Nettle Honey

Wild Greens and the Old Path

Here’s another band we heard and met at NW Folklife. Nettle Honey is an old-time quartet from Seattle, WA that plays equal parts classic standards and original compositions. Their sound is as pure as the Northwest rain that falls on her mist-shrouded mountains and fills her roaring rivers. They’ve taken pure-core Appalachian chops and applied them to Northwestern themes of nature and the land, with wonderful results. Their DIY CD Wild Greens and the Old Path takes its homemade aesthetic to a minimum, utilizing a simple brown paper sandwich bag as its package. The tracks are equally split between band originals (Wild Greens) and old-timey chestnuts (The Old Path). Fiddler Brittany Newell leads the band with her solid old-school sawing, and Johnny Fitzpatrick swaps between clawhammer and three-finger banjo with ease. Rock-solid rhythm comes from Colin Sterling (guitar) and Robert Fulwiler (bass fiddle).  Nettle Honey is a band to watch as they expand their touring schedule outside their Seattle base. Fiddlefreak recommended!

LISTEN: Chilly Winds

LISTEN: Follow the River

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Colleen Raney

The dark and rainy Pacific Northwest continues to produce an endless stream of brilliant folk music, and it was on display everywere at the recent Northwest Folkife Festival. The seething mass of humanity that is NW Folkife was held recently in downtown Seattle, in the shadow of her famous landmark, the Space Needle. Folkies came out in droves to this event, from raucous tatooed crusties to polished professionals, picking and sawing and dancing and singing, an estimated quarter-million in all, over four days.

Lark

Singer Colleen Raney was one of the polished ones, mesmerizing the crowded plaza with her lilting songs of the Irish and Scottish traditions. In a hectic backstage environment, guitarist Casey Neill kindly passed along copies of her two albums. Both are absolutely lovely, as was her stage show: her singing angelic and her backing band culled from the royalty of the Portland Irish music scene. Here are two selections from her new release titled “Lark.” Recommended for all fans of traditional Celtic song!

LISTEN: Patrick Street

LISTEN: Otterburn

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Photo by Mike Melnyck

The 11th annual San Francisco Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival (SFBOT), a nine-day festival occuring at various locations around the Bay Area, will happen February 12-21, 2010. Featuring some of the most talented musicians on the Americana and roots music scene today, the Festival comprises over 30 shows at numerous small clubs around the Bay Area, welcoming more than 5,000 attendees each year.

On the docket this year are nationally-known acts that include Loudon Wainwright III, Peter Rowan, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Asylum Street Spankers, and Red Molly. West Coast bands to watch out for include the Stairwell Sisters, Crooked Jades, Water Tower Bucket Boys, and Black Crown String Band. Many other bands are scheduled.

With events that range from concerts and dances to workshops and jams, spanning traditional bluegrass, old-time, blues, ragtime, Cajun, gospel, and alternative bluegrass, this festival reflects the eclectic outlook of the SF acoustic music scene. Ain’t it great that bluegrass and old-time music is alive and well on the Left Coast!

Foghorn Duo at SFBOT 2009:

The Stairwell Sisters sing and dance:

SFBOT WEBSITE.

Thanks to Mike Melnyck Photography.

Town Mountain

It’s time to start planning for Pickathon 2009, which happens this year on July 31—August 2 at Pendarvis Farm just outside Portland, Oregon. Fiddlefreak attended a couple years back and was deeply wowed by its unique combination of down-home folksy vibe and youthful alternative energy. And the music lineup is always the best! Ranging from rootsy indie rock to hard-core oldtime fiddle bands, the best of alternative Americana can be found here.

“Our fans are people who want to hear new stuff,” says Pickathon founder Zale Schoenborn. “They love music, and they don’t think about genre. They don’t want to hear three days of any one thing. They don’t necessarily need to know every single name on the bill. So our guiding principal is to simply curate the best music we can.”

The unique atmosphere at Pendarvis Farm is a big part of the attraction. Six stages—ranging from two main stages to the intimate, 50-capacity Workshop Barn to the quiet, secluded Woods Stage to the rowdy late-night Galaxy Barn—provide multiple opportunities to see many festival acts. Resourceful use of biodiesel and solar power, environmentally friendly custom shade structures, strong recycling and composting programs and multiple alternative transportation options give Pickathon’s sustainability efforts real muscle. Kids can start their days with bright’n’early yoga and move on to nature classes, circus camp, square-dancing, and free-form roaming on 80 acres of prime Oregon farmland and old-growth forest.

I previously wrote about Pickathon here. I would go again if I could, and go see the Freight Hoppers, Jackstraw, the Hackensaw Boys, Hillstomp, Foghorn Stringband, Town Mountain, and the many other kick acts on the bill. Five stars for this festival, from Fiddlefreak! Learn more about Pickathon here.

The Everybodyfields at Pickathon 2007

Photos copyright 2009 by Gary Robertshaw. Thanks Gary!