Tag Archives: Stray Birds

Spuyten Duyvil and The Social Music Hour

In late January, I sat in a basement recording studio listening to the playback of Spuyten Duyvil’s third album, The Social Music Hour Vol. 1. Based in New York’s Hudson Valley, this six-piece band is an in-demand regional touring group that has been kicking around clubs and festivals for several years. Now, they’re beginning to push those geographical boundaries.

They are led by songwriting couple Beth Kaufman and Mark Miller on most of the vocals, though Miller also plays tenor guitar and pretty much anything else with multiples of four strings. Rounding out the lineup are Jagoda on percussion, Rik Mercaldi on guitar and lap steel, John Neidhart on bass, and Jim Meigs blowin’ the harp.

That night, as the songs played on, I tried to gather some words in my head to best describe what my toe-tapping feet were feeling. While it exceeds my personal 140-letter-limit for any album review, I’d call it a well-curated collection of traditional tunes that are infused in blues and smoked with folk. Blending both old-time acoustic and modern electric instrumentation with a consistently strong vocal performance from start to finish, it’s an Americana treasure chest.

I recently reached out to Mark and spoke not only about the band and new album, but also of the other work he and Beth do in supporting fellow musicians and the local community.

Easy Ed: What was the genesis of Spuyten Duyvil?

Mark Miller: The band started as a series of front porch old-timey jam sessions here in Yonkers. We’d fire up the BBQ, chill some beer, and invite over friends and neighbors to pick and sing. We were pretty happy with this situation. As I started to write songs, some of the regulars urged us to look for gigs, and one thing just lead to another.

I imagine some of the band members have day jobs and other responsibilities, so how would you characterize your performing opportunities?

We’re a little past the point in our lives where we can give up our apartments for a tour van, so we need to be smart about our routing. Fortunately, we are based in New York and there are literally hundreds of gigs that we can easily get to and from. That said, we are now making regular runs to Chicago and hope to do some touring in Europe this year.

I’d describe you and Beth as “connectors” on the local music scene. You present concerts at various venues, promote artists beyond your own band, and reach out to partner with other organizations such as Common Ground, Caramoor, and Clearwater.

For the last six years, Beth and I have run a monthly concert series called Urban H2O. We book touring high-energy folk, Americana, and indie pop artists. Our shows also explore the intersection between great music and great food and drink, with musical farm-to-table dinners, pig roasts, and artisan cheese tastings. We also smoke and serve our own pastrami and West Coast-style salmon at the shows. Together, this has built a unique and loyal core audience that is able to support great acts that we meet on the road who have not fully established themselves in the New York metro area. These same bands do their best to help us out as we expand our touring range.

What is the concept behind the Social Music Hour?

We have always drawn on traditional music for inspiration in our writing and included a few trad tunes in our live shows. The Social Music Hour Vol. 1 is our love letter to the roots of all American popular music. Our goal was to bring a collection of iconic folk songs to a modern audience and add some oil to the log-burning lamp that is the folk process.

That last track is one of my favorite songs on the new album, and I also wanted to feature it because of the guest vocalist. As Spuyten Duyvil was finishing recording, Mark and Beth’s daughter Dena Miller was asked to take the lead for one last track: “Make Me a Pallet.” A high school senior who is currently nail-biting the college selection boogie, she gets high marks for an exceptional version of this classic.

The Social Music Hour Vol. 1 is available to stream on Spotify, and is for sale at iTunes and Amazon. For more information about the band and upcoming shows, check out their website: http://www.spuytenduyvilmusic.com

I’m closing down this week’s Broadside with a video I can’t seem to watch often enough. It was shot at the Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan during the summer of 2012, with Spuyten Duyvil and The Stray Birds.

And this is why I love music.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com.

 

 

Americana and Roots Music Videos: Winter 2015

Pixabay License 

Surfing in the digital stream and scouring YouTube for new music, old tunes and whatever I can find of interest. Here’s a few things that caught my eyes and ears this season.

I’d like to kick it off with the trailer for The Winding Stream, a great film first presented at SXSW. Subtitled ‘The Carters, The Cashes and The Course of Country Music’. Catch it if you can.

Jordie Lane and The Stray Birds

Two of my favorite artists, Jordie Lane from Australia and the US string band trio Stray Birds have recently come together and performed ‘Black Diamond’ for the Folk Alley Sessions. Both acts will have their own showcases in KC.

John Moreland

Before I leave this planet, I will one day see the great Oklahoma folksinger John Moreland. Performing since the early 2000’s, he came out of the punk and hardcore scene while in high school, and over the years he has matured into a great songwriter and captivating artist.

I Draw Slow

This bluegrass band made it on my list of favorite bands from last year, and this clip from last summer is why.

Dom Flemons

This seems to be the year that folks that formed the Carolina Chocolate Drops are stepping out on their own and breaking through to a wider audience.

The HillBenders

The HillBenders have announced that their new album will be a complete bluegrass tribute to the The Who’s Tommy album. This is a teaser they just posted.

Ian and Sylvia 1986

Americana and Roots Music Videos: December 2014

Pixabay License

I was reminded this morning as I went out to shop at our local market that the year is winding down. How did I know? Because there was a lonely trombonist standing outside the door playing a dirge-like version of “O Come All Ye Faithful” in one/one time, and he managed to hit every single note about a half-tone flat. It made me want to write a check for a thousand dollars and drop it into the red kettle just to get him to stop.

The second thought I had was a reminder to myself…it is damn hard to make good music. I’ve not seen the stats from the past year but if they’re close to the year before, musicians have released about 120,000 albums….or about a million new songs. Only about a thousand albums will be heard (via stream or purchase) more than a thousand times, and with the exception of Taylor Swift and a handful of others who will get a couple million of listens, the rest will likely be distributed to friends and families and house concert attendes…making for a wonderful memory in a couple of decades.

I am not your everyday music consumer, and don’t pretend to be. I’ll rarely write a review, tend to wiggle-waggle back and forth between seeking out something new, or spending months pursuing 78s of long forgotten string bands or jazz bands that came and went in a blink of an eye. One night every two weeks I’ll Spotify a couple dozen new releases, maybe hop on over to You Tube, purchase and download something of interest or more likely than not, just go to sleep.

And so it is against that backdrop that I offer up my before-the-end-of-the-year fast and easy look at what albums caught my ears this year. There is no numerical list, no ranking, no convoluted point system nor any claim that this is any way or shape definitive. In fact, before I’ve even finished posting a track or video  from each of the albums that struck something special inside me, I’m sure I’ll realize that I’ve forgotten one, or two, or three.

I’m going to kick it off with a duo from Traverse City Michigan who are getting ready to blow up in a huge way judging from a recent sighting I had of them opening for Del and Dawg. Billy Strings is only in his early twenties, and Don Julin is in his fifties. And we’re off…

Rosanne Cash’s album came out last January, and lets hope that is isn’t lost or forgotten to the real-deal reviewers’ lists. Here she is with her husband doing a ‘one mic, one take’ at the Capitol Record’s studio.

I know very little about the album that came out earlier in the year from the Abramson Singers, and this video was shot in 2013;  but the song was on the disc and is one of my favorites.

A string band trio whom I’ve seen a few times now, that also are beginning to break big on the touring circuit. I love the Stray Birds.

We shared a bucket of naked chicken wings a few weeks ago and talked about Gene Autry. I’ve seen John perform five times in the last six months, and have taken to calling him (although not to his face) Billy Joel Elton John Fullbright. He is the New Piano Man.

Best blues album hands down from two brothers that used to be in a band called the Blasters. If you get a chance to see them live, they’ve got some great stories about growing up in Downey California and cruising over to Whittier Boulevard to hang with some of the old masters.

Somebody told me that this new double album from Lucinda somehow didn’t make the American Songwriter end of the year list. Really? This album is so rich and deep with amazing lyrics and music that I gotta put on one of those rubber overalls that fly fisherman wear just to listen to it.

In all candor, I have no idea who this next band is. But I sure liked their album. I Draw Slow. Like me. I Move Slow.

And finally, if either Scientology scared you off or you have some notion that Beck isn’t one of the best artists making music today, think again. “Morning Phase” is…get ready…I never admit to things like this…my favorite album of the year. And I’ve chosen the least Americana/roots song to share with you. Trust me…go listen to the whole enchilada.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com.