Hillfolk Noir. Performing Arts Centre, Kilbarchan. Saturday 11th July 2015

Posted on by

HN

Blabber’n’Smoke has been a fan of Hillfolk Noir since first hearing them back in 2010. Tonight was our the first opportunity to see the band and by luck it was in the cosy confines of the Performing Arts Centre in Kilbarchan allowing a close up view. We’d read some great reports of the live show and tonight they did not disappoint offering a ninety minute show of their finest “junkerdash.” For the non-aficionado, junkerdash is the word coined by Travis Ward to describe Hillfolk Noir’s music. He defines it as a sound brewed from folk, bluegrass, punk, string-band blues and other influences musical and otherwise. While they fit into the old time string band set up to some extent they are somewhat off kilter with Ward’s lyrics at times almost hallucinatory as the band range from jug band to folk blues and jazz styles and there’s a temptation to compare them to the early versions of The Holy Modal Rounders or Michael Hurley, two acts who play “old time” music but stamp their personality on it. The result however is unique with their music instantly identifiable despite their records featuring the band as a trio, quartet, quintet and septet.

Tonight it’s the core trio (as featured on the last two releases), Travis Ward on guitar and banjo, his wife Alison on banjo and assorted percussion (more of that later) and Michael Waite on double bass. Waite is the engine of the band, his bass playing powerful, pliable and propulsive, by the end of the night his shirt was soaked and he was one string down. Travis Ward’s guitar playing is excellent, his resonator ringing loud and vibrant with fine finger picking and bluesy slide runs. Alison Ward, who introduced most of the songs, had a panoply of percussive tools, two washboards, one played traditionally, the other laid on her lap and played with a drum brush and drumstick, a small cymbal and a rolling pin as a woodblock. In addition, she employed kazoo and proved masterful on musical saw on several numbers.

The show was a blast from start to finish as the played from their catalogue and added several traditional numbers. Several of the numbers they played were medleys of sorts as the band settled on a groove which suited several different songs, Shimmy bled into Viper, both prohibition era jazz like in their swing and sway while Chitlin’ Cookin’ Time in Cheatham County segued into St. James Infirmary Blues with Travis giving Pokey LaFarge a run for his money here. There was a rousing rendition of North Idaho Zombie Rag with Alison’s saw playing appropriately spooky and Little Red Caboose skiffled along excellently. The Great Grizzly Bear Scare highlighted Travis’ way with words and again there was skiffle element to it although the hurried words and his harmonica playing recalled an energetic young Dylan as the band struck up a driving railroad rhythm and dovetailed another song, Don’t Mean Nothing (which lyrically nods to Dylan) in the middle leading to a lengthy and rousing upbeat number which raised a great cheer at the end. There was a nod to the “Noir” part of their name with the death and jail ballad Johnny’s Last Run which was taken at a much faster lick than the version on Live At Idaho Penitentiary but they showed that they can slow the pace with Alison’s My Train, a country gospel song that was a sweet as a mountain stream and a new song, written about displaced homeless folk in their hometown delivered simply in a folk style. Little Sadie/Walkin’ Boss harked back to that lonesome bluegrass sound and a rambunctious and rollicking encore of Blues In A Bottle was an excellent end to a thrilling evening that was like being swept through several volumes of the Harry Smith anthology. Simply superb.

Hillfolk Noir are currently touring the UK, dates here and there’s a fine interview with them available here

Courtesy of  Songs From The Shed

Hillfolk Noir. Pop Songs For Elk

Posted on by

It’s junkerdash time again folks as the ever excellent Hillfolk Noir unload another album of slightly unhinged old time music and set off on another tour of the UK commencing this weekend. They’ve been a Blabber’n’Smoke favourite ever since we heard their 2011 album Skinny Mammy’s Revenge while 2013’s What’s That Hat For set a standard for raw boned backwoods string band music.

On Pop Songs For Elk Hillfolk Noir remain a three piece with Travis Ward at the front end, writing the songs, playing guitar and banjo and singing with partner Alison M. Ward on banjo, saw, washboard and vocals and Michael P. Waite on bass. As is their norm they recorded the album live with no overdubs before it was mixed in mono creating a wonderful melange of strings and things that pours out of the speakers with a joyful clarity. Travis Ward tackles tradition with his songs sounding as if they could have been written anytime in the past 100 years although his lyrics are definitely contemporary. Jug band, talking blues, hillbilly and ragtime are all filtered through the Hillfolk Noir sieve with some exhilarating results.

They open with a stramash, guitars mauled before the eerie saw sound from Alison wails around the punk folk of North Idaho Zombie Rag allowing them to sound like a hillbilly Gun Club. It’s a tremendous opener, spooky and thrilling. Round I Sing/Mile On Up harks back to a formal string band dance number with Travis and Alison’s duetting not dissimilar to The Handsome Family as the lyrics range from religion to sniffing glue, one can imagine clog dancers gainfully dancing away while they try to comprehend the lyrical content with some disbelief. Poor Man’s Love Song is a delightful solo effort from Travis that would not shame the pen of Woody Guthrie and he goes solo again on the banjo plucked weirdness of Getting Late where he describes a rural community with everyone from the chickens to the mayor on some sort of drug. Getting high is the raison d’être of Sniffing Glue Blues, a simple song that has added space age reverb inviting comparisons to those sixties freak folk The Holy Modal Rounders and surely destined to end up on the playlist of the Dr. Demento radio show.

Elsewhere the band offer some solid licks with Uncle Jake a muscular jug band tale that starts off with a description of“a mean old man he washes his socks in a frying pan, you don’t want to go fisticuffs with Uncle Jake” while Little Red Caboose romps along with some glee as Waite’s bass powers the song along. Shimmy is old time rag music with the singer’s sister shimmying like jelly on a plate and delivered with a magical old time feel almost as if it were the soundtrack to an old Betty Boop cartoon.

All 12 songs here are gems which reinforce our belief that Hillfolk Noir are simply superb, running with an historical musical genre and banging it right up to date. While the album is of course recommended there’s an opportunity to see the Hillfolk Noir experience live over the next two weeks as they tour the UK and Ireland, dates here.

website

Listen here

Hillfolk Noir Skinny Mammy’s Revenge

Posted on by

Tradition has always been important in Americana music whether it be listening to primitive recordings from the early 20th Century, still vital all these years later or reclaiming and updating the past. Think of The Band who opened up a wide American vista for the Woodstock generation or The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s seminal “Will The Circle be Unbroken” which introduced a host of country pioneers to a new audience. This drive to celebrate the past and indeed to achieve a degree of authenticity continues to this day with several fine artists we’ve reviewed here digging deep into the backwaters of American traditional music and bringing it bang up to date.
Hillfolk Noir, a four piece band from Boise, Idaho are a particularly fine example of how to go about this. With a string band set up they’ve sat around one microphone in an old street market to record this album. The 20 songs are all written by guitarist and main man Travis ward but the majority of them are updates on classic songs, tunes and themes that anyone familiar with the genre will recognise.
There’s no spit and polish here. The songs tumble out unadorned, raw and at times rowdy although the album takes some to warm up. The opening slide driven blues of Red Eyed Crow sounds somewhat weedy, a bit like a skiffle band warming up while the following Dying Bed Blues stumbles somewhat. Blessed be then the opening chords of Run Mollie Run where they suddenly seem to be much more self assured, from here on in the remainder of the album is a delight. Washboard Blues channels Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee while Do It Again vamps splendidly with musical saw adding another dimension. With ragtime picking and call and response songs the album as a whole is a bit like listening to a Smithsonian Institute archive. The highlight is The Love I Thought I’d Never Know, a ballad of unrequited love that fails to surmount class barriers.
Hillfolk Noir manage to capture the essence of American music in spades. They also have one of the best press quotes We’ve seen in a long time, namely “Much better than the crap on the radio”(Amy Garrett, Boise Weekly)which just about sums up this review. Skinny Mammy’s Revenge is one part of two releases, both “on-location field recordings, ” the other being “Live at the Old Idaho Penitentiary” with the band performing live in an old prison block at the historical Old Idaho Penitentiary and an album I’m off to search out.

website

Somefolk