Saturday, February 6, 2010

New Artists, Old Songs Week Vol. 4:
Covers from The American Popular Songbook And Other Standards



26 year old Frank Fairfield plays old mountain bluegrass and country blues standards solo on banjo, guitar and fiddle; he’s been compared to Mississippi John Hurt, and played sessions with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Robin Peckinold of the Fleet Foxes, who has hosted Frank as a sideman, calls him a man “born out of time,” and sure enough, his recent Daytrotter session, his late November KEXP performance of Cumberland Gap, and this lovely sepia-toned video of Nine Pound Hammer come across like timeless field recordings:





Mack the Knife isn’t an American song by origin, to be sure; instead, it’s from Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera, which debuted in Berlin on the cusp of the last Great Depression. But its introduction to the American canon by both Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin in the mid-to-late fifties has made it a popular choice for coverage in a number of genres, enough to win a Grammy for Ella Fitzgerald, and to cause American Idol supervillain Simon Cowell to call it the best song ever written.

Here, on the B-side of his brand new 7″ Newspress Scare, young Vikesh Kapoor breathes new life into the tune, stripping it down to a backporch fingerpicking croon for a folk audience, with great results. And it’s a great introduction to Kapoor, an up-and-coming folk musician whose ear for traditional lyric structure and performance is so resonant with tradition, and whose day-laborer subjects seem so universal, that I spent almost an hour trying to find the “origin” of several of the original tunes on his MySpace page, most notably the delicious ballads Willy Robbins and Down By The River.

Kapoor has been compared to both Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, and rightfully so, but he also reminds me of both Davey Graham and more contemporary folk artists Josh Ritter and Joshua James. Newspress Scare drops February ninth on Good People records, and will come with a Midwestern and East Coast tour; Bostonians in our reading audience should plan to catch Vikesh Kapoor at Democracy Center on the 11th for his hometown record release show.



If “non-repetitive pop” musician and trained ethnomusicologist Scott Alexander’s newest set of songs sound unpolished, it’s because after a sophomore effort with full production, he decided to release his follow-up with a more authentic, cheaper sound. The resulting money-themed 8-song album Scott Alexander Makes 7 or 8 Dollars includes a touch of guitar jangle, slippery one-take production, an interestingly experimental use of banjitar and other instruments, sweet silly lyrics, and a shaky bellow not unlike that of Jonathan Richman, with a hint of Nick Cave’s low, ragged vocal style.

But the cacophony works well, especially on the barebones acoustic Cure-esque Let’s Go Shopping, the fragile female-sung popfolk Penny Gumball, and this strange and ultimately broken-beauty cover. Sounds like he’d be worth catching live, too, and not just because Alexander makes a habit of baking fresh cookies for his audiences, not to mention giving them out free on the streets of his native Brooklyn. And though his songs are arguably anti-folk popsongs through and through, frankly, I had nowhere else to put this Neil Diamond cover this week.



Finally, though we already wrote about local indie pubfolkers The Points North when their label Grinding Tapes released their excellent cover of Auld Lang Syne just in time for New Years, their newest free release - a great, fluid, and mystical lo-fi indiefolk breakdown of Dylan’s Girl from the North Country, which comes via popular blog Ryan’s Smashing Life - only reminds us that this is a band to watch closely. The tension is palpable, the arrangement exquisite, and the accordions, drums, guitar and voice combine to create a sense of distance and longing that utterly transforms the song. Nice work, guys; can’t wait for more.



Thanks for joining us here at Cover Lay Down for our New Artists, Old Songs Week, folks. We’ll return Wednesday with more featured artists, songs, and songbooks from the best of the folkworld.

In the meanwhile, as always, please remember that our goal here at CLD is not just to fill up your iPod, but to connect artists to fans, and vice versa, that music might continue to flow unabated and well-supported. If you like what you hear, please do the performers we feature the honor of following up on links and purchase opportunities.

Category: New Artists Old Songs

5 Responses to “New Artists, Old Songs Week Vol. 4:
Covers from The American Popular Songbook And Other Standards”

  1. Berni
    February 9th, 2010 at 7:37 am

    Thanks for the heads up on Frank Fairfield - I totally missed his Daytrotter gig and backtracked to it.

    I’ve seen the Points North a few times (including my house show last summer) but had not heard them do this song, it’s really haunting. They’re nice people and I hope that they do well on their Australian tour.

    Are you headed to the Joe Val fest this year?
  2. boyhowdy
    February 9th, 2010 at 11:32 am

    Jealous about a Points North House Concert - am I on your list, Berni? I’m thinking about asking Vikesh if he’d play our home sometime; do you think people would want to hear him live?

    And: You betcha on the Joe Val. I’ll be the bearded guy :-)
  3. lafamos
    February 9th, 2010 at 6:54 pm

    really enjoyed this

    definitely need more music like this out there
  4. Gilbert
    February 10th, 2010 at 12:50 am

    I’ve been infected by that Vikesh Kapoor version of Mack the Knife. I haven’t stopped listening to it all day. There should be a warning label on it!
  5. Berni
    February 10th, 2010 at 7:59 am

    Of course you’re on the list - we’ve had the Low Anthem, Strand of Oaks (definitely check him out), and many more. It’s been 6 years and it gets bigger each year. So much fun!

    About Vikesh: I’d go see him, but I’m not the typical fan. Love his version of Mack the Knife, wow!

    My turn to be jealous. I can’t afford the $50 freight for a Saturday Joe Val ticket right now. Hoping to catch Lucy K at the Iron Horse later this month though.

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