Way back in January, we proclaimed 2017 to be the Year of the Banjo. And Noam Pikelny did his part to make it so by releasing a solo banjo album, Universal Favorite. For his Sitch Session, Punch Brother Pikelny performs “Sugar Maple” live at the Historic Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, wrapping his complex musicality in artistic simplicity.
Directed by: Alex Chaloff
Additional Editing by: Melissa Kane
With their Sitch Session performance of “Take a Chance on Me,” you might well think Yonder Mountain String Band is aiming to be trolled in our That Ain’t Bluegrass column. But, alas (and sadly), they aren’t covering the classic ABBA tune. Rather, when they took to the stage at the Troubadour in Los Angeles recently, they launched into a laid-back stringband groove all their own.
YMSB’s new album Love. Ain’t Love is out now. You can order it here.
San Francisco and string bands might not be synonymous, but pioneers have always made their way out West and Front Country aims to blaze a bluegrass trails in the Bay Area. Performing “If Something Breaks” from their latest release, Other Love Songs, at 25th Street Recording in Oakland, the band plucks and picks behind their fuchsia-haired front woman, Melody Walker. “We run hot and we run cold. It ain’t perfect, Lord knows,” she sings, “but if something breaks, we can fix it on the road.” Sung like a true trailblazer.
Pulling a tune off last year’s Silver Tears release, Nashville singer/songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan puts his back to the San Gabriel Mountains and performs “Till the Town Goes Dark” on a Los Angeles rooftop. It’s an ode to the disillusionment forced upon the generations that grew up watching either The Jetsons or The Minority Report. “One day, they said the future was flying cars and a ride on a rocket,” he sings. “Time passed, and all I got was America Today and a TV in my pocket.”
Directed and edited by Richard Downie
Singer/songwriter Rose Cousins is so well-known for her tearjerking tunes that she has t-shirts espousing her ability to make folks cry. But for her Sitch Session, she took a different tack, performing the emotionally anthemic “Freedom” off her latest release, Natural Conclusion. At least it sounds emotionally anthemic, but when you really tune in, you hear that Cousins isn’t actually singing the praises of romantic independence. “Well the tides of love, they ride the moon. And it’s only at night that I think of you, and my newfound freedom from your caress,” she disclaims before packing the real punch to her own gut, “And freedom from the blame, I guess.”
Shot and edited by Richard Downie
You can take the man out of Houston, but you can never take Houston out of the man… as Rodney Crowell has proven time and again through his songs. In the case of his Sitch Session, he’s smack-dab in the middle of Los Angeles, geographically, but heart-deep in his “East Houston Blues,” in every other way. The tune comes from his new release, Close Ties, and explains why the connection is so thorough. “East Houston blues, scale of one to 10, ’bout a nine and a half is where it’s always been,” he sings. “It’s in the drinking water and in the bar ditch mud. East Houston blues, gets in a poor boy’s blood.”
Directed and edited by Richard Downie
On a recent visit to New York City, Laura Marling and her band popped into the Cutting Room for a Sitch Session version of “Wild Fire,” a tune off her new Semper Femina LP. It’s the perfect song for the city setting as Marling’s performance partly echoes Lou Reed’s speak-sing storytelling style. “You wanna get high. You overcome those desires before you come to me,” she offers, ramping up to the heartfelt harmonies. “Think your mama’s kind of sad? Think your papa’s kind of mean? I can take it all away. You can stop playing it out on me.”
Directed + Edited by WonderscopeÂ
Last summer, BGS headed to the Great White North for the Winnipeg Folk Festival and brought our famed Superjam along for the ride. Because someone on the team is a huge Eagles fan, it was decided that the artists would play their Hotel California album top to bottom. Miraculously — even enthusiastically — they agreed. And so it came to be that the Infamous Stringdusters, Noam Pikelny, the Wild Reeds, the Foggy Hogtown Boys, Rayland Baxter, Parsonsfield, and Nicki Bluhm worked their way through “New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” “Wasted Time,” and of course that iconic title song. Thanks, y’all!
We can’t make it up there this year, but a lot of our friends’ll be there — Brandi Carlile, Andrew Combs, Aoife O’Donovan, Bryan Sutton, Christopher Paul Stelling, Hot Rize, John Paul White, Tim O’Brien, and more.
Having spent the last year working through the many burdens of celebrity, Noam Pikelny is now ready to release Universal Favorite, his new solo album … “solo” being the operative word there. As evidenced in this exclusive “making of” short, Pikelny considered a lot of collaborators before having a revelatory vision for the project….
Universal Favorite is out March 3 on Rounder Records. You can order it here.
For his Sitch Session at the York Manor in Los Angeles, Gregory Alan Isakov teamed up with the Ghost Orchestra to perform “Saint Valentine.” Being lucky in love is great work, if you can find it. But, for the rest of us, it’s a hard row to hoe. As Isakov tells it, “Well, I just came to talk, Saint Valentine. I never pictured you living here with the rats and the vines. Ain’t that my old heart hanging out on your lines. You’re all fucked up, Saint Valentine.”
Amen, brother. A-damn-men!
Directed and Edited by Richard Downie
