsibility around that, fit within your music career?
It took me years to figure out if I even wanted to be involved in making people aware of the historical aspects of the music that I was playing. I also had to learn a lot about music that I was playing and about folk music in general, because I didn’t really grow up listening to folk music at all or bluegrass or things like that. So I’ve learned a lot in the last five, six, seven years.
Things changed when I finished [my album] Urban Driftwood. Just remembering, going to protests up here in Washington, D.C. when George Floyd’s murder happened and seeing all of the political unrest and social unrest around here where I live, and obviously seeing it on the news everywhere else definitely made me change my mind. As far as being open about, for example, speaking about being a Black female guitarist, which is not something I really wanted to do in my late teens, early 20s. I definitely came around to it and now see it as a necessity.
To me, social media is a great tool to try to help educate folks, because there’s so much online at our fingertips that’s just factually incorrect. Anything I can do to try to help mitigate that, I think is good. I think it’s important for me now to be involved in the full scene in a way that’s positive and educating people – to just get involved in things or be involved in ways that I’m interested in. I’ve always been a history nerd anyway so to me, it makes sense now to do that, whereas before, I guess I just wasn’t mature enough to understand why I would have to be a musician and educate folks and have a social media presence. But now I don’t have a problem at all.
What would you describe as the most challenging aspect of making Acadia and how did you wade through that experience?
Figuring out how to finish some of the songs. I realized I have to let time pass and let it come to me. “Sisters,” for example, I came up with that melody like, two, three years ago now? And it was stuck being a two-, three-minute song for years. I thought, “This doesn’t feel done.” But I couldn’t come up with anything. Then, the night before my recording session, I came up with four extra minutes of material. For me, I can’t force the issue of finishing a song. It just kind of has to come to me. And whenever it comes, it comes. And these songs, some of them took a really long time to get finished. So that was probably the most difficult part of it.
What was the most interesting new musical technique or process you explored while making Acadia and why was it so meaningful?
Producing was the most interesting part of it; hearing what people heard in my music was by far the most interesting aspect of recording. Just hearing how people process it, then hearing what they do in response. Pretty much everyone grasped what I was trying to accomplish in the song that they’re featured on.
For example, “Hummingbird” with Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves. They both come from a more, I guess, old-time tradition, which is very different than [the kind of song] “Hummingbird” is. It took a little while for us to kind of get the song in the studio, because the song is very difficult, first of all, to play. But they absolutely nailed it. Hearing how they heard the timing and the syncopation and the melody, and the melodic aspects of the song, and how they thought, “Okay, I can fit in here and drop out here and harmonize here,” it was really interesting to see how people’s brains worked and how it’s so different from how mine works but it somehow fits together pretty seamlessly.
How did you discern your feelings when a collaborator might encourage you to try something new, versus deciding to stay true to yourself and your voice as a composer and musician?
I feel like I was more so bringing the collaborators to a different place that maybe they weren’t used to and pretty much everybody who’s on the record was willing to do that and go to somewhere new.
Once the recording process and collaboration process got started, it was really easy for me to just tell people, “Okay, I want this, this, and this.” And most of the time, people are just like, “Yeah!” With Darlingside and the song “Virga,” I made it clear that I actually wanted them to do lyrics and then we worked on that. They were open to it for the most part so for me it was easy. But maybe for some of the collaborators it was about getting them out of their usual music making mode and into a more open-minded mode.
Being ready to make an album like this, it took living life and having different experiences.
No one on earth plays the guitar like Yasmin Williams. When the BGS team was first introduced to her music – back a few years now, in 2017 or 2018, during our annual programming for our Shout & Shine diversity showcase – it was an objectively jaw-dropping discovery. We’ve covered many singular musicians, instrumentalists, and guitarists over the years on our site, but here was something completely and totally brand new. Then, in 2021, she wowed our BGS audience with her Shout & Shine livestream performance. From our staff to our followers, we were all hooked.
Immediately upon hearing Williams’ ethereal, otherworldly, and effortlessly charming guitar-centered compositions, it’s natural, reflexive even, to imagine how listeners may have first reacted to encountering Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s earth-stopping rock and roll, or Elizabeth Cotten’s unassuming backwards-and-upside-down guitar genius, or Jimi Hendrix’s showy shredding behind his head. There’s a jolt of electricity, a child-like wonder, and proper awe that each result from even the slightest encounter with Williams’ talents.
But, like those legends before her, this is not merely toxically masculine, performative, over-the-top “guitar culture” music. You can tell, from the first breath of tone from her instruments, that Williams is not now nor has ever been the guitarist trying to impress or outdo all of the AC/DC or Led Zeppelin rehearsers plucking through “Stairway to Heaven” at the local Guitar Center.
No, Williams’ approach to the instrument is totally brand new, too – and a remarkable breath of fresh air in a scene that is often derivative, competitive, exclusive, and rife with “Um, actually…” Instead of focusing her ambitions or goals entirely on the insular, inward-facing guitar world, Williams has demonstrated over two impeccable, critically-acclaimed albums – 2021’s Urban Driftwood and her first Nonesuch project, Acadia (out October 4) – that her community is far broader, richer, and truly incandescent.
Acadia builds on the rich and resplendent universe Williams built for Urban Driftwood – and has been cultivating for years, since her full length debut in 2018, Unwind. With a foundation centered on fingerstyle acoustic guitar with plenty of blues, bluegrass, flatpicking, and Americana infusions, Williams approaches the instrument as if a just-invented, novel machine; pedagogy, tradition, and technique are all present, but only ever in service of the melodies themselves – never as exercises in “correctness” or propriety. She’ll play with the guitar in her lap, tapping with both hands on the surface of the strings and fretboard. She’ll affix a kalimba to the face of the instrument and play both simultaneously. She quite literally turns her six-string (and her harp guitars, banjos, and more) on their ears, throwing all expectations and convention out the window.
There’s showmanship evident herein, of course, and a tinge of acrobatics, but these are merely knock-on effects and not the entire point. Instead, it seems Williams’ intention is to follow each and every tendril and tributary of her musical ideas to their natural conclusions, raising no barriers to herself in the process. Not even the barrier of the guitar itself. What even is a guitar, if you approach it from a unique perspective or through a fresh lens each time you pick it up? Williams shows us this common, everyday, century-spanning instrument can always find new sounds and styles.
Again, in contrast with “norms” in the guitar scene, Acadia is a testament to Williams’ community, as well. Her albums as yet never feel like guitar vanity projects, as the picker decidedly brings in so many facets of her musical and creative community to her music making. In just the first three singles from Acadia she taps an impressive array of featured artists, from Aoife O’Donovan to Darlingside to Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves. On prior releases, she’s recorded with the legendary Tommy Emmanuel, Taryn Wood, Dobrotto, and many more. Her approach to the instrument is singular, but it’s never solitary. Where other guitarists might prefer to leverage the instrument and their virtuosity to center themselves, Williams seems determined to do the opposite. The results are, as always, stunning.
Fingerstyle acoustic guitar is engaging and lovely music to begin with, but given her particular touch, her compositional voice, and her community collaborations, Yasmin Williams is showing roots music fans everywhere that even our most familiar instruments can be wellsprings of originality, inspiration, and joy. Acadia is a masterwork, and a perfect album to spotlight as we name Yasmin Williams our Artist of the Month. Enjoy our Essentials Playlist below to kick off the month and read our exclusive interview feature here. And, read an excellent op-ed on Williams written by buzzworthy viral guitarist and improviser Jackie Venson here. Plus, we’ll be dipping back into the BGS archives for all things Yasmin throughout October.
It’s our first New Music Friday of August! This week, we’ve got an excellent handful of tracks you simply gotta hear. First, there’s Paula Fong with a “zippy little tune” that’s delightfully old school country. Plus, Danny Roberts brings us a ramblin’ bluegrass track, “The Drifter,” which pays homage both to David “Dawg” Grisman and Roberts’ late brother-in-law, Mike Mullins.
Our penultimate premiere is the title track for Americana duo – and 2024 AmericanaFest Official Showcase artist – A Tale of Two’s upcoming album, Renegade. To finish us off, the impeccable and mystifying guitarist Yasmin Williams calls on indie folk favs Darlingside for “Virga,” a swirling song from her just-announced upcoming album, Acadia.
Listen below, ’cause You Gotta Hear This!
Paula Fong, “A House Is Not A Home”
Artist:Paula Fong Hometown: Los Angeles, California Song: “A House Is Not A Home” Album:Chestnut Mare Release Date: September 6, 2024
In Their Words: “This is hands down the fastest I’ve ever written a song. It took me around 15 minutes to write it top to bottom – chords and lyrics – and felt like it just flew out of my head onto the page. I often write about fairly heavy subjects, but in this case I thought I’d just try out a zippy little tune that puts a smile in your heart and makes you want to tap your feet. I often get compliments that it sounds like an effortlessly classic old country tune.
“When I was in my early 20’s I moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina for a time to work at an outdoor Montessori/Quaker farm school that was located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Life there was full and busy, but in a different way from LA. Many things were clearer, more simple, more joyful in a way. I feel like this song captures one facet of the simplicity of that time (and some specific NC references – traveling across the mountains, chickens in the garden). Generally speaking, I think love is hardly simple, but there are certainly moments that can feel as easy and carefree as this song.” – Paula Fong
Danny Roberts, “The Drifter”
Artist:Danny Roberts Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “The Drifter” Release Date: August 2, 2024 Label: Mountain Home Music Company
In Their Words: “When I started writing ‘The Drifter,’ I was inspired to compose something to pay tribute to one of my all-time favorite mandolin players, David Grisman. I feel like this song has that vibe, though nobody can play that style like Dawg. The song title is in honor of my late brother-in-law, Mike Mullins, who wrote a book called The Drifter before he passed away; that title just seemed to fit this song. ‘The Drifter’ was so much fun to record, and it’s always great to have my wife Andrea playing bass with me and the solos that Tony Wray (banjo and guitar) and Jimmy Mattingly (fiddle) played on it are magical. I’m blessed to have such great musicians helping me bring my music to life!” – Danny Roberts
Track Credits: Danny Roberts – Mandolin Andrea Roberts – Bass Tony Wray – Acoustic guitar, banjo Jimmy Mattingly – Fiddle
A Tale of Two, “Renegade”
Artist name:A Tale Of Two Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Renegade” Album:Renegade Release Date: October 4, 2024
In Their Words: “‘Renegade’ is a fitting title for both the record and this song. It represents a shift, a changing of the tide. Our aim is to embody an identity that defies the norms of Nashville. Drawing inspiration from fragments of a previously unreleased track, “Renegade” continues the next chapter of our story, infused with the spirit of the Appalachian terrain we know so well.” – A Tale of Two
Track Credits: Aaron Lessard – Guitar and vocals Stephanie Adlington – Vocals Ross McReynolds – Percussion Elizabeth Estes – Fiddle Jon Estes – Bass
Yasmin Williams, “Virga”
Artist:Yasmin Williams Hometown: Woodbridge, Virginia Song: “Virga” Album:Acadia Release Date: October 4, 2024 Label: Nonesuch Records
In Their Words: “A virga occurs when trails of rainfall from a cloud evaporate before they reach the ground. While virga can be beautiful to look at, it can also cause extreme turbulence for aircrafts. I related this phenomenon to how I feel about participating in the music industry. While it’s so fulfilling to create music that I’m proud of and to be able to travel around the world, the industry itself is dangerous to be a part of and doesn’t always value art or artists.
“Instead, the music industry values metrics and other things that are related to business, not art, forcing most artists to think about hitting their next business target instead of putting their energy into their music. I often feel overwhelmed with all of the expectations that the music business puts on artists and the constant need to move on to the next goal post instead of being able to reflect on, and be grateful for, the things I’ve already achieved.
“While writing ‘Virga,’ I realized that it’s totally fine to feel suspended in time, with my career goals, hopes, and dreams suspended in the atmosphere of an environment I have no control over… and I eventually learned how to thrive “in Virga,” through both the beautiful times and the turbulent ones.” – Yasmin Williams
Track Credits: Darlingside – Vocals Rich Ruth – Synth, Yasmin Williams – Harp guitar Jeff Gruber – Recording engineer Mixed by Ken Lewis at thATMOS Studios.
Photo Credit: Yasmin Williams by Ebru Yildiz; Danny Roberts by Sandlin Gaither.
Artist:Louisa Stancioff Hometown: I live in Warren, Maine and I am originally from Chesterville, Maine Latest Album:When We Were Looking
Which artist has influenced you the most and how?
Regina Spektor keeps coming to mind. I listened to her albums Begin to Hope and Far incessantly when I was young, and I loved her voice, her intricate, thoughtful, creative melodies, her silliness paired with intensity, and her unpredictable song structures. Those albums were two of 10 or so CDs that I had, so I knew every word even when I couldn’t understand or quite grasp the things she was singing about. It’s hard to pinpoint who or what has influenced me, but she definitely opened up a new sonic landscape for me that I’m always still so entertained by whenever one of her songs comes on.
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
I was once playing a house show in Paonia, Colorado in someone’s backyard with my old band, Dyado. It was a warm, beautiful night and we were singing this song we had written together that mentioned the wind whipping at the trees and right then there was a very strong gust that whipped the leaves of this huge willow tree and made such a loud whooshing sound. It all felt pretty magical with the perfect timing and everyone was laughing and cheering.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
It wasn’t until COVID lockdown times. I’d been playing music my whole life and touring around the country here and there for a few years, but never felt any sort of commitment to it career-wise. Once it was no longer an option to perform and collaborate with people, that’s when I realized how bad I wanted it. I decided I had to truly attempt to build a solid music career or I might regret it for the rest of my life.
What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?
The folks from the band Darlingside gave us some really nice advice a couple years ago when we were on tour with them. It’s so easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to other peoples’ music careers, but if you take a step back and compare yourself to where you were a year before, it can help you realize how far you’ve come. Now whenever I am feeling down about my career or feel like it’s not moving fast enough, I think about where I was a year before, and it always reminds me how much I have grown.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I am a water person – I love swimming in lakes and rivers and oceans, canoeing and being on the water in general. A lot of my songs mention water in some way or other, in fact I have an entire song about a canoe race. I was actually in a river canoe race last week and I almost died. I got rescued by a kind firefighter after our boat was completely swamped and swept away. Perhaps I’ll write a song about that, too.
Our past albums were written very collaboratively and we sang together almost all the time, whether in harmony or unison, trying to create a unified voice where individuals were difficult to pinpoint. For our new album Everything Is Alive, we made a conscious effort to let the individual voices and minds of our four singers/writers show through. Here are some of the recorded songs by other artists that inspired us in writing and producing the album, to give you (and maybe each other?) a sense of where we were coming from and who to blame if you don’t enjoy the results! – Darlingside
“Cecilia” – Simon & Garfunkel
I enjoy how the energy of this song comes from snaps, claps, and non-traditional-drum-kit percussion — it’s uptempo, but also sparse. I referenced it a number of times while working on “Eliza I See,” whose percussion is mainly the sound of slapping my legs and banging on a desk in my bedroom. – Harris Paseltiner
“A Rose for Emily” – The Zombies
I’ve always been sweet on the key change into the chorus here combined with the entrance of the harmony vocals. I love a moment in a song where I get transported into a whole new place, even while the basic instrumentation maintains course — that’s the same basic move I tried on our song “Darkening Hour,” where the minor chord you’ve been hearing in the verse pivots to major right at the downbeat of the chorus and the harmonies drop in all at once right on top. – Don Mitchell
“King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1” – Neutral Milk Hotel
There’s so much in this track that I love, but the two easiest things to point to are the double-tracked vocal and the louder-than-expected Uilleann pipes that come in at 0:46. “Right Friend” features both double-tracked (triple-tracked, even!) vocals and a loud, buzzy pad coming in on the second verse. – Auyon Mukharji
“I Love You Always Forever” – Donna Lewis
I heard this song for the first time in years at a friend’s wedding and was reminded of how incredible it is. A few days later I asked Don (middle name Lewis, no relation) to come up with a “Don(na) Lewis” guitar part (mimicking the guitar that comes in at 0:38) for “All the Lights In the City,” and he did, and I love it! – Dave Senft
“Simple Man” – Graham Nash
I’ve always loved the distant, nostalgic piano sound at the beginning of this song — it brings memories immediately back to life, like the sound of my brother practicing piano down the hallway in another room of the house. For our song “Sea Dogs” we decided to stick with a distant iPhone recording of the piano rather than a hi-fi recording because it had this same quality. – HP
“Santa Fe” – Beirut
I love how angular and buzzy the brass is on this track — it was definitely in the back of my head while I was putting an early, MIDI, brass-heavy demo of “Baking Soda” together. – AM
“We Did It When We Were Young” – Gaslight Anthem
We listened to this song on a loop when our band was in its early youth, and something about that insistent eighth-note pulse stayed lodged deep in our brains. A decade later, Auyon was learning guitar and sent out a voice memo with that familiar rhythmic feel which became the starting point for “Lose the Keys.” (The vocal melody doubled in octaves later in the song also points back to Gaslight origins!) – DM
“If You Could Read My Mind” – Henry Jamison, written by Gordon Lightfoot
This song was a guiding light for me while I was working on “Can’t Help Falling Apart,” and I think it influenced “All the Lights In the City” a bit as well. It feels honest and confessional and unresolved in a way that I’ve always admired and just feels like an emotional gut punch to me. I love the original, but the version I have been listening to more recently is this great cover by Henry Jamison. – DS
“Amie” – Damien Rice
There were a good few months of my early 20s wherein I was listening to this track daily. The plaintive, orchestral strings in “Down Here” can claim lineage. – AM
“Gulf War Song” – Moxy Fruvous
I think of this song as the gold standard for handling controversial/political subject matter in an effective way. “How Long Again” was very consciously informed by it from its inception. – DS
“Dancing and Blood” – Low Some songs make me feel things by sounding “real” — humans playing music in a room. This song goes the opposite direction: Everything is surreal and a little unsettling and it seems like things are about to go off the rails at any moment. I think this Low album inspired me to push the boundaries a bit with gated/distorted/off-kilter sounds around the margins of songs that still have a real human performance at the core. – DM
“Bloom” – Radiohead
This song is built on a few measures of extemporaneous piano noodling looped over and over, like an infinitely repeating moment of humanness. For our song “Green Light” we used an old voice memo of a mandocello that I was trying to learn how to play in Dave’s basement, which, when looped, resulted in the rhythmic core of the song. – HP
Artist:Frances Luke Accord Hometown: South Bend, Indiana (Brian Powers), Boston & Chicago (Nicholas Gunty) Song: “All the Things” Album:Safe in Sound Release Date: February 9, 2023 Label: Two-Dale Records/Tone Tree Music
In Their Words: “A song that speaks to the heart of our indie/folk/bluegrass/pop sensibilities, ‘All the Things’ is a playful but heartfelt ode to boundless love and companionship. Made with help from Don Mitchell (banjo, percussion, harmonium, production) of Darlingside, this happy-go-lucky tune is a warm ray of sunshine on our sophomore LP, Safe in Sound. Written during the dark days of COVID lockdown, we crafted the lyrics in a way that (we hope!) begs the listener to stay unabashedly hopeful and CONNECTED; for at the end of the day, our perspective on suffering — coupled with our ability to discuss it in an honest and open way with others — will determine its grip on us. We hope you like it as much as we enjoyed writing it!” — Brian Powers & Nicholas Gunty, Frances Luke Accord
This week, The Show On The Road brings you an intimate conversation with avant-folk instrumentalists and songwriting team Martin Earley (guitar, vocals) and Callie Peters (cello-vocals) — the driving forces behind New England’s The Ballroom Thieves.
Beginning as a hard-traveling duo — which also features longtime percussionist Devin Mauch — over a decade ago at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, the Ballroom Thieves began to turn heads and fill rooms when they added Peters and her fierce and poetic singing-style around eight years back. The Queen-meets-Wings stacks of harmonies, gorgeous string arrangements and slam-poetry off-kilter lyrics instantly made them stick out from their gentler rootsy peers. They recorded the beloved harmony-drenched debut, A Wolf In The Doorway, in 2015 and followed up with their soulful, expansively electric Nettwerk debut Deadeye, which has been streamed over 50 million times and counting. A tasteful covers record followed as they established themselves as international festival favorites.
2020 was supposed to be a triumphant year for the group, but of course that’s not how anything went last year, for anybody. Their playfully experimental and fearlessly political release Unlovely (your host Z. Lupetin’s new favorite record of this fractious era) got buried in the late winter tumult of the new pandemic, forcing the group to call off all touring and shelve all promotion. Holed up at home, the chastened group hoped the world might discover the deliciously angular anthems like “Vanity Trip,” “Homme Run” and the epic tempo-jumping opening title track (featuring fellow New England harmony-masters Darlingside) at a later, calmer date.
The world has not gotten calmer, of course. Earley and Peters had to push off marrying each other and percussionist Devin Mauch had to make the tough decision to leave the group and focus on his art career after a decade sharing stages across the world with his friends.
Despite all this, our talk was an upbeat one. The group recently returned to performing live and sold out their hometown venue the Sinclair in Boston with an expanded group of musicians backing their ever-evolving sound. New music is on the way — but in the meantime, give yourself a day to sit with Unlovely: one of the true lost gems of the 2020 musical year.
Artist:Darlingside Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts Song: “A Light on in the Dark” Album:Fish Pond Fish Release Date: October 9, 2020 Label: Thirty Tigers
In Their Words: “The lyrics open with the question, ‘Are you swimming with the fish pond fish, looking for oceans in the saltlessness?’ When we wrote that, we were thinking about social atomization and the idea that people become trapped in these false enclosures — fish ponds of our own making. The world outside one’s home or even outside one’s self can become a darkness to be warded off and shut out, and I’ve certainly been guilty of turning inward and making the world even darker as a result. But I’m desperate to break that cycle and I think a lot of people are; a light can’t shine only on itself. When the pandemic started, suddenly that idea of shutting out the world became in one sense much more real, and we really did become trapped in our own physical little fish ponds — but I think it also heightened our desperation and willingness to turn outward, to really connect with one another wholeheartedly.
“The second verse pulls some ideas from a writing exercise in which I was given a prompt to write about being a ‘cellar master’ and so I wrote a sort of open love letter to my plumber, who embodies a number of traits and competences that I lack. The tune itself has been around since 2016 and was originally sung over an arpeggiating line from a little synthesizer called a Septavox. We ended up stripping away that synth part in favor of more traditional instruments, with the exception of one section where Auyon meticulously recreated the synth line using sped-up, plucked violin.” — Dave Senft, Darlingside
Photo credit: Robb Stey
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