Last week, I stumbled into a jam session with Frank Fairfield and other musicians by accident, and blogged a quick iPhone video snapshot. The next day, I started googling and YouTubing and Myspacing to find out more about each of the musicians, and found this. A stunning video of Fairfield performing "Nine Pound Hammer." Give me chills. Shot and directed by Keith Musil (I'm dying to know what he shot with, doesn't it look great?).
There are a few more YT clips in this series, they're all gorgeous. I missed Fairfield's live show last night at the Redwood in LA with Blind Boy Paxton, but I hope to catch them, together or separately, soon.
Robin from the Fleet Foxes described him like this, in Rolling Stone:
Buy his music: His self-titled album Frank Fairfield, and the EP I've Always Been a Rambler (Amazon MP3s)."He's like 26 years old and he sounds like Mississippi John Hurt," says Robin. Fairfield plays fiddle and banjo player and strums back-porch bluegrass, complete with shaky jug-band vocals reminiscent of The Foggy Mountain Boys from way back in the '40s (think O Brother, Where Art Thou?).
"He's kinda crazy," says Robin. "He has his own radio show where he just plays these old gramophones. He just puts a mic up and plays all these field recordings from the 1900s; it's insane. He dresses like it's the early 1900s. He's born out of time, and his voice is amazing."
He's playing a bunch of West Coast US tour dates from now through January: San Francisco, Eugene, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle and other ports of call.
Videos:
• Frank Fairfield - "Nine Pound Hammer"
• Frank Fairfield - "Short Life of Trouble"
• Frank Fairfield - "Tim Brooks"
Some blog posts about Fairfield: LA Record, naturalismo, passionweiss. And here's an LA Weekly profile.
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Wow. He really is amazing. He reminds me of Windy Bill or Little Chucky Stewart from the Kingston, TN era. I'm going to be doing some googling for this guy. I predict that he will be on my ipod before the sun sets.
I vote that, in a nice bit of "cute girl with ukelele" parallelism, we keep the "attractive men with banjos" thing going.
Nice slow zoom there.
@Architexas, DONE AND DONE.
Some pictures I took at a Frank Fairfield/Fleet Foxes Show last year.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inmemoryofradio/2897517367/in/set-72157607596394135/
@inmemoryofradio, wonderful shots!
*swoon*
The style of banjo picking this guy is doing is pretty unusual, these days: It looks like a combination of 3-finger picking and strumming, most commonly associated with Pete Seeger. Was popular in the 1960s but almost nobody under the age of 60 plays like that any more!
tilt shift camera?
I'll never have those picking skills, but where can I get that haircut and outfit? Damn.
(Jeeziz! Practically gotta buy a new computer to deal with this new Boing Boing site re-design. Can't you guys optimize it or some shit?)
Anyways... Now that there, that's good old-timey music! Yup.
Bought the boy's record straight away. Let's hope some 'sposure affords him a house like it did ol' Zoe Keating.
I could swear this was the guy I saw at the Highland Park Farmer's Market. I noticed him 'cause he sounded like my Smithsonian Harry Smith Collection records, a rarity.
Liking Frank, there is another dude out of Australia that appears to be "stuck in the 20s" CW Stoneking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCbKlIwwuHE&feature=related
Yup, pretty good; unusual three finger/stroke hybrid style.
If you like this, it's odds-on you'll like Clifton Hicks: http://cliftonhicks.com/
The man has classic GQ good looks and sounds like he's singing into a can (both are good things). I'll have to put this in my favorite folder of the month on my ipod, cognitive dissonance, right beside my Black Keys songs.
The set on the left and right are about six feet in front of him, and the background is just so awesome I can't begin to praise this enough! Great focal fun.
i'm speechless...i'm 90% certain i came across him at the Silverlake farmer's market this past summer. he was performing on a fiddle in the sun--80 degree heat in a long sleeve shirt and ancient-looking suit slacks. he was unbelievable. its the voice that brought the memory back immediately.
I'm going to guess that it was shot with a 5DII and a 24-70 2.8.
Mesmerizing.
I've always wanted to play the banjo. Cool instruments.
great stuff! i like the sound of the radio show robin mentions - anyone have a podcast link for that please?
He sounds ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like Mississippi John Hurt. Wrong genre altogether, really.
Just wanted to chime in to say I fully support all the banjo/old-timey music lovin' y'all have been dishin' out lately. Keep it up!
Anyone know where to get a wax cylinder of this? I know disc records are supposed to have higher fidelity, but I prefer the warmer sound of cylinder.
In case you're a eMusic subscriber, just for today (11/28) they are offering his 'Frank Fairfield' album as a free download.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Frank-Fairfield-Frank-Fairfield-MP3-Download/11637463.html