Cover Lay Down

Someone’s doing something right at the Berklee College of Music. As a gathering place for talented musicians steeped in a variety of traditions, it has long held a reputation both a natural source for emerging artists and a hotbed of hybridization. You may not have realized it, but the odds are excellent that at least some of your own favorite artists attended the prestigious school, from Patty Larkin, Gillian Welch, Bruce Cockburn and Susan Tedeschi to Melissa Etheridge, Bill Frisell, Donald Fagin, Juliana Hatfield, Aimee Mann and John Mayer.

But continued development of programs in songwriting and guitar, and a new focus on bluegrass in the past several years, have accelerated Berklee’s impact on the folk and bluegrass worlds, especially in and around the Boston area. Cellist and singer-songwriter Lindsay Mac, who we featured here last year as a winner of the 2007 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s emerging artist showcase, is an alum; this year’s celebrated set of audience-selected showcase winners from 2008 included Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers, several of whose members have recently graduated from the school as well. And jazz-influenced up-and-comer Emily Elbert, who competed in this year’s emerging artist showcase for a spot in next year’s festival and has just come off a tour with G Love and Special Sauce, is currently at Berklee focusing on songwriting and voice, as is talented vocalist Ali Rapetti, aka Bedside Companion, who accompanied Emily.

And Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, which last year included both the Infamous Stringdusters and Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet — both of which feature Berklee alumni — this year featured several acts associated with the college, from professor and master mandolinist John McGann, who sat in with Del McCoury, to previously-noted band The Boston Boys, who formed as students in the school, to fiddler Casey Driessen of the Sparrow Quartet, to Crooked Still, who picked up their original cellist Rushad Eggleston from there, to one of Berklee’s newest members, 16 year old mandolin wunderkind Sierra Hull, who will start the program in the fall.

The Folk Arts Quartet, who played two sets at Falcon Ridge 2009, are just one of the up-and-coming bands who have emerged from Berklee in the past year which both straddle and transcend the line between folk and bluegrass. International in origin and flavor — their members come from three countries, and carry Scottish, Cape Breton, and classical traditions into their performance — the quartet performs a style they call chambergrass, a high-energy fusion of multiple influences which works so well that no less an authority than the musical director of Falcon Ridge herself touted FAQ as one of her favorite bands to watch this year.

Thanks to an encounter with fiddler Hannah Read on Thursday, I had a chance to sit down with the four ladies of the FAQ behind the Falcon Ridge workshop stage on Friday morning, and much of our conversation revolved around the presence of Berklee as an intersection point or node for their artistic and musical cross-pollination. Their unique combination of jazz, celtic, bluegrass and folk elements which so wowed the Falcon Ridge crowds this year came as a result of jamming together in a Berklee classroom; though current cellist Liz Davis Maxfield will be leaving the group for a year abroad studying Irish traditional music, she will be replaced by CLD fave Emma Beaton, herself a student at Berklee.

The collaborative creative process which is so evident in their performance, especially on their self-titled debut CD, is a result of equal contribution from all group members; Read and fellow fiddler Julie Metcalf trade off on lead and harmony throughout, and the women work together on writing and bringing songs to the group for composition, arrangement, practice and performance, which speaks to both the strength of Berklee’s program and those it attracts and nurtures. And Berklee has been highly supportive of the group, bringing them onstage for commencement to perform their own Cape Breton-style arrangements of songs by honorary degree recipients Linda Rondstadt and Smokey Robinson; award-winning fiddler and foot percussionist Ivonne Hernandez, one of the group’s founding members, was also featured as a notable graduate in the ceremony’s press release.

Here’s a few artist-approved video covers from the Folk Arts Quartet, taken by yours truly at this year’s Falcon Ridge Folk Fest…plus a studio version of Waterlily from the Folk Arts Quartet’s incredible and highly recommended self-titled debut album, a few bonus covers featuring new and founding members on vocals, and a pair of great covers from other Berklee bluegrass artists spotted at Grey Fox and Falcon Ridge over the past few weeks.

• Folk Arts Quartet: Waterlily + The Joy of It (orig. Karine Polwart / orig. Catriona MacDonald)
  (from Folk Arts Quartet)
• Hannah Read: A Taste of Honey (orig. The Temptations)
  (from Hannah’s Myspace)
• Emma Beaton w/ Berklee Bluegrass: Red Rocking Chair (trad.)
  (from Emma’s Myspace)
• Katie and Liz Davis: Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier (trad.)
  (from Ampersand)

• Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers: Kisses Sweeter than Wine (orig. The Weavers)
  (from BMUZ’s Myspace)

• Sierra Hull: Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool (orig. Connie Francis)
  (from Secrets)

• Casey Driessen: Sally in the Garden (trad.)
  (from 3D)

Of course, there are other reasons why Boston has long been a hotbed of folk and traditional music: its Irish population, seminal folk clubs and coffeehouses such as Club Passim and house concerts such as the Notlob series, long-standing traditions of and areas for busking. The high concentration of colleges which bring young people into the area as fans and members of the talent pool are a strong factor as well: the New England Conservatory, for example, just down the street from Berklee, nurtured the talents of Aoife O’Donovan of Crooked Still, and Sarah Jarosz, who we featured in April, will attend the school this fall.

Those interested in watching the local scene are especially encouraged to keep an eye on other festivals coming up in and around Boston, including ICONS this fall, and both the BCMFest and the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival this winter. And if you’re in Cambridge and have a chance to attend, I highly recommend attending Sub Rosa, a semi-regular in-the-round Lizard Lounge residency hosted by Cover Lay Down favorite Rose Polenzani, featuring Alastair Moock, Catie Curtis, Jennifer Kimball, Aoife O’Donovan, Anne Heaton, and a dozen or more other young players and songwriters from the Boston area, many of whom will be performing at the Boston Folk Festival on September 13th.

Polenzani recently posted the full soundboard recordings from a recent Sub Rosa, which includes some lovely covers and originals; you can pick up the full set from her blog, but here’s a pair of Rose’s own performances from that set, plus yet another installment in Rose’s ongoing collection of YouTube cover tunes: an absolutely gorgeous video of Polenzani, Heaton, Rose Cousins, and Laura Cortese covering Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney duet Say Say Say.

• Rose Polenzani and Friends: Eid Ma Clack Shaw (orig. Bill Callahan)
• Rose Polenzani and Friends: She Is A Rainbow (orig. Sharon Lewis)
  (live Sub Rosa performance, May 28, 2009)

Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk every Sunday and Wednesday, plus the occasional otherday. And, as always, if you like what you hear, click on artist and festival links above to support the venues and artists that make possible this blog and many others like it.