You Probably Haven’t Heard Volume 3

I’m forcing myself to do a homework assignment today, add ten more acts to my You Probably Haven’t Heard List. I love to write about music and I love to make lists, but somehow it takes an effort to do this. I was happy to discover that I made things somewhat easier for myself by making a list of artists to add as I went along for a while. Too bad I didn’t continue with that. I have to start again. When I see an artist that belongs just add them to the list of bands to write about. If I were really good I’d right the blurb then. It’s much easier to write about musicians that I had just heard. I am dropping two acts from my list as I had only seen them once and now can’t remember what I loved, just that I loved them.

I gave myself this assignment because I stayed in last night and don’t have much to write about. I was supposed to see Joshua Garcia but between a bad night’s sleep and threats of a snowstorm I stayed home. The meteorologists got the temperature wrong by a few degrees, the snow became rain. The venue was right near the subway. I should have gone. On the bright side this left me time to make a proper dinner and eat it without rushing. There’s a lot to be said for sitting home, watching Netflix, and sipping hot chocolate. There is not a lot to write about.

Now I’m going to put on my blurb writing hat. Hey, think I could get paid to write blurbs and press releases? That would be very nice. Enough putting it off, here are ten musical acts that you probably haven’t heard but need to know. This is required reading for people booking concert series and festivals. Three is no disputing tastes, what I love is objectively good, everyone else is wrong The order is alphabetical as otherwise I’d spend 29 hours trying to figure out the “right” order.

• B: I’ve known B for six years but their music has undergone such a transformation that they count as a new discovery. B has gone from being virtuoso mandolin player to be a brilliant and unique songwriter. How did an 18-year-old acquire such depth? The songs are deeply personal without being self-involved. One mark of great songwriting is making the personal, universal. Your issues are not the same as B’s but you’ll recognize the feelings they generate. The musical virtuosity did not disappear, the playing is often not as showy, so as to put the lyrics in the foreground, but the quality is still exceptional. B’s voice is beautiful but more importantly the singing comes straight from the soul.
• Barnaby Bright: I feel like I’ve always known Barnaby Bright, but it has only been eight years. They were the first band I discovered at my first NERFA, 2010. Though their music is not similar, I always think of them as the Kennedys the next generation. Becky and Nathan Bliss are a married couple. He is a brilliant instrumentalist, originally on saxophone but now guitar, and Becky sings like an angel, a spooky angel. Though they are upbeat and cheerful their music often, but not always, has a haunted feel. Becky plays guitar, keyboard, harmonium, and kalimba. The last two give the music a non-western tone. They are simultaneously accessible and exotic.
• Emerald Rae: I first saw Emerald in July but she has rapidly become part of my world. Since then she’s played Budgiedome and John Platt’s On Your Radar. She has not yet played any of the coffeehouses or house concerts hosted by my friends. I’m writing this in the hopes that won’t be true in a year. Her background is in Celtic Fiddling but moved into the singer/songwriter sphere. Nobody can sing and simultaneously fiddle as well as her. She can sing, she can play, she can entertain, she hits all the marks. Nobody wins me over by sending me an unsolicited recording, but she did. Emerald went from 0 to favorite in 5 seconds.
• Emily Elbert: Emily played Budgiedome as an 18-year-old folky girl with an acoustic guitar. She was not just another sensitive chick with guitar. If she remained that way she’d still make this list. But she didn’t, she became a jazz dynamo on electric guitar. In a perfect world she’d have the money to tour with a band. I’m lucky, she can usually find a band in New York so can play the songs as she hears them in her head. It’s jazz, with rock energy, and folk lyrics.
• Eric Lee: Like many people I discovered Eric as the brilliant violinist in the Strangelings. He is a part of the Falcon Ridge House band. He’s a master of many styles and can pick up a fiddle and join with anyone. He could have a great career as a sideman, but wanted more. Living in the folk milieu, surrounded by people like the Kennedys and Tracy Grammer he wanted to write. He has always written but now it’s coming to the fore. It’s difficult to sing and play violin at the same time, at least if you’re not Emerald Rae, and picked up the guitar. He became a virtuoso on six strings in addition to four. And he can write. Not just one style, but many, he can be poetic like Dave Carter, folk anthemic like Pete Seeger, and quirky weird like, well, Eric Lee. In the last year he’s taken it to a new level. If you have not seen him then, then you don’t know what he has to offer.
• Heather Pierson: Where had Heather been hiding all my life? Good thing she did a gig with Carolann Solebello and I discovered her glory. She’s a wide-ranging genre defying artist. She plays banjo and guitar, and solo or with a trio, but I always think of her home as at the piano, and of course the queen of instruments, the melodica. She can go trad, she can go jazz, and she can go blues. She can sound like someone from the Appalachians, which she technically is, the part in New Hampshire, or Nawlins. She has both dynamism and musicianship. You’ll love her.
• Joshua Garcia: If you follow the link you’ll find that Joshua aka Jr doesn’t have a webpage. He doesn’t have an album. What he has in an outsized talent. He’s not a good, but a great songwriter. His songs are good enough that he could get by with merely functional guitar playing but it’s not. It’s excellent. And the man can sing. He might write like Dylan but his voice is beautiful, and like Dylan the singing comes from the heart. When he makes that album. Watch out. It’s going to make waves.
• Kaia Kater: Kaia is another artist that transformed. I met her as a 21-year-old old-type banjo player that did seated foot percussion. She’s a Canadian that went to West Virginia to study the music. Now she sings soulful songs that you might expect from Nina Simone. She still usually plays banjo and can still play banjo and in a longer set than I recently saw might bring back the old-time. She blew me away on the old-time and blows me away on the ballads. Is there anything she can’t do? What’s next opera? Rock? Whatever she chooses she can do it.
• Steph Jenkins: I met Steph as a member of the old-time band, The Calamity Janes. She’s someone that I would often see as part of the Brooklyn music scene, as often in the audience as on the stage. She too got the songwriting bug and made an EP, End to End. It was brilliant. She’s another polymath, she can play, sing, write, and in real life is a documentary producer who works with Ken Burns? How do I not hate her? Oh right, she’s also a delightful person.
• TAARKA: TAARKA is the married duo of Enion and David Pelter-Tiller. I’d like to think that if you saw TAARKA without hearing about them you’d think, “Gordon would love them.” They are a band designed with me in mind. They don’t do just one thing, They do progressive folk, gypsy jazz, string band, and whatever else they want to. The are bursting with creativity. You know why you go to see TAARKA as you won’t hear what they play anywhere else. They are artists, not craftsmen. They have a connection with another artist on the list, Enion taught B fiddle when B was 11.

As I wrote these blurbs I saw the common thread of transformation, B, Emily, Eric, Emerald, Kaia, and Steph have all changed genres. Heather and TAARKA play multiple genres within a show. When people think “folk music” or the music that I like, they think of a solo artist on acoustic guitar. The only one on this list that describes is Joshua. Any of these artists, including Joshua, will be a change from the usual fare at coffeehouses and house concerts.

This took me most of the afternoon to write. I bet many of you will be surprised what I’m going to watch on Netflix after this is posted, The Punisher. I love that stuff.