Foghorn Stringband


When the weather's nice, there's nothing better than sitting outside with a beer and my banjo or mandolin. Lately, I've been learning a few new tunes of an older CD, Rattlesnake Tidal Wave, by the Foghorn Stringband. I have it on my iPod, which I play via a set of those Logitech portable speakers. My favorite song this week is "Grey Eagle". The band is very good, and they don't sap it up with modern "stylings", which drives me nuts about Irish folk, or even Cape Breton music. Cut that shit out! If I wanted Enya, I'd buy her CD. Old time would be tres cool for contra dances. I wonder if the dances around here have much old time. Neek, neek, Indians!

An interesting story is how I discovered this band. I was looking for some old-time songs, and heard some decent stuff on a few of these no-name artist, best of bluegrass, yadda yadda, CDs on iTunes, by a group called the Pine Tree Stringband. I bought the CDs for the library, then once they came in, I liked what I heard. I wondered about a few songs on the discs, Sweet Marie, Hangman's Reel, some of the clawhammer stuff, and particularly, Kennesaw Mountain Rag, but I couldn't find any other recording of it except a mention in the folk music database at ibiblio. So, I did a little detective work, and figured out that the musicians were session men essentially, and that most of them were members of this other group, Foghorn Stringband. The band had a website, so I dropped them a line, and got a quick response from Kevin, the guitar player. Anyhoo, long story short, check them out.

Here's their website: Foghorn Stringband

You can hear partial tracks on iTunes, and some full tracks at their website, or via their MySpace page. (Warning: music will probably play automatically!)

Posted: Tue - May 1, 2007 at 01:26 PM      

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