Tuesday, January 10, 2017

CD Odyssey Disc 955: Harpeth Rising

I tried a while back to convince this next band to come to Victoria, but so far no luck. I guess in retrospect, I didn’t try all that hard. Listening to this album made me want to make a second attempt.

 They are based out of Indiana, so I guess it is a bit of a trip, but if this review intrigues you, you can stream the first verse and chorus of most of their songs at their website. If you like what you hear, encourage them to come up here!

Disc 955 is….Dead Man’s Hand
Artist: Harpeth Rising

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? Not surprisingly, the Dead Man’s Hand: two pair, aces over eights, in spades and clubs. If Wikipedia is right (and of course, Wikipedia is never wrong!) this was the hand Wild Bill Hickock allegedly held when he was shot dead at a poker game in 1876, hence the name.

The ace of spades is a well-known harbinger of death all on its own, of course, immortalized in the song of the same name by Motorhead. I reviewed that album back at disc 752. It’s fair to say that apart from the presence of the Death Card, the two albums are stylistically a tad…different.

How I Came To Know It: I read about Harpeth Rising in a great article by Jim Vorel at Paste Magazine called “10 More Obscure Folk Albums to Add to Your Collection” which featured their amazing 2015 album, “Shifted.” I bought that record and liked what I heard (a lot) and so looked into their back catalogue. I eventually ordered the four missing albums direct from the band. Support up and coming bands!

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Harpeth Rising albums (five if you count the one made with David Greenberg). Of the four standalone records, “Dead Man’s Hand” is in a ‘dead’ heat for second with 2013’s “Tales From the Jackson Bridge.” I reserve the right to bump it down in favour of “Tales…”, but for now let’s land it at #2.

Ratings: 4 stars

Harpeth Rising take bluegrass and folk music to a whole new level; blending very traditional sounds with progressive shifts in tempo mid-song that draw your ear in strange and unexpected directions that sound better and better on repeat listens. Or as they put it on their website: “Unapologetic genre-benders, Harpeth Rising uses Folk, Newgrass, Rock and Classical into something organically unique.” Sure, that works too.

All this juxtaposition is highlighted with violinist and lead vocalist Jordana Greenberg. On the one hand, Greenberg’s voice is classic Americana folk. Her upper register has a sweet tone with a curl on the edges of the notes that can be wistful or playful depending on what emotion is called for. In the lower register she doesn’t lose any of the power, even when at the edge of her vocal range. It is folk singing at its best, and if it feels a bit sing-songy, well, that’s exactly how this music is supposed to sound.

Greenberg is also the violinist/fiddler and I use the slash deliberately. We all know this is the same instrument; it’s how you play it that decides the matter. Jordana Greenberg plays both. She is equally likely to rip off a few bars of a reel, play a controlled and stately classical solo, and then then throw in a little pizzicato for good measure. Often this all happens in a single song, and it all works seamlessly. I was unsurprised to read that she is classically trained (as are all the band’s members), with a discipline that is absolutely essential when you’re pushing the arrangements around with this much wild abandon.

Helping keep those seams together is her long-time musical partner, Rebecca Reed-Lunn on banjo. Reed-Lunn has a breezy and carefree feel for the banjo that is the perfect balance to Greenberg’s frenetic energy, grounding these songs and keeping them on track.

The rest of Harpeth Rising’s lineup has changed a couple times over the years, but on this album we have cellist Rachel Gawell and hand drummer Chris Burgess, both of whom add flourishes here and there that are deftly build into the arrangement.

Everything comes together beautifully on “California 1854.” Greenberg’s range is on fine display, as she sings a tale of gold, greed and murder, Reed-Lunn’s banjo sets a pace of unease and foreboding and Gawell’s cello cuts in at just the right time to underscore the foreboding of the violence and betrayal to come.

Thematically, “Dead Man’s Hand” has restless feeling about it, with songs about wild card games, the aforementioned California gold rush, and all manner of travel including horses, trucks, trains and even a Toyota Corolla. This latter vehicle (immortalized on “Tough As Nails”) wasn’t my favourite, but it was clearly a labour of love about a car that put on a lot of miles for probably very little money. Greenberg’s delivery helps lift some choppy lyrics, taking an obvious joy in a mock epic about a car that doesn’t normally get a lot of love.

Even the title track is ultimately about a restless spirit, doomed to be drawn to an endless card game through eternity. Or it could just be symbolically about gambling addiction. I like to think it’s a ghost story, though. I’m romantic that way.

Folk music has a wonderful tradition of covering past greats, and Harpeth Rising couldn’t have chosen much better with Stan Rogers’ “Guysborough Train” a gorgeous song which is buoyed along on Reed-Lunn’s purposeful banjo, and some pretty harmonies.

In fact, the whole album features beautiful harmonies, with Harpeth Rising reminding me favourably of the Wailin’ Jennys. Like the Jennys, Harpeth Rising know how to make their voices play well off of each other and they are fearless in how they construct their harmonies.

Most of the songs (six of ten) are written by Greenberg and Reed-Lunn, and it is a testament to them both how timeless these songs sound. They feel like they are ancient folk songs that have been given modern treatments, when really they are modern progressive songs that have been given a folk treatment. However you arrive at that mid-point, the journey is worth your time.

The journey to sunny Victoria would also be worth your time, Harpeth Rising – please visit us! If not, thanks for sending me the CDs!


Best tracks: Dead Man’s Hand, Coyote, California 1854, Time, Hey Driver, Next Year’s Rain

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