This means that CFM will hopefully be coming back in the next weeks with some new material. Due to much stress while learning for the final exams and being broke all the time I didn’t have much opportunities to track down all the folk and indie music of late 2010 and 2011. So there is a big gap for this period of time. Everybody who has some serious hints for me please posts them in the comments (though I mostly followed Slowcoustic and therefore know the music posted by Smansmith).

Also I deceided to run the blog in German from now on, so this will be the last post in English. This doesn’t mean you can’t contact me in English or comment in English. I would like to have both languages around here, knowing that most of you don’t speak German. I thought very long about chancing the blog language, but in the end I think it is the best for me especially with regards to my personal motivation.

If everything turns out well, I will do my Ph.D. in the next years and hopefully find some time to busy myself more with folk music again. As I said in the last post, there will be no daily routine with the articles anymore. I write as I go. Consequences of this will be that there are less articles (obvicious) but also longer and more detailed reviews. This means I will pick out just my absolute personal favourites and hope to present you some great music you’ll really fall in love with.

The next steps towards the CFM relaunch will be saving some money to pay wordpress costs to embed mp3s, get an overview over the current folk releases and artists, find some good music and write up the first articles. So there is some work to do until you will read the first folk related post here. But I hope you will step by again and rejoin CFM.

p.s. In the meantime while CFM was offline somebody thought, that he had to copy most parts of my blog name to create another folk blog (maybe hoping to steal clicks from google searching for folk music, I don’t know). This other blog is called Common Folk Music and also uses the abbreviation CFM. So don’t get confused. This blog, Common Folk Meadow, was and always will be the original CFM and I have nothing to do with that other blog.

The most important decision I have to make is the following: Writing in English certainly has it’s advantages especially because you reach a wider audience. But as I’m also very fond of my native language, German, I’m considering to switch over to it. Not only does it take less time to write the articles and to proof-read them, it also gives me a larger range expressing my emotions and feelings. But I’m not yet sure about this point and I will let time decide what to do.
The other point, and on this I’m sure already, is the interval in which new articles will be posted. The daily thing surely is a great challange but finding new music, reading news of tons of blogs and posting stuff that isn’t a bare copy of the other blogs takes hours and hours of time. Sometimes I spent over 7h a day to find some good stuff, write up the reviews and read all the news I had available in my 300+ blogs in google reader. This was a great time, but as life will get in the way I don’t think this will be manegeable anymore in the future. So there will be new articles but they won’t show up at a daily routine.

I know, this post was long overdue, but I really wasn’t in the mood to write anything to anyone in the last time. I hope you’ll excuse me. This being said, I just can summon you to keep believing in independent artists and their music and to support them in every way you can. Keep the spirit of music (and folk especially) alive and don’t let the majors destroy true genius. I’ll be back – and I hope some of you will still be there, too.

[tags: acoustic, folk, ep, 2010]

Listen while reading:

___________________________________________________

Hi folks, it’s time for me to post about a great new EP that was in my inbox today. As I’ve said before, I’m surprised how much submissions are still coming in every day, but this one really stands out. I’m talking about the debut release from Dutch folk singer-songwriter Kashmere Hakim which goes by the name The Hillsinger EP and which was released only two days ago. What makes this EP special isn’t its creativity or its experiments – it’s the other way around: the pure and straight-forward character is what makes it special. It shows that you don’t need more than an acoustic guitar and your voice if you’re able to write good and honest songs. And this is exactly what Kashmere Hakim does: writing honest music that hooks you up and takes you on a little journey through the arts of expressing human emotions and telling everyday yet meaningful stories.

The EP comes loaded with six songs and a playtime of 16 minutes which is just right for this kind of release. Outstanding are the melodies of Kashmere’s songs, they are fragile, sometimes broken, but not over the top, rather dry but still compelling. The opener Free People is a good example for this kind of song-writing and it shows that this man surely got a feeling for writing music. This belief manifests itself even more if you take a listen to John Henry, the third track on the EP. The melodies here are different and much more melodic and simpler than they were in Free People – and still it seems that this (a little bit blusy) style just fits the story of the song and tops it off. The free downloadable track Foreign Worker really sums up the overall picture I got of the EP with its soft melodies and its calm atmosphere. If you like this track I’m most certainly sure you’ll like the other ones too. Among the straight acoustic guitar and voice arrangements, there are some strings here and there, especially in the brilliant Grandparents House. This addition really benefits the songs and I’m convinced that there will be much more great music from Kashmere Hakim in the future if he’s able to keep up with this high quality work. If you want one of the 500 copies of the EP, just write an e-mail to Kashmere (kashmerehakim@hotmail.com) or contatct him via his MySpace profile. A digital version of the EP will be available soon. Fine acoustic folk!

[tags: bluegrass, folk, 2010]

Right after the great news concerning the new Handsome Family compilation, I’m proud to announce to you the new Chatham County Line album which goes by the name Wildwood. I have the feeling that Chatham County Line is a much underappreciated band and I hope their new release will give them some more attention (btw it’s their fifth full length, check out the others too, they are great!). You can pre-order Wildwood right here and every pre-order gets an exclusive MP3 track extra + if you are one of the first fifty buyers, you get a special keychain modeled after the microphone stand the band regularly uses. So, if you’re curious what this microphone stand looks like or if you’re perhaps interested in the music, yeah…, you really should check out this nice video of the song Crop Comes In. For me it’s just perfect.

I think this should’ve made you wanting to hear the rest of the album. And if this is true, you have one complete week to stream the whole thing to decide if, better: when, you want to buy your personal copy. So, don’t wait and get this album stream on: GET IT ON!

[tags: southern gothic, alt country, 2010]

I just found out that one of CFM’s favorite bands ever, The Handsome Family – the best southern gothic and alt country band there ever was and will be – is about to release a new collection of songs in the vein of the former Smothered And Covered collection. If those are not the greates news you can get to make your day sweet, I don’t know what else could be. I for myself just pre-ordered the thing and I highly advise you to do the same thing asap. Here’s the link: click it!

At last the official quote from the website:

We have a new CD Release!
“Scattered: A Further Collection of Lost Demos, Orphaned Songs and Odd Covers”.
In the spirit of “Smothered and Covered” we’re releasing another cd full of bits and bobs. We should have copies to sell by June 10 and will have some on our upcoming tour dates. For the first year it will only be available on our website and at our shows. You can pre-order a copy here ( http://www.handsomefamily.com/Nmerch.html#anchor864587 ) and we’ll send one out to you when we get our first shipment pressed or you can buy one from us at a live show.

Here’s what’s on the cd….

“The Lost Soul ” originally recorded for Bloodshot Records’ 2005 compilation, For a Decade of Sin.
When it Rains,” was supposed to be on Twilight but somehow fell by the wayside.
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” by Dylan, recorded for Uncut’s, Highway 61 Revisited Revisited.
“Snowball” originally released on Bloodshot’’s 2002 children’’s record, The Bottle Let Me Down.
“Ain’t No Grave” written by Brother Claude Ely.
“Little Buddy, one of our earliest attempts at songwriting (1993).
“Eleanor Rigby bluegrass version with the Rivet Gang.
“A Plague of Humans,” written for David Coulter’s “Plague Songs ” that took place at the Barbican in 2007.
“Famous Blue Raincoat” Leonard Cohen’s classic.
Drinking Beer on the Roof, an alternate to the “Red Leaf Forest. We realized later we liked these lyrics better.
“Telephones and Telescopes” originally released as a 7”” single by Speed Kills in 1992.
“The Lost Highway” most-famously recorded by Hank Williams. Our version’s from 2002.
“Honcho” is an instrumental recorded by Brett on 4-track in 1991.
“The Blizzard” by Harlan Howard, most-famously recorded by Jim Reeves.
What does the Deep Sea Say?” A traditional we first heard sung by The Blue Sky Boys.
“Tranquilized” is Brett’’s sad song about life post mental hospital. 1996.
June Bugs” (alternate take) this version has a certain magic we lost in the final mix released on Honey Moon.
One Way Up” (4-track demo) is an early (1990) 4-track version of a song later released on Odessa .

Hello dear CFM readers. I know that it seems that CFM disappeared from the blogosphere, but let me tell you that this is clearly not the case. It’s true that I don’t write much right now, infact I barely write anything at all. But the circumstances have changed a bit and I just don’t feel like spending so much time blogging. This doesn’t mean that I’m not into folk anymore etc. – it just means that I’m currently not in the mood to write as much as I used to do. But I think there will be better blogging times again. I can’t tell when exactly, but right now I just want to finish my studies and then we’ll see what happens. Until then I just throw some articles up from time to time and I hope you girls and guys understand my decision.

I think I also have to spend one words on the massive submissions still coming in: Please understand that I don’t respond to all of your e-mails – this doesn’t mean any disrespect for I’m very thankful all of you good folks are still interested in CFM. I’m proud that I got such great readers and so many friendly and talented bands that keep up the true spirit of folk: being a big family. But enough with the sentiment.

I decided to write an article just now to share some recommendations with you I think of as elementary for 2010. Lots of them were mentioned on other blogs, but because I just got one of my orders delivered and a load full of CDs and LPs are lying in front of me, I think it is worth mentioning them again.

___________________________________________________

Ghosts I’ve Met – Payphone Patience EP (via Yer Bird, 2010)

Listen while reading:

Let’s start with a new release from one of our favorite folk labes out there, it’s obvious, I’m talking about the new Yer Bird output. The digital only EP Payphone Patience by Ghosts I’ve Met is just the right thing you want to listen to while the season slowly transforms from spring to summer. Ghosts I’ve Met play as a full band (percussion, violin, guitar, bass, male and female singing) and I would describe their sound as an mixture between melancholy and hope. The strings deliver some good and thoughtful moments, the percussions and drums got a lot of drive at some points (Wall Of Water). The structure and the overall character reminds me strongly of indie folk with a little hint of folk rock here and there (but really, just a little bit). I for myself had to listen to the EP five or six times to realize the enormous potentials that this music shows and I’m very curious to hear more from this promising band – realy nice music and a real nice pick from Yer Bird. To order your MP3s just click this link and enjoy some wonderful music.

___________________________________________________

Hoquiam – Hoquiam (via St. Ives, 2010)

Listen while reading:

Next candidate in line is the Hoquiam self-titled debut LP. If you haven’t heard of Hoquiam yet, I recommend to read the article that was posted over at Slowcoustic some time ago. The band is a project of well known folkster Damien Jurado and his brother. They both reflected on their childhood and trnasformed these thoughts into wonderful music that ofen doesn’t need more than an acoustic guitar and voice and some percussions to be beautiful. But this reductionism doesn’t lead to boring or monotonous songs; all tracks are distinct and mostly tell very original stories. Somehow I think this is not the album you will listen to the whole day long, but I think every time you play the record you will see that the overall style could be described as the thing that makes folk folk. Simple instrumentation, lots of feeling and skill to write tracks that hook you while being honest. A very great, mostly dark, but not really melancholic folk album – like a good dry red wine. Click here for a physical copy (german record store) or here for MP3s.

___________________________________________________

Martha Tilston – Lucy And The Wolves (via Squiggly Records, 2010)

Listen while reading:

Let’s proceed further from Canadian label Yer Bird and the two American bands Ghosts I’ve Met and Hoquiam right to the UK and to one of the loveliest releases this year. Personally I never have heard of Martha Tilston before her 2010 album Lucy And The Wolves, but now I realize that it is a shame not to know the name of this lady. Lucy And The Wolves is clearly one of those albums you will remember ever after. It’s sheer fascinating how easily Martha manages to pack such enormous creativity into 48 minutes. Some of the songs are true folk songs like the overwhelming tracks Lucy or Old Tom Cat, others are sung a capella accompanied by nothing else then a purling brook and the singing of the birds – wonderful. But still this doesn’t catch the the whole feeling of the album, you have to add a little bit of folk pop here and there and maybe a tiny bit of jazz pop. But, don’t get this wrong, this is one fine folk record and the mentioned genres must be seen as positive additions, not unnecessary pageantry. The difference between the extremes of this album can be heard by listening to the richly instrumnetated Wave Machine, the mentioned a capella Searching For Lambs and pure folk songs (in British tradition) like Lucy. I’m more than happy that I found Martha’s music and I highly recommend to listen to this fine, fine music if you are interested in folk music from the UK (and that you should be, my friend). Order your physical copy right here (sorry, found no other link…).

___________________________________________________

Old Man Ludecke – My Hands Are On Fire And Other Love Songs (via Black Hen Records, 2010)

Listen while reading:

After our little tour around the wolrd we move back to where we started, to Canada and there we find the hell of a musician I’m absolutely fell in love with (at least with his music), I’m talking about, yeah, maybe a sleeper I read about firstly at NxEW (sadly the article seems to be removed) and later at Herohill: nobody else than the absolutely stunning Old Man Ludecke who released his new album just a little bit more than a month ago. It’s called My Hands Are On Fire And Other Love Songs and it’s an gorgeous album of, ok, I don’t like the term, but I think Canadiana. In other words Old Man Ludecke is an excellent singer-songwriter who combines bluegrass and country with wonderful lyrics and just incredible moods. I don’t know what to say, but, besides the relatively liveless album title, the album itself is the heck of a record and without doubt some of the best music I listened to this year (and it was a very good year for folk music until now with still many promising releases to come). The banjo and acoustic melodies are like a ride through the wide lands of blessed Canada. And maybe this is a typical Canadian feeling: some loneliness combined with the touch of nature. I think this is what I can feel in those songs and I think if you listen to them you will think alike. The combination of casing after nothing and enjoying every second of it as well as the feeling of a need for love and community is just what this album is all about. Every single track tells a different story that belongs into this context. Clearly a must-have. Get it here.

___________________________________________________

Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy (via Dead Oceans, 2010)

Listen while reading:

For our last station for today we take a trip back to the US and we meet and greet with Matthew Houck, the man behind Phosphorescent. I think every folkster already knows. And so this is not much of a surprise that I recommend the neweset output Here’s To Taking It Easy even though I have to admit that I didn’t liked Pride and To Willie too much. But what Matthew did with his newest record is simply fantastic. 44 minutes of wonderful country influenced folk pop with a good portion of psychedelic components and maybe one of the coolest album covers of the year. I don’t know exactly what makes this album so special, but I think it is the retro feeling of it. The music of Phosphorescent is strong and simultaneously retro – and retro isn’t used in the hip and cool sense of the word, but in the sense that his music sounds like an old forgotten classic in the genre. And because it isn’t an old and forgotten gem but a brand new 2010 release, you really should spend an ear or two to hopefully lose your heart to this great sound and album. I think the chances are good that this will hit many best of the year lists in 2010. To get a copy, just visit the following link.

That’s it for now. I hope you all are doing fine and you found some music you liked.

___________________________________________________

The Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt (via Dead Oceans, 2010)

Listen while reading:

p.s. I don’t want to miss to write a word about one of the best folk releases this year. But because I think everybody knows about this, I will make it short. The Tallest Man On Earth and his new album The Wild Hunt is something no folk lover should miss. I don’t want to talk about the album, I just promise you stunning acoustic folk with mostly acoustic guitar and a very characteristic voice. This is what you want to have if you don’t have it already. Buy it together with Phosphorescent’s album and you’ll get two very distinct albums that share the same feature: you will love them with your whole heart. Therefore I hope you already own a copy and don’t have to click this link and order your exemplar of The Wild Hunt instantly – this is a 2010 classic and every folkster has to buy it without reasoning.

[tags: folk, alt country, singer-songwriter, 2010, FREE]

Listen while reading:

___________________________________________________

Just wanted to let you know that the new Uncles album (I mentioned it here and here) is finally out and totally amazing. But that’s not too surprising because all the tracks that were available in the forefield were just great. But the best thing about the release: you can download the entire thing for free! So, don’t wait and click the following links to get the album via Divshare or just use the official download from the band page. What are you waiting for?

[tags: neo-classic, instrumental, solo piano, concert, 2010]

Listen while reading:

___________________________________________________

If you followed the musical development of Peter Broderick, you’ll be familiar with his Docile recording which featured mostly instrumental solo piano music. Anf if you liked that, there is a good chance that you’ll like the new Sonic Pieces release as well. Dustin O’Halloran, known for his wonderful and varied skill for writing modern solo piano music, played a concert in the Grunewald Chruch in Berlin and this concert is now available for your listening pleasure – and pleasure is the right word here, even though the melodies are not exactly happy or cheerful, they are deep and warm – in a good way, they make you reflect upon whatever you think about.

I have to admit that I have had a little bit of a hard time finding the right words to describe this music to you – and I still have. It’s easier for me to talk about folk than modern solo piano. But what I can tell you is that the acoustics with the light reverb and hall are perfect to underline the hovering character and the airy, bottomless mood of the compositions. It feels like you are alone in space and surrounded by nothing else than those wonderful silvery notes. Each track on the disc seems to tell a story, but the more you concentrate on its contents the more you get sucked in into a shimmering specter of pure sound – the sounds become colors and you seem to melt in them. But as I said, every track tells you something, every track seems to have a specific structure woven out of successive hollows. Fill in the gaps and you have your story, if you don’t fill in your own thoughts, well that’s ok too, than you can enjoy the crystal clear notes and melodies in the above mentioned color-transformed sense without your thoughts being affected.

Ok, maybe the whole thing got a bit to much metaphorical, let me put it in drier words: Vorleben effectively affects your thoughts with the provided mood coming from each composition, maybe you even feel a bit hazy while reflecting and listening. On the other hand this music can also be enjoyed pure – just the music, no thoughts – then you will find yourself in a world full of crystals and diamonds with no other inherent meaning than just being there.

Overall Vorleben shows again that Sonic Pieces is one of the top German labels combining folk and modern classic/neo-classic and that Dustin O’Halloran can be rightfully considered one outstanding figure in contemporary composition. Therefore Vorleben is one hundred percent worth buying – not at least because of the wonderful packaging which makes every release a collector’s item. So, if you like solo piano/contemporary classic/neo-classic or however you call it and you’re searching for some wonderful instrumental piano music, give this concert a try. To get a copy of the disc, just visit Sonic Pieces, choose your region and order quick (for Sonic Pieces releases are known to sell out very fast). If you like, spend some time on Dustin O’Halloran’s homepage too.

[tags: folk, 2010]

Listen while reading:

___________________________________________________

I wrote about the upcoming Uncles album earlier (you can read it here) and now the band is offering their new single Deaf Dumb Dog for your listening pleasure and for free download. Deaf Dumb Dog is different than the two tracks I embedded in my first article; still folky it’s more experimental, maybe more in the vein of musicians like good old Will Oldham who understands to combine folk with nearly every other music genre out there. The atmosphere is kind of dark, the guitars are decent and the percussions are in the back – because of the many breaks and the rough song-structure you can listen to he song many times without getting bored. In comparison to the previous two singles, Deaf Dumb Dog is much more complex with a grande final – this (hopefully) shows that the upcoming album will be complex and not your standard background music – I’m very curious to hear the whole thing and I think Uncles are on their way to score big with their debut record Replacing Words With Other Words.

[tags: acoustic, folk, 2010, great!, mostly instrumental, 2010]

Listen while reading:

___________________________________________________

As a big supporter of combining folk and neo-classic or contemporary classic music, CFM is proud to feature one outstanding and remarkable band you mustn’t miss in 2010. Stylistically very different, Feast Of The Hunters’ Moon reminds me of South China’s debut full length Washingtons – structurally at least. Most part of Black Prairie’s sound is instrumental music even though the vocals from Annalisa Tornfelt were included in some tracks (and rightfully so, because they sound great and very folksy). The tracks reach from more bluegrass oriented ones (Black Alley) to tracks that are similar  to classical compositions (A Prairie Musette). It’s interesting to see how this Portland/Oregon based band again shows the enormous talent that emerges from this place of the world – with ease they present such an outstanding debut that you won’t belief it – too ingenious are the melodies, too intense are the moods of the different songs. But this wonderment about the skill that is inherit to the album finds itself shattered if I tell you that the musicians which form the band are not new to music at all – in the contrary, Black Prairie features three members of The Decemberists (Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee and Nate Query) (so you know where the experience comes from…) and the above mentioned Annalisa Tornfelt as well as Jon Neufeld (both referred to as “two of the city’s finest folk stylists” by the Sugar Hill Records Press).

If you expect an album that sounds like one from The Decemberists, you are lookin in the wrong place; Feast Of The Hunters’ Moon is folk and folk only. Roots can be heard (Home Made Lemonade) along with some Balkan influences (Tango Oscuro) and even a touch of jazz found its way into those folk tunes (Crooked Little Heart). The result is deep, intense, varied and creative – simultaneously with all the deepness that can be found throughout the record, I wouldn’t say that it’s melancholic or even introverted music. This music needs room to develop, this music needs to be heard – and if you listen carefully it even invites you to a little dance (Annie McGuire). In the end I would say that Black Prairie’s first album has the perfect balance between calm and quiet and aroused and lively music – there is light and therefore there’s also shadow. I strongly recommend to check out this amazing piece of (mostly) instrumental folk music – clearly one outstanding record in 2010. To purchase your copy of it, just click this link and get your MP3s at iTunes. For further information make sure to visit the band’s MySpace site.