Relatively Faithful Outdated Music Review: The Cave Singers "Invitation Songs"
I really wasn't intending to post today, but I'm sitting and listening to the aforementioned album for about the fifth time today, and I figure it's due a few words. "Invitation Songs" was released about a year ago, but I picked it up at the library this week.
I've heard other people say that The Cave Singers have a 'Tennessee front porch' vibe, but I'm sure that's much to the chagrin of people who are actually sitting on front porches across Tennessee. If I remember correctly, these days people don't generally play music like this in Appalachia, and real country-folk probably would look at Seattle musicians making this kind of music in much the same way as African-Americans looked at Vanilla Ice back in his rap days.
That's a shame though, because this is really beautiful stuff, in the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" vein of American folk music with a distinctively dancin' depressed/black-clothed indie rocker/Seattle feel. As an ex-Kentuckian, I feel like I should be defensive about this kind of stuff, but this is my favorite 'new' album in quite some time. They're writing again, and should be releasing another record in the relatively near future (?) I'm just glad someone's making this kind of music.
For a fun fact, The Cave Singers are actually a part of a surprisingly vibrant old-timey folk scene in Seattle. Kevin Barrans is another assumedly smelly bearded dude who makes great music in this faux-Appalachian vein, and Baby Gramps is the old-timeyest. Part of this I attribute to the Pike Place Market scene, which is keeping American busking alive, and I would include my personal favorite Tommy Dean as part of a similar musical trend. Another part of it I would attribute to Seattle having an awesome music scene across the board. Finally, I would attribute the rest to my own influence.
The Cave Singers released this video while I was still working at Bottletown. It's a good song, and the whole album keeps up with it.
I've heard other people say that The Cave Singers have a 'Tennessee front porch' vibe, but I'm sure that's much to the chagrin of people who are actually sitting on front porches across Tennessee. If I remember correctly, these days people don't generally play music like this in Appalachia, and real country-folk probably would look at Seattle musicians making this kind of music in much the same way as African-Americans looked at Vanilla Ice back in his rap days.
That's a shame though, because this is really beautiful stuff, in the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" vein of American folk music with a distinctively dancin' depressed/black-clothed indie rocker/Seattle feel. As an ex-Kentuckian, I feel like I should be defensive about this kind of stuff, but this is my favorite 'new' album in quite some time. They're writing again, and should be releasing another record in the relatively near future (?) I'm just glad someone's making this kind of music.
For a fun fact, The Cave Singers are actually a part of a surprisingly vibrant old-timey folk scene in Seattle. Kevin Barrans is another assumedly smelly bearded dude who makes great music in this faux-Appalachian vein, and Baby Gramps is the old-timeyest. Part of this I attribute to the Pike Place Market scene, which is keeping American busking alive, and I would include my personal favorite Tommy Dean as part of a similar musical trend. Another part of it I would attribute to Seattle having an awesome music scene across the board. Finally, I would attribute the rest to my own influence.
The Cave Singers released this video while I was still working at Bottletown. It's a good song, and the whole album keeps up with it.
Comments
Fleet Foxes just came to Bham yesterday, so Seattlites make a few waves down here. They played a respectable, albeit small venue, which I declined to attend.
Point being, I like this video and it's Sand Mountain feel. It reminded me of the old vids of snake handling churches I found on youtube.