Hard workers, excellent musicians and passionate about performance – that’s one way to describe The Blackberry Bushes Stringband. Another is to revel in their perfect bluegrass/Americana/folk hybrid with more twang than you can shake a stick at and heartfelt little tales that reflect the values of so many ordinary Americans. Whichever way you look at it, this is a band who clearly know what they’re doing. Formed by lead singer and flat-pick guitarist Jes Raymond, the Vermont native studied Voice at the University of North Carolina before settling out West following her BA in Washington state. Fiddler Jakob Breitbach studied Jazz Violin while mandolinist Daniel Ullom grew up surrounded by bluegrass, just as banjoist Alex Genova studied her craft at the Berklee College of Music and upright bassist Forrest Marowitz has a BA in Music. Their devotion to their respective instruments is clear; this is a technically proficient album, but also one filled with heart and soul, joy and love.
Jes Raymond sums it up perfectly, “We want to move people – in their hearts like Gillian Welch, and in their bodies like The Infamous Stringdusters.” That is certainly true of their second album ‘Three Red Feathers’, which is due to drop tomorrow, August 28. The sweet but subtle hooks on the likes of ‘Brown Bird’ coupled with Jes’ plainspoken, melodic, rustic vocals are a perfect combination, and their narratives are primed to resonate both with the tales of old and modern folk. The title track, for example, takes a fresh, non-cheesy approach to telling listeners to follow their dreams, while ‘The Fool Hearted Try Harders’ laments the struggles of those who are tired of striving for something that they aren’t achieving.
Their values extend to songs like ‘Hickory Is Dependable’, whose storytelling frames concepts of family, reliability and authenticity through self-sufficiency. However, they also devote plenty of airtime to the breakdown of relationships (‘Around The Bend’), as well as the continuing strength of them (‘Paper Roses’, ‘Little White Sin’), and the folksy storytelling of old (‘The Lady of The Mountains’, ‘Out On The Western Plain’). The 12-song record includes one instrumental track, ‘Gold Rush/Kissimmee Kid’, which serves as a foot-tapping jam that is just as much a virtuosic showcase as it is an opportunity for listeners to dance.
There is a spirit, an energy to ‘Three Red Feathers’ as well as a care taken that comes across far more personal than some of their contemporaries. A fun live band but also purveyors of songcraft brought to bear with a light-hearted traditionalism and rusticity, The Blackberry Bushes Stringband have delivered a great album guaranteed to appeal to a variety of music fans, especially when that’s translated to the live arena.
Originally posted here.
