Tag: Jenna Moynihan

LISTEN: The Clements Brothers, “As the Crow Flies”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: The Clements Brothers
Hometown: Gloucester, Massachusetts
Song: “As the Crow Flies”
Album: Dandelion Breeze
Release Date: August 25, 2023
Label: Plow Man Records

In Their Words: “’As the Crow Flies’ is a tune written by George and finished by Charles. George came up with the Celtic-inspired tune on the guitar and brought it to the band. Then we played and improvised around on it until we had something we thought was exciting and interesting. The metric modulation and build in the middle of the tune was something George had conceived-of from the initial demo, but it took some playing around and experimenting with until the current progression and bass solo with the fiddle weaving around it emerged. The great fiddler Jenna Moynihan lent her beautiful playing and creative energy to the fiddle part, which we think really tied the tune together in the end. In terms of the tune name, we thought the melody had a kind of soaring and darkly quirky quality to it, so the title “As the Crow Flies” seemed to fit the mood and spirit of the sonic journey. Our late father, who passed just before the album was coming into shape, always loved crows with their intelligent and family-oriented qualities, so it also serves as a little memory capsule to him.” – The Clements Brothers

Photo Credit: Toan Trinh

MIXTAPE: Bobby Britt’s Songs of Hard-Won Joy

Posted on by Editor

The songs and artists on this playlist evoke a sense of hard-fought, hard-won, deep and rich joy. It is not a simple, one-dimensional joy. It has the sound of being churned about, tried and tested again. And now, just maybe, the joy being properly vetted, can be enjoyed. I look up to these artists, as they convey a message of calm and confident optimism.

We are all faced with the dualities of a temporal world…birth and death, gain and loss, pleasure and pain.

These songs speak to the strength of the human spirit amidst that world, and give me courage to carry on regardless of what’s happening, good or bad. They also provide a glimpse at an eternal reality of peace and balance (that has nothing to do with time, space or duality) that is hard to see or believe in when I am churning in the opposites…fear of loss, a craving for more and more solidity, and the dread that I will never have or be enough.

We need artists for this very reason; to go beyond our normal, conditioned ways of thinking about life, and to give us a new perspective with which to test our old and sometimes outdated paradigms.

My area of expertise is bluegrass and old-time fiddle. Though I am not a vocalist or pop artist, I gain inspiration from all styles. The feeling and sound of the above mentioned “hard-won joy” is what transcends specific genres for me. A goal of mine is to take this base emotional element, and with it, transfuse my fiddle playing and songwriting.

My hope is that you can find some joy and something to relate to in these songs as I did. Thank you for listening.

Photo Credit Louise Bichan

Jenna Moynihan, ‘The Chill on Montebello’

Posted on by Editor

It's not quite snow season yet, but you can steel yourself for the looming cold weather with Jenna Moynihan's new "The Chill on Montibello," from her new album Woven. The beautiful fiddle tune, she says, was inspired by her hilltop home in Boston.

"I wrote this tune on the first snow, while living at the top of a seriously steep hill here in Boston. When it was icy, you kind of had to just let yourself slide down and hope for the best," she says.

The track begins with an older version that Moynihan recorded with Darol Anger a few years ago on a laptop. It's scratchy and rough, recalling the old-time 78s of decades long past.

"We made that recording sound even dirtier to feel a bit like a field recording," Moynihan explains. From there, the song blooms into a slightly cleaner arrangement. Della Mae's Courtney Hartman joins in on guitar, rounding out the higher fiddle counterpoints with warm, low riffs. 

"Darol and Courtney are such brilliant musicians. Playing with them is like a having a conversation, and we're all just living in the tune. That's what I'm interested in; the construction of an atmosphere around a melody — displaying the melody through my playing, instead of the other way around," she says.

The song's rich melody and its winding, intricate instrumental components make it worthy of many, many listens. You'll find something new to appreciate with each play — get started on it below.