Folk 404 Items

“Blues in Mono” is a timeless tribute to traditional, acoustic country blues recorded with a microphone from the 1940s, with Seasick Steve performing the songs solo, direct to an old tape machine. This was then cut direct to lacquers with no computer involved at all during the process. The old skool way of making a record. This is an album that fans have been crying out for, for years. “Blues in Mono” finds Seasick Steve giving some of his finest performances to deliver a fresh, stripped down blues album that offers the perfect antidote for the troubled times in which we live.

“It’s just me and an acoustic guitar, playing old country blues. I always wanted to do it but never felt worthy, but then I realised that I better hurry up and do it ‘cos I ain’t never gonna feel worthy!” says Steve. “I tried to make it so that if you was listening you’d think I was sitting with you in your house.”

Norwegian alternative folk band Gåte concludes an acoustic era with their new full-length album Nord. “While working on Nord we had to figure out how to find strength in the small things,” vocalist Gunnhild Sundli comments. “It was a challenging task as Gåte is usually about how to make things big.” Gåte has always been about making everything big! The full live production, the exuberant live performances, an exaggeration of almost everything. As such you could say that Nord is a Gåte backwards. Focusing on the simple details with an acoustic take, meant for smaller crowds and acoustic performances. “We learned a lot writing and performing the songs on Nord. About how we work with and towards music, but also about ourselves as a band” Gunnhild says. “Nord has mapped out the very essence of Gåte´s DNA, and it has opened up new paths and made us stronger and braver.” On Nord the band has really taken a step back to fully explore their musical potential and expression through a more traditional and acoustic perspective. And though there definitely is something simple and clean about Nord, the power in the courageously heartfelt, raw, and epic soundscape Gåte manages to create seems even more present and complex than ever before.

Follow up to his debut album After The Flood, Matt Heckler returns with Blood, Water, Coal. In his sophomore full length the Appalachian songsmith explores darker sounds in songs about isolation, struggle, and perseverance. For fans of Lost DOG Street Band, Devil Makes Three.

Another colorway of this fantastic record.

“Nothing ever really disappears,” Cassandra Jenkins says. “It just changes shape.” Over the past few years, she’s seen relationships altered, travelled three continents, wandered through museums and parks, and recorded free-associative guided tours of her New York haunts. Her observations capture the humanity and nature around her, as well as thought patterns, memories, and attempts to be present while dealing with pain and loss. With a singular voice, Jenkins siphons these ideas into the ambient folk of her new album. An Overview on Phenomenal Nature honors flux, detail, and moments of intimacy. Jenkins arrived at engineer Josh Kaufman’s studio with ideas rather than full songs—nevertheless, they finished the album in a week. Jenkins’ voice floats amid sensuous chamber pop arrangements and raw-edged drums, ferrying the listener through impressionistic portraits of friends and strangers. Her lyrics unfold magical worlds, introducing one to a cast of characters, like a local fisherman, a psychic at a birthday party, and a driving instructor of a spiritual bent. Jenkins’ last record, 2017’s Play Till You Win, confirmed the veteran artist’s talent. Evident of Jenkins’ experience growing up in a family band in New York City, the album showcased her meticulous songwriting and musicianship, earning her comparisons to George Harrison and Emmylou Harris. Jenkins has since played in the bands of Eleanor Friedberger, Craig Finn, and Lola Kirke, and rehearsed to tour with Purple Mountains last August before the tour’s cancellation. Her new record departs from her previous work in its openness and flexibility, following her peripatetic lifestyle. “The goal is to be more fluid, to be more like the clouds shifting constantly,” she says. The approach allowed Jenkins to express herself like she never has.