8/6/2019 American Anthem

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/american-anthem 1/1december 2 - december 9, 2010  BIRMINGHAM W EEK

High-Low: Rhode Island folksters The Low Anthem will be at Bottletree on December 5.

Photo by Ryan Mastro.

I have heard sot and beautiul olk songs. Ihave elt the heartache rom a passionate lyric etchtraces o longing over a wistul melody. In act, inrecent years, as the record labels realized they couldsell olk again and began homogenizing the term“indie”, I have heard an awul lot o albums chockull o quiet, beautiul misery. So much so that it all begins to get a bit hard to recall.

At rst blush, The Low Anthem, a group o Americana-minded multi-instrumentalists,may appear to be another o these “indie” bands,harmless and aimless. But don’t be ooled, they are just as capable o pulling o a drunken swaggeringrocker or some psychedelic noise as they are ahaunting hymn-like olk-tune, and they do it withpurpose and style.

I recently had a chance to talk to a ractiono The Low Anthem, in the orm o clarinetist,classical composer and ormer NASA technicianJocie Adams, and she recalled the rst time sheplayed with the other two original members o TheLow Anthem, Ben Knox Miller andJe Prystowsky.

“They asked me to come over and play on thelast track o What The Crow Brings and sing,” saysAdams. “I was too shy, and I also had never sung inpublic beore, or or anyone besides mysel. They  just told me, ‘Hey wanna come over and jam orsomething?’ When I came over, they had six shotso bourbon set out. We all took two shots and then we went into the music room, and there were allthese mics set up, and they were expecting me tosing and play clarinet! But the kicker is that they  wanted me to sing on this thing. I was pretty surethat they had made a mistake, but I think it cameout pretty well. Like, naive, and beautiul

or that.”That willingness to take a risky plunge seems atthe heart o The Low Anthem. They manuacturedWhat The Crow Brings entirely by themselves, evendumpster-diving or empty cereal boxes to usein constructing the album sleeves and paintingand adding serial numbers to the 600 pressings by hand. Their new album, Smart Flesh, which willarrive on February 22, 2011, will be slightly lesshands-on, though The Low Anthem are returningto sel-production ater their only studio release,Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

“Honestly,” says Adams, “I think—between theour o us there was enough dierent ideas anddisagreement about what we should do, and wetry songs so many ways as it is, that I think thathaving another head in there doing the same thing

music feature  s Gog

Rhode Island folk act stands out In the cRowd

American anthem

really wouldn’t be positive. I think in the uture we’ll denitely want to work with a producer, [but]it’s like asking a new person to join your bandor something, it’s just another creative orce that you’re working with and pulling ideas through.I think at this point there’s just so much that we want to do already.”

One o the things they wanted to do was recordtheir new album in an abandoned pasta actory, which was made available by a riend who couldn’tdo anything with it because o the ailing economy.“It was just this big beautiul space with woodfoors and the space was just so huge that when you made a sound and got reverb rom the room,there’s not even any room noise. It’s just reverb, andit’s pretty incredible.”

Considering that Oh My God, Charlie Darwin has 27 instruments on it, The Low Anthem aresure to have lled that reverberating actory foor with an orchestra-sized compliment o instruments. All o the members o The Low Anthem, including the newest member MatDavidson, play many instruments, though Adamsdownplays her abilities.

“I play a lot o things...badly,” she says. “Iplay guitar and bass and a little bit o drums...and I sing. All o these things. An organ, andI just started playing the hammer dulcimer, which I have totally allen in love with. A lot o our instruments have come rom people givingthem to us, and that’s how we have them. Butsome o them, we wanted a certai n sound,and had to gure out what made that sound.So we’d buy some new instru ment because we wanted to make a new sound, mostly orrecording purposes, and then sometimes the new 

instrument wouldn’t make the cut, and it’ll comeon to the traveling circus.”I you’d like to catch a glimpse o that travelling

circus, come out to Bottletree on Sunday,December 5 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $14, $12 inadvance. Local Skybucket Records artist DelicateCutters, who have a new album on the way as well, will be opening.

For more information on The Low Anthem, visit www.lowanthem.com. For more info on Delicate Cutters, visit thedelicatecutters.wordpress.com. For tickets visit www.thebottletree.com.

Sam George is the managing editor of Birmingham Weekly . Please send your comments to editor@bhamweekly.com.