Tag: “Matty Groves”

You Gotta Hear This: New Music From John McEuen, Tom Paxton, and More

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

This week, banjoist and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founding member John McEuen kicks off our You Gotta Hear This round up with a track from his brand new album, The Newsman: A Man of Record. Check out his adaptation of a Robert Service poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee” below.

Plus, we’ve got track premieres from gritty country outfit Tylor & the Train Robbers, from Claire Lynch singing Tom Paxton for an upcoming album, Bluegrass Sings Paxton, from the Stetson Family contemplating mortality, and from the Onlies a rendering of a classic old-time ballad.

Don’t miss our video premiere from Max McNown, too, which posted to BGS just yesterday. It’s all right here and, if we do say so ourselves, You Gotta Hear This!

John McEuen, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”

Artist: John McEuen
Hometown: Oakland, California
Song: “The Cremation of Sam McGee”
Album: The Newsman: A Man of Record
Release Date: April 12, 2024
Label: Compass Records

In Their Words: “Using sound effects, music I composed, and some ‘recording tricks’ with instruments, I concocted the back up for one of my favorite poems, ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee.’ My (late) older sister would sometimes tell her 8-10 year old brother, me, this favorite Robert Service poem from 1906, captivating me with the story of a place unknown. I later found it in my high school English book and fell in love with it again. It takes me away to that strange time in these miners’ lives, and while starting kind of morose, manages (in my opinion, anyway) to reach a ‘happy ending’ with Sam finally getting warm! Trying to make the ‘definitive’ version of this classic was a challenge. It is one of my best ‘works.’ I am hoping each time a listeners hears it they will hear something different show up in the mix, as I planned it to be ‘with surprises’ like that.” – John McEuen

Claire Lynch, “I Give You The Morning” (by Tom Paxton)

Artist: Claire Lynch from Bluegrass Sings Paxton
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Song: “I Give You The Morning”
Album: Bluegrass Sings Paxton
Release Date: April 12, 2024 (Single)
Label: Mountain Home Music Company

In Their Words: “Claire Lynch has one of the most recognizable and expressive voices in bluegrass. We knew we wanted to have that voice on the album and her choice of ‘I Give You The Morning’ was a great call — it’s got an old-fashioned ballad construction, a deliciously unusual yet natural rhythm to the first lines in each verse, a captivating melodic rise in the refrain, and an evocative lyric. And, the band has just the right balance of strength and delicacy to complement those same qualities in her approach. It’s a performance that brings out so many aspects of what makes Tom Paxton’s songs so memorable, and I can’t think of a better way to introduce this project to listeners!” – Jon Weisberger, co-producer

“Since the early 1960s, when bluegrass and the emergent folk revival first crossed paths, arguably no songwriter from the latter world has seen more of their songs adopted by the former than Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Tom Paxton. From early covers of his epochal ‘The Last Thing On My Mind’ by Bluegrass Hall of Famers, The Dillards and the Kentucky Colonels, to regular performances of ‘Leaving London’ by IBMA Entertainer of the Year Billy Strings, to Ashby Frank’s version of ‘Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound,’ which landed a place among the 30 most-played tracks on bluegrass radio in 2023, Paxton’s creative visions have echoed in bluegrass studios, on bluegrass stages and in bluegrass jam sessions for generations.

“Now a broad-ranging group of artists in and around bluegrass are paying explicit tribute to this vital legacy in a new Mountain Home Music Company collection — Bluegrass Sings Paxton — that places these classic songs alongside less familiar, but no less finely crafted material from the Tom Paxton songbook, including new songs written especially for the project.” – Mountain Home Music Company

Track Credits:
Claire Lynch – Lead vocal
Darren Nicholson – Mandolin, octave mandolin
Deanie Richardson – Fiddle
Chris Jones – Acoustic guitar
Kristin Scott Benson – Banjo
Nelson Williams – Upright bass

Tylor & the Train Robbers, “Workin Hands”

Artist: Tylor & the Train Robbers
Hometown: Boise, Idaho
Song: “Workin Hands”
Album: Hum of the Road
Release Date: April 12, 2024 (single); May 3, 2024 (album)

In Their Words: “I wrote this one around a guitar riff I had been playing with for a while. The riff is busy, but something about it stuck in my head and I decided to write a song to match it. I wanted to keep the intensity of that guitar part and extend to every instrument in the band, pushing us all musically. Everyone in the band worked to find the right parts that brought it all together. The vibe is inspired by bands like Barefoot Jerry and the Amazing Rhythm Aces, it’s unpredictable and keeps you on your toes. It’s definitely not a song I would ask someone to sit in with us on unless they came prepared, but it’s become a favorite for us to play live. I think it really showcases the musicianship of everyone in the band.” — Tylor Ketchum

Track Credits:

Tylor Ketchum – Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Jason Bushman – Bass Guitar and Harmony Vocals
Tommy Bushman – Drums and Harmony Vocals
Rider Soran – Lap Steal Guitar
Johnny Pisano – Electric Guitar
Cody Braun – Hand Claps and percussion
Katy Braun – Hand Claps
Jonathan Tyler – Hand Claps and percussion

Recorded at Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, Texas.
Producer – Cody Braun
Engineer – Adam Odor
Mixed by Jonathan Tyler.
Mastered by Adam Odor.

The Stetson Family, “Make Me Ashes”

Artist: The Stetson Family
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia
Song: “Make Me Ashes”
Album: The Stars, If You Look Closely
Release Date: April 19, 2024

In Their Words: “‘When it’s time to meet my maker, come the fire or the hole…’ – the words ‘fire or the hole’ come from a conversation I had with a woman who was the owner of a Vietnamese restaurant in Melbourne where my family and I went every Wednesday night for many years. When my mum passed away, Lisa, the lovely Vietnamese owner, asked me in broken English, ‘Does your mum have the fire or the hole?’ Meaning, ‘Will she be cremated or buried?’ I loved her humble way of asking, it was so heartfelt. It got me thinking about when it’s my time, will I have the fire or the hole? This song lets people know I’ve chosen the fire.” – Nadine Budge

Track Credits:
Nadine Budge – Writer, lead vocal, rhythm guitar, resonator guitar
John Bartholomeusz – guitar, harmonies
Colin Swan – banjo, harmonies
Greg Field – fiddle, mandolin, harmonies
Luke Richardson – double bass, harmonies

The Onlies, “Matty Groves”

Artist: The Onlies
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee; Durham, North Carolina; Whitesburg, Kentucky
Song: “Matty Groves”
Release Date: April 12, 2024

In Their Words: “A couple years ago, our friend Sonya Badigian sent a recording of Doc Watson playing this song and recommended we learn it as a band. Before going into the studio, Leo spent many weeks singing the long, epic poem which tells the story of Matty Groves stealing Lord Daniel’s wife and the dramatic duel that later ensues. This story dates back to 17th century Northern England, closely related to Child ballad #81, ‘Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.’ When we got together to work up an arrangement, a driving fiddle melody emerged to accompany the lyrics. We recorded it late at night in a small studio in Eunice, Louisiana, with the help of incredible engineer Joel Savoy and the unmistakable bass groove of Nokosee Fields.” – Sami Braman

Track Credits:
Leo Shannon – lead vocal and guitar
Vivian Leva – harmony vocal and guitar
Sami Braman – fiddle
Riley Calcagno – banjo
Nokosee Fields – bass

Max McNown, “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering”

Artist: Max McNown
Hometown: Bend, Oregon
Song: “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering”
Album: Wandering
Release Date: April 12, 2024
Label: Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard

In Their Words: “‘Worry ‘Bout My Wandering’ was probably the most difficult song for me to write as it’s so personal. It came from being far away from my family and thinking about my mom and wondering how she feels about my life and the direction it’s taken. Shooting the video in my beautiful home state of Oregon was very important to me… I just always want to make my family and hometown proud.” – Max McNown

More here.

Photo Credit: John McEuen by Henry Diltz; Max McNown by Benjamin Edwards.

Canon Fodder: Fairport Convention, ‘Liege & Lief’

Posted on by Editor

It was inevitable: If Fairport Convention hadn’t added rock guitars and a rhythm section to centuries-old folk tunes about bedeviled knights and fairy queens, someone else would have invented English folk rock. Released in December 1969, Liege & Lief sounded like a culmination of a scene that had been in resurgence for most of the decade, spilling out of pubs and social halls to offer an alternative to the frivolity of rock and roll as well as a sense of national identity at a time when the idea of British-ness seemed to be changing, even diluting. As such, it was a scene that was extremely guarded about its many centuries of source material and extremely suspicious of any innovation, whether it’s Davy Graham adding raga filigrees to his folk instrumentals or the Pentangle pushing the form into jazzier territory.

Earlier in that fateful year, Fairport Convention had taken a small step toward English folk rock while recording their third album, Unhalfbricking. It’s a varied album, one made by a band only just realizing its power but not yet shedding its American aspirations. It includes three Dylan covers, including a French-language version of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now,” as well as a Cajun number and a stunner called “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” penned by singer Sandy Denny. Side One ends with an eleven-minute track called “A Sailor’s Life,” adapted from a 19th-century broadside and recorded in one take by the band. As Rob Young writes in 2011’s definitive Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music, the song contains “a historic few minutes: the first recorded use of drumsticks and drum kit on a rendition of an English folk song.”

Fairport Convention almost died before the album was even in stores. In May 1969, during a trip back to London from a gig in Birmingham, the band’s tour bus flipped down a ravine, killing drummer Martin Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn, girlfriend of guitarist Richard Thompson. Bass player Ashley Hutchings was thrown from the vehicle and spent a month in the hospital. Guitarist Simon Nicol was nearly crushed by their gear. Thompson suffered broken ribs. How does a band continue after such a tragedy? How do you make musicians when you’ve seen your instruments and your bandmates scattered across the highway?

What should have been the happiest moment of their career—the release of Unhalfbricking, their first charting album—was instead a time of misery and uncertainty, as Fairport Convention nearly went their separate ways. Instead, they retreated to the Hampshire on England’s remote southern shore, where their producer and friend Joe Boyd rented a crumbling manor called Farley House. There they grieved and recovered, played football in the yard, busked at the local cathedral to pay the milk bill, and rehearsed for hours and hours every day.

Given the trauma they had endured, it’s remarkable that Fairport Convention knew exactly what they wanted to do musically. Where once they wanted to be in Britain what the Byrds and the Band were in America, they wanted to build off the experiment of “A Sailor’s Life” and explore the intersections between rock and folk. More generally, they wanted to see what England’s past might have to say to its present and what its present might have to say to its past. Finally released from the hospital, Hutchings threw himself into the project, spending hours at the Cecil Sharp House in London, the famous repository of all things British folk. There he pored over handwritten journals, songbooks, cylinders, records, and documents to uncover songs like the magical-realist Scots ballad “Tam Lin” and the grisly murder ballad “Matty Groves.”

Pounding out the arrangements at Farley House, the band added a few originals, including Denny’s opener “Come All Ye,” which plays as a statement of renewed vigor and purpose. It’s a rousing number, loose and gangly and inviting, with Denny calling out each of the instruments and explaining their roles in this new music. Everyone joins in on the chorus, gregariously inviting the listener to join them on this journey: “Come all ye rolling minstrels and together we will try to rouse the spirit of the earth and move the rolling sky.” The song heralds something different and radical in the music: a new way to play old songs. It’s the drumsticks and drum kit, of course, but something else.

Replacing the sadly departed Martin Lamble in Fairport Convention was Dave Mattacks, whose biggest gig till then had been an Irish dance band. He plays for movement, emphasizing the bounce in his rhythms, making it less about how the stick hits the drum but what happens immediately after: the upswing of the stick, that sense of jubilant motion. He peppers his bright, buoyant beats with unexpected fills and rolls, pushing “Matty Groves” and “Tam Lin” along at a crisp clip. The innovation isn’t simply the introduction of rock drums into a folk context; instead, he’s thinking about how the instrument fits in this new setting, how it interacts with the other instruments, how he can mimics the jigs and reels of Thompson’s guitar and Dave Swarbrick’s fiddle. Somehow on Liege & Lief he makes his drum kit sound like a folk instrument.

And that’s an important aspect of this album’s enduring appeal. These songs are excitedly and boldly conceived, but they’re also beautifully executed: loose, casual, seemingly unrehearsed, messy in places but all the livelier and more spontaneous for it. All are deft and distinctive musicians: Denny a commanding and expressive singer, Hutching a bass player who emphasizes rhythm and melody equally, Thompson already a guitar hero on par with the overblown blues soloists of the era. There is between them a sense of elated and grateful collaboration, a sense of relief that the others are still there to play these songs together.

Ironic for a band that had survived such a tragedy, their greatest success marked a kind of breakup for Fairport Convention. Denny, featuring she would enjoy fewer opportunities to write new songs for the band, left the group for a too-brief solo career, dying in 1978 at the age of 31. Hutchings exited for the opposite reason: He felt Fairport would not continue to explore folk music as deeply and as persistently as he wanted, so he left to form Steeleye Span (whose 1970 debut Hark! The Village Wait picks up where Liege & Lief left off). Fairport soldiered on throughout the 1970s, shedding and absorbing new members, but the Farley House crew is considered the classic lineup.

Liege & Lief casts a long shadow over the band, however. They never quite topped it in terms of popularity or influence, perhaps because the questions they raise on these songs sounded so new and bold in 1969: How should we treat the past? How does it define us as citizens and as a collective? One of the joys of folk music is how it allows every generation to imprint itself on the music, which means that Fairport Convention might have been looking to the past but they were commenting on the present. The album may seem removed from the pop music of the era, from the end of the Beatles to the beginning of Zeppelin, from the ascension of the Stones to the first notes of heavy metal and prog, from hippies and rebels.

But they are very much a band of their moment. They transform “The Deserter” into a powerful anti-war anthem, and it doesn’t matter that the “Queen” in the lyrics is Victoria instead of Elizabeth. “Matty Groves” is a tale of sexual treachery, about a woman who rejects her husband’s riches to bed a younger, poorer man, but as Denny sings it, the song’s sexual politics are surprisingly progressive. The woman becomes a hero and a sexual martyr, her jealous husband a brutish villain: the establishment, a square, the Man.

Fairport Convention approached folk music from a distinctive generational vantage point, one with new technology, new pop culture, new attitudes toward England. Liege & Lief marks a very specific point in the history of folk music; it sounds deeply rooted in the late 1960s, yet it serves as an evergreen reminder that we are never beholden to history. Rather, the past is the raw material from which we fashion our future.