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:
“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.”
Buy his music: His self-titled album Frank Fairfield, and the EP I’ve Always Been a Rambler (Amazon MP3s).
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.