Southern Tenant Folk Union will be coming to South Street Arts Centre in Reading on Saturday January 28.
Formed by Belfast born five-string banjo player Pat McGarvey in 2006 and taking their name from the groundbreaking multi-racial union of sharecroppers and non-landowning tenant farmers founded in Arkansas in the 1930’s (the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union), the Edinburgh-based Southern Tenant Folk Union are now one of the most highly rated folk and bluegrass outfits in the UK today.
With their fourth album they’ve continued to appropriate themes and ancient sounding chord progressions from traditional folk songs. Using these to document and reflect modern life they keep the essential simplicity and directness of style but often with a modern update to the underlying lyrical subject matter. New tunes that touch on atheism, intolerance and most recently (on ‘The New Farming Scene’ and ‘Pencaitland’) a post fossil fuel, post technological, agrarian future.
Pat McGarvey served his musical apprenticeship touring the world and recording a number of albums with bands like The Arlenes & The Coal Porters in London. That grounding plus countless other collaborations with key independent Americana acts including Peter Case, Tandy, Amy Rigby, Rosie Flores, Jason McNiff & Bob Neuwirth (Dylan’s road manager in the 60’s) gave him the real experience needed to fuse together the band’s American folk and British roots sound with his own Celtic heritage.
Keen to find a more personal outlet for his writing McGarvey gathered a collective of like minded musicians that share his love of traditional music, but each with their own individual take on such tradition; Musician’s like singer & guitarist Jed Milroy (The Aliens), Adam Bulley on mandolin (The Halton Quartet), Ewan Macintyre on lead vocals/cajon and three stalwarts of the Edinburgh folk music scene, Chris Purcell on guitar/vocals, Carrie Thomas on fiddle and Marty Camino on double bass.
Their recently released fourth album PENCAITLAND is a record that continues the band’s trip into the more interesting areas of acoustic sound, word and tone. Another critical smash hit, it has gained a raft of 4 star reviews and media interest with The Guardian saying that ‘The band knock up a fierce, raw and earthy music that is the stuff of Mumford & Sons' dreams’ and Uncut Magazine declaring ‘Pencaitland is their most serious and ambitious album yet’. So, with its themes and the progression conceptually from the farmstead of their last album, Southern Tenant Folk Union have managed to harvest a natural folk feel for this timeless music and create their own sound. As the Arts Desk’s Russ Coffey says ‘Their fusion of Celtic, British and American roots music gives them a sound that, while quoting everyone in sight, is still original.’
Southern Tenant Folk Union:
Adam Bulley - Mandolin/Guitar
Marty Camino - Double Bass
Carrie Thomas - Fiddle/Vocals
Chris Purcell - Guitar/Vocals
Ewan Macintyre - Percussion/Harmonica/Vocals
Jed Milroy - Guitar/Banjo/Harmonica/Vocals
Pat McGarvey - Banjo/Vocals
Constantly touring, Southern Tenant Folk Union will be performing up and down the UK from January through to April 2012. Dates on the tour include Norwich Arts Centre, Edinburgh Folk Club, CRH@ St.Bonaventures in Bristol and Pocklington Arts Centre in Yorkshire.
For more information, please visit www.southerntenantfolkunion.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment