Jeni & Billy are a sweetheart duo from Nashville who sing new songs in the Appalachian-based tradition of the Virginia coal fields. Jeni Hankins sings in a fragile native style, with perfect harmonies and accompaniment provided by her partner Billy Kemp. If you’re a fan of Gillan Welch and Iris Dement, then read on.
Jewell Ridge Coal
Like the songs of Sarah Ogan Gunning and Hazel Dickens before them, their music reflects the gloom that hangs over the coal camps like the toxic air of Mordor. They tell tales of disease, addiction, danger, and poverty that somehow always seem to follow the coal industry. My father and his siblings grew up in southern West Virginia, not far from Jewell Ridge, and I’ve seen the blight that infests the region. It ain’t pretty, and it’s always superimposed on the grand natural beauty of the mighty southern mountains. Church and community, if not emigration, offer a ray of hope to the proud, hard-working locals, and that light shines through the darkness on Jewell Ridge Coal. Fiddlefreak recommended!
A few years ago I discovered Garrison Starr’s music: at that time, a polished and pleasing Nashville country rock that was just far enough outside the current of mainstream country to make me buy a couple tracks and crank it up. Haven’t heard much since until now, with the release of a duo collaboration between herself and Josh Joplin. The result is a very nice collection of modernized traditional American ballads and original songs they call “Among the Oak & Ash” (on Verve Forecast).
Among the Oak & Ash
“I think that this music has been held onto rather preciously by a lot of the people who’ve revived it,” Joplin observes in their press kit. “But if you look back on the people who originally created this music, they weren’t purists, they were just expressing themselves with the tools that were available to them at the time. That’s what we wanted to do: to be faithful to the songs without treating them like museum pieces. One of the things that made me want to work with Garrison was her urgency and irreverence, and I think that those qualities played a big part in how the performances turned out.”
“A lot of people think of folk music as something that’s sweet and gentle, but so many of these songs are raunchy and brutal,” Joplin notes. “They cover everything from God to the devil, from unrequited love to murder.”
On their new eponymous EP, Black Crown Stringband gets it right. Here are seven tracks of dark joy that carry the listener back to the lonesome hills of home. Like Portland’s Foghorn before them, these upstart Californians till the fertile bottom lands that lie between old-time and bluegrass, creating a vintage, primal wall of sound. This release is an important contribution to the ongoing old-time revival here on the West Coast.
At the core of Black Crown lie the fiddle and banjo of Elise Engelberg and Matt Knoth, founding members of the Mercury Dimes. Former Earl Brothers guitarist John McKelvy brings his unique high-lonesome vocal style to the mix, and here it sounds right at home. Sweet mandolin and rock-solid bass fiddle are provided by Tim Hicks and Rob Mellberg. Fiddlefreak recommended!
Northern California seems like another country sometimes. The mighty Mount Shasta looms into view, you start seeing references to the State of Jefferson, and you nod to long-bearded trapper/miner dudes in ancient pickups. And the music gets good. Those people know the difference between Bill Monroe and Britney.
On her new release Come Sunrise, singer-songwriter Rita Hosking reflects her upbringing in rural Shasta County. Her breed of Nor Cal country folk ain’t quite old-timey, and it ain’t quite bluegrass, but damn it’s sweet. For fans of Emmylou and Gillian, this one’s a safe bet. The songs of Rita Hoskings are as fragile as a newborn baby, and defiant as a West Virginia coal miner. Here are “Come Sunrise” and “Promise Land” from Come Sunrise, and a bonus video. Enjoy!
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At the core of Black Crown lie the fiddle and banjo of Elise Engelberg and Matt Knoth, founding members of the Mercury Dimes. Former Earl Brothers guitarist John McKelvy brings his unique high-lonesome vocal style to the mix, and here it sounds right at home. Sweet mandolin and rock-solid bass fiddle are provided by Tim Hicks and Rob Mellberg. Fiddlefreak recommended!
