New Music 2017 - Part 36 - The Railsplitters - Jump In

Based in Boulder, Colo. The Railsplitters is a quintet and a string band that displays not only its independence of traditional constrictions within the genre - traditional bluegrass did not involve women; lead vocal here in the charge of Lauren Stovall, originally from Jackson, Miss. - but also its own ethos as to where it should head musically and therefore the sort of topics that the songs relate to follow likewise.
The band members are as follows:

• Lauren Stovall - lead vocals
• Dusty Ryder - banjo
• Peter Sharpe - mandolin
• Joe D'Esposito - fiddle
• Jean-Luc Davis - upright bass

This is the band's third LP. Like the two that came before it, self-titled 'The Railsplitters' (2013) and 'The Faster It Goes' (2015), it has been entirely cloud-funded and self released.

Jump In - The Railsplitters (self-released, 10 November 2017).

The Railsplitters - Jump In:

• Everyone She Meets
• Jump In
• Lessons I've Learned
• Durango River
• To Do
• Somethin' Sweet
• Citronella
• Lemon Lime
• Bay of Five
• Baxes

This is a true touring band. As I write this their schedule shows that the next gigs are at the Woodside Folk Festival in Queensland, Australia between Christmas and New Year. An extensive tour of the UK follows early in 2018 and I am intending to see the band live. The dates for this tour are as follows:

Jan 25 Thu --- The Old Fire Station, Carlisle

Jan 26 Fri --- The Hippodrome, Eyemouth 

Jan 27 Sat --- Letham Nights, Letham

Jan 28 Sun --- Birnam Arts, Dunkeld

Jan 30 Tue --- Celtic Connections, Glasgow

Feb 1 Thu --- Eastgate Theatre, Peebles

Feb 2 Fri --- Sage Gateshead, Gateshead

Feb 3 Sat --- The Greystones, Sheffield

Feb 4 Sun --- Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea

Feb 6 Tue --- Helsby Bluegrass Club, Frodsham

Feb 7 Wed --- Musically Monstrous at The Three Horseshoes, Towersey

Feb 8 Thu --- South Holland Centre, Spalding

Feb 9 Fri --- Selby Town Hall, Selby

Feb 10 Sat --- Sands Sessions, Farnham

Feb 11 Sun --- Whitstable Sessions at St Mary's Hall, Whitstable

Feb 13 Tue --- The Canteen, Bristol

Feb 14 Wed --- Biddulph Up In Arms, Stoke-On-Trent

Feb 15 Thu --- Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

Feb 16 Fri --- The Live Room, Saltaire

Feb 17 Sat --- The Lights, Andover

'Jump In', live from Albino Skunk Music Festival, Greer, SC, October 2017.

New Music 2015 - Part 64 - Free The Honey - Fine Bloom

I mentioned this forthcoming release here back in April and on Monday, following my return from Green Man Festival, it was waiting for me in my mailbox.

'Fine Bloom', the début album by Free The Honey, is officially released, independently by the artists, on 12 September and I'm hoping that good record shops here in the UK will see fit to stock the physical release too, because it most definitely deserves that. If I had to suggest a likely candidate then that would be Union Records, Lewes, Sussex.
The original trio of Katherine Taylor, Jenny Hill, Lizzy Plotkin, later joined by Andrew Cameron, weave a seam through Americana - from bluegrass to alt- country via blues and gospel - that makes the whole sound seem quite astonishingly natural.
The track listing is below and the CD comes with an insert that details the lyric to each song, which I think is always a nice touch:

Fine Bloom - Free The Honey:

• take me home
• high peaks
• honey blues
• crooked child
• a beautiful life
• hymn for renewal
• dark and muddy
• wabbit time
• vultures
• waiting for fergal
• go with the light
• jenny caught a catfish
• come up to the mountain

Live and not at all local...

'Thoughts on Music' is taking a time-out for a couple of days. It will return early next week. Rather than mull over last night's BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, which I considered doing, I will hold that comment over until next week.
I decided upon sharing this instead. In a way it is more vital.
I have mentioned 'Free The Honey' before and whilst purveyors of for the most part Appalachian music that is not to say that gypsy fiddle and more beside will not be included, for they are. The four band members - Katherine Taylor, Jenny Hill, Lizzy Plotkin and now made complete by Andrew Cameron (upright bass) come from a wide milieu but are all based in the high mountains - Gunnison, in western Colorado. Free The Honey is working towards a début LP.
This was a support set to further that project. You will have to suffer, or fast-forward, the rambling introduction but that has nothing to do with the band. We have all been there, I'm sure, in similar circumstances. I'd recommend that you start 7 minutes 19 seconds in.

Once you get to the music they play nine songs or tunes; it is a delight.

Free The Honey is currently recording the band's début album, which is scheduled for release in September. As yet untitled it can be pre-ordered here, including signed copies.
The pound Sterling reached a three-month high against the US dollar at the end of the week, so of course I took advantage of that!

New Music 2014 - Part 20 - Free The Honey - In Our Hands EP

Much as I like my music in a physical format, sometimes vinyl, I have to say that (legal) download and the internet has the huge bonus of immediacy sometimes.
This EP is a great example of that. There is probably no physical release and its digital release was only yesterday.

My attention was bought to it by Folk Radio UK and it is one of the most stunning pieces of Americana that I have heard all year. That isn't for a lack of such things. If you like Carrivick Sisters or their more expansive outlet Cardboard Fox then likely you will covet this and, at seven tracks it is more of a mini-album. It is available to download here (in almost any format) and I chose MP3 320. It costs from $4 but that seems so mean when a pint of beer costs more than that and I know I will, indeed probably already have, got more enjoyment from it.

The three young women hail not from the perceived home-ground of Americana or bluegrass rather from Gunnison in the high mountains of Western Colorado but don't let that put you off, and not least for the other sounds that they bring to bear.  


This is 'Iridology', the third track on the EP and one that has touches of gypsy fiddle on it. Given the status that folk, roots and Americana is currently enjoying in Europe don't be at all surprised to see them touring over here in the coming year.