Tag: sam howard

On November 20, Nathaniel Talbot will release his fourth full-length album, Swamp Rose and Honeysuckle Vine, via Portland’s Fluff and Gravy Records. Nathaniel, who operates an organic vegetable farm on Whidbey Island, WA, works roughly 60 hours a week on the farm every year from March through October. As such, the songs on the album are intimately tied to the lush farmland and windswept vistas of Whidbey Island, deeply rooted in the earth and American traditionalism.

Swamp Rose & Honeysuckle Vine captures the raw, live energy of Talbot’s guitar playing, and has a more stripped-down approach than his previous albums  – no drums, fewer string arrangements, and sparse vocal harmonies. Tracking guitar and vocals live and solo, usually in just one or two takes, Talbot then brought in his quartet of Portland all-stars, Anna Tivel (violin, vocals), Sam Howard (double bass) and Lincoln Crockett (mandolin) and Benji Nagel (dobro), whose auxiliary instrumentation is used intentionally and sparingly to great effect, filling in and conversing with the core of Talbot’s playing and singing. “Challenging what folk music is capable of,” says Seattle Weekly, “Talbot’s powerful, uplifting voice harnesses a country twang complemented by lush acoustic finger-picking and a violin that feels like it was birthed next to a babbling brook in the mountains.” Channeling the lyrical prowess and gritty charm of Anais Mitchell on tracks like “As the Way,” and the concrete characterization in the work of Elliott Smith on tracks like “Able Man,” Talbot stands on the shoulders of generations of folk musicians and Americana singer-songwriters before him. His approach to music feels like that of someone who treats it as a craft handed down and honed, like the tilling of soil or the carving of wood.

“It’s a wealth of lyrical vision, complex guitar playing, and expert musicianship; a work about people’s connection to one another through the earth,  disguised as a folk album about farming.” – American Standard Time

“simple, pure, haunting” – Vortex Magazine

Listen to the record here!

Buy the cd or digital album here!

As we prepare for Anna Tivel’s June 17 release, Before Machines, please help us to celebrate by downloading “Gentle War”. Featuring Sam Howard on bass, Taylor Kingman on guitar, David Strackany on drums, and Jeffrey Martin on backup vocals, it is one of the standout tracks on the record. The track is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD until the official record release on June 17.

Fluff and Gravy Records is proud to welcome Anna Tivel to the family. Raised among the ferns and the farmland of Northern Washington, Anna loved words long before they became the backbone of her music. “My sister, my mom and I would go to our little town library with a rolling suitcase and fill it to bursting,” she remembers, “we’d read in the car, in the bath, under the covers late at night, always piles of books, always music playing, from Paul Simon to Dylan, from The Kingston Trio to Itzaak Perlman.”

Entranced by the sound of her grandfather’s violin, Anna started learning in the first grade and never put it down. In 2006, she moved to Portland, muddled through college, and started waiting tables and playing some fiddle on the side. Over the next few years she was swept up by and welcomed into the Portland music scene, playing with multiple groups around town including the Nathaniel Talbot Quartet, Shook Twins, and The Jackalope Saints. But it wasn’t until she picked up the guitar, learned a few chords, and started writing songs, that music began to fill a much bigger space in her life. “It was like being dunked in cold water or slapped in the face…in a good way,” she says, “it suddenly became ok that i couldn’t seem to retain concrete information, that my head is always full of sensory things, smells and sounds and color. Suddenly there was a place for all of it.”

Anna’s first album, 2012’s self-released Brimstone Lullaby, was recorded by Rob Stroup at 8Ball Studio in SE Portland. The album is a fully flushed representation of that first year of songwriting, colored by some incredible local musicians. Her new album, titled Before Machines, brings a more intimate, raw batch of songs to the table, recorded mostly live and mixed to tape at Fluff and Gravy Studios, with a group of musicians who were only roughly familiar with the material. Bassist Sam Howard (Tony Furtado, Ruth Moody), guitarist Taylor Kingman (The Hilldogs) and drummer, David Strackany provided the backbone for the live tracks, with overdubs by Michael Monko (guitar) and Jeffrey Martin (vocals). The intention was to capture these songs in their most naked form, before multiple rehearsals and repetition had a chance to smooth over the edges.   The result is a warm and honest record that allows Anna’s songwriting to be at the forefront.

Before Machines will be available on June 17, on cd and digitally. Anna will be touring throughout 2014 in support of the record (more details to come!)

You can pre-order now, here

 

 

 

 

 

 

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