Folk album reviews
In this issue
Marah, Marah Presents: Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania
Aughties Americana-rock outfit Marah continues to evolve in unexpected ways. Following the split of founding brothers Serge and Dave Bielanko, Dave has pushed the name forward with partner Christine Smith, a new group of players and a new album rooted in rural tradition. Based on a book of collected song lyrics published in 1931 by folklorist Henry Shoemaker, Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania is raw and rootsy, with touches of gospel, bluegrass (via 10-year-old fiddle prodigy Gus Tritsch), barbershop (the Shurfine Quartet’s lively showing on “Ten Cents at the Gate”) and the band’s signature Dylanvia-Springsteen rock. It’s a very assorted set, and some moments fall flat (Tritsch’s unbridled vocal on “Rattlesnake”), but the album on the whole impressively avoids the tacky trappings of both O Brother and the pop-folk trend of today. Mountain Minstrelsy sounds like what it is: a group of players gathered in a farmhouse room, making live music with honesty and spirit. —John Vettese
Wake Owl, The Private World of Paradise
These days, Wake Owl head hooter Colyn Cameron splits residential time between the eco-friendly hotbeds of Portland and Vancouver. This after he trained in the field of organic agriculture at an English university and worked on various farms worldwide. That this album doesn’t sound like a beard, a pair of Birkenstocks, a bag of granola and a hipster coffeehouse rolled into one is shocking. For the benefit of sustainable living and our immature sense of humor, The Private World of Paradise does have a somewhat rustic, indierock feel, though augmented with a greater wealth of instrumentation. This is encouraging for those who like layers (“Candy” is straight inspired by Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life; “Vacation” takes its delicate honky-tonk straight outta Branson, MO), as well as the power of that density to cancel out the languid, downcast vocals and achingly lazy drumming.—Kevin Stewart-Panko