Friends, we are super excited that our new CD has now been released on David Bragger’s venerable Old-Time Tiki Parlour label!!! We are really proud of this one and hope you like it. Here’s part of what David wrote about the album for FolkWorks:
“For their fourth release, Hog-eyed Man—Old World Music of the Southern Appalachians, they outdid themselves again. The ambience and beauty of Cade and McMaken’s duo magic is colored and accented by the playing of four guest musicians. Tom Baker plays fingerpicked and clawhammer banjo and the rock-solid rhythm section of Nancy and Charlie Hartness (also on the Skeleton Keys release) are on guitar and ukulele. Legendary singer, folklorist, artist, banjoist and Grammy winner Art Rosenbaum also makes a memorable guest appearance on a few tracks.
In a visual collaboration with Howard Rains, the CD package and booklet showcase a curious collection of primitive imagery juxtaposed with the alchemical-looking diagram of the Blumlein stereo recording technique. This technique was used to record the album.
Recorded entirely live around two ribbon microphones, this album transports the listener to an intimate kitchen session, where the musicians comfortably settle in on twenty lesser-known gems mined from deep Appalachia. Drawing primarily on the archaic fiddling traditions of Eastern Kentucky and Western North Carolina, the nuanced and powerful performances essentially re-envision southern old-time tunes as if radio, the folk revival, and bluegrass never happened but the music instead continued to organically develop along some alternate path. Many of the tunes on the album tap connections to the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and England, while other pieces are associated with Native American fiddlers and history.
Throughout, Jason and Rob manage to let their own voices emerge as authentic interpreters of the tradition while remaining true to the wild, lyrical, and unvarnished aesthetics of the source fiddlers who they revere. The result is a captivating album of deep-vein Americana—gritty, emotionally rich, and timeless. The vivid recording quality combines with the thoughtfully interwoven strands of almost-lost musical sensibilities to give Old World Music of the Southern Appalachians a rustic-yet-refined sound like no other. This album is destined to become a classic!”
The CD is available online from the Old Time Tiki Parlour Shop as of Nov. 2, and will be in stores and a wide range of digital platforms by the beginning of December.
