The group has undergone an interesting metamorphosis this past 8 years. They first emerged as a band of rebel, neo-traditionalists in the bluegrass world, taking the IMBA’s Emerging Artist Of The Year award in 2004. Their next album in 2007 took an entirely new direction – more Byrds-inflected folk/rock than anything Bill Monroe ever recorded.
Now their sound is more reflective of the jam band scene, where they combine high energy old time music with jug-bandy originals, using a wide variety of instruments on stage.
These two videos offer a look at how they have morphed. First, a show at Telluride in their bluegrass clothes from the mid-2000s.
And a compilation from several live shows during 2009.
The more things change, no wait… that’s not it.
One full track from the Live EP is available for online listening on the band’s web site.
King Wilkie is asking fans to submit artwork, songs, poems, videos… anything they might be inspired to create based on the characters featured on their upcoming CD, King Wilkie Presents: The Wilkie Family Singers. They ask that the various fan submissions be either about or from the point of view of the family members portrayed in the music.
Audio for all 12 tracks can be heard on MySpace, where you can also find pages for each of the characters in the fictional Wilkie Family. Submissions can be sent via email.
You can read more about the new CD in our interview with Reid Burgess from earlier this month. It is scheduled to hit on April 28 from Casa Nueva Records.
Not long ago, we posted about the launch of a new record label, Casa Nueva, headed up by former Rounder Records product manager Brad San Martin. At that time, Brad told us that his first release on the new label would be King Wilkie’s next project, King Wilkie Presents: The Wilkie Family Singers.
We had a chance recently to chat with Reid Burgess, a founding member of the group, about the new CD, and the direction the band has taken since they took the bluegrass world by storm back in 2004. That was the year their debut record, Broke, hit on Rebel and they won the Emerging Artist award from IBMA.
Their appeal came from the mix of a very traditional sound, and the stage appeal of fresh-faced, sharp-dressed, personable young men. They worked the bluegrass festival circuit hard for the next two years, and then decided to reinvent themselves as a rootsy, Byrds-inflected studio band, resulting in the 2007 release of Low Country Suite on Zoe Records, a Rounder imprint.
Reid picks up the story at that point…
“A lot has changed since then. Around the time of the last release we started work on a few new songs. We knew that a couple of guys were going to be leaving the band to do their own things, so it came down to primarily John McDonald, Steve Lewis, and myself working on the new material. We were dealing with a drastic change and a different approach to working. John eventually moved out to Oregon part-way through the process and I moved to New York to work closer with Steve. We actually all got together a couple times in Virginia at the old schoolhouse to flesh out some music, but a lot of the creative work was actually done remotely, via the internet.”
The change is their sound is quite striking, sometimes showing the influence of their bluegrass days, but more often drawing of folk and acoustic pop elements in their original songs.
Burgess explained a bit about the new CD, and how he might describe their sound these days.
“This album goes in quite a few directions, but has at its core handmade American music. When we tour its going to be all acoustic with our normal bluegrass instruments. On the record, the band still has retained its idea of making dusty folk songs, even if the tradition sways a bit sometimes. Essentially, its still a string band.
King Wilkie Presents: The Wilkie Family Singers is set against backdrop of the fictitious Wilkie Family, a household containing six Wilkie children, their father and mother, a pair of housepets, some family friends, and the family therapist. There is no plot or dialog or storyline. Its just an imaginary context acting as a setting for the music. I had in mind doing something that would be about a family of musical people, and about their odd development as a family, and about the ridiculous idea of band members living in a house. That’s something we did when we were 22. and now, obviously we’re nothing like that. but you still wish you could be.
The songs all work on their own pretty well. But I know that there’s more to the story, and that’s what helped to write the songs. They could be coming from the point of view of any of the characters, which is the main reason we brought in guests like Peter Rowan, Robyn Hitchcock, and David Bromberg.
I should say I was very impressed with Bromberg – he’s exciting to just observe. He really wants to ask lots of questions and hear lots of feedback, and try all kinds of different things. Whereas Peter Rowan doesn’t want to talk about anything if he can avoid it. He’d rather not be directed at all, which is also great because he’s so spontaneous and mystical about everything. So there are different good aspects with everybody.”
Burgess and Lewis produced the project, and recorded the bulk of the tracks in Reid’s home studio in New York City.
“That was intentional, because we wanted it to sound like it was in a house. When we did sessions with David Bromberg and some of the other guests, we took the tapes into some local recording studios. A few of the sessions took place in Nashville, such as when we recorded with Abigail Washburn. Actually there were pieces of the album done in Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, England and New York. These pieces were quilted together, mostly in my apartment.”
King Wilkie Presents: The Wilkie Family Singers is scheduled for an April 28 release on Casa Nueva. Pre-orders are being accepted online, with a free limited-edition poster offered for all orders placed before the release date.
You can download a track from the CD, Hey Old Man, online by following this link. Just type in your email and the promo code WILKIE to get the download.
Here’s taste of the song to get a feel for their current sound…
Hey Old Man – Listen now: [http://media.libsyn.com/media/thegrasscast/hey_old_man.mp3]
A new record label has been launched in the greater Boston area, in the shadow of Rounder Records, one of the most successful independent record companies in the US.
Casa Nueva is located in Watertown, MA, and headed by Brad San Martin, former product manager for bluegrass releases at Rounder. Brad worked as Director of Publicity at Compass Records before his time at Rounder, and has freelanced as a music writer since his graduation from the Berklee College of Music in 1999.
Their first project will be from King Wilkie, The Wilkie Family Singers, which is scheduled for release on April 28.
We chatted recently with Brad about his new venture, and the upcoming King Wilkie CD.
“I had been toying with the idea of starting a label for a year or so, but when King Wilkie approached me about collaborating on this release, that kick-started the effort.
This may be a terrible time to start a business, but, frankly, this record is too good — too heartfelt, innovative, and moving — to just languish. So I’m putting my money where my mouth is and trying to get this to the world.”
Brad tells us that Casanueva was his maternal grandfather’s last name, and that he chose it to identify his new company feeling that the words themselves implied the sense of renewel and reawakening appropriate for this new direction in his life. The Wilkie Family Singers – aboutwhich we will have more later this week – is the only project he is currently working. He says that others will be forthcoming, and that this first album encapsulizes what Casa Nueva is likely to become.
“King Wilkie’s Reid Burgess and I are in the same boat in a lot of ways. We’re both relatively young and very much in love with bluegrass, and yet we’re also inspired by a lot of other styles, sounds, and ideas. That makes this album the perfect first release for Casa Nueva — it has hard-won roots in classic American string band music, but also looks out over new vistas.
I’m a huge music fan, and I listen to pretty much every style out there with varying degrees of interest. So I’m not limiting Casa Nueva to any one genre. I will say that I’m inclined to not pursue much straight-up traditional bluegrass. It’s a kind of music that’s very important to me and that I love quite a lot, but I feel there are other labels that are better positioned for success in that field.
But who knows — there may be one act that has fallen through the cracks that I just can’t resist.”
A track from King Wilkie’s latest CD, Low Country Suite, has been selected as the Discovery Download in iTunes for this week. Any iTunes subscriber can get the track (Wrecking Ball) at no charge starting tomorrow (8/21) through next Monday (8/27).
This is part of iTunes’ weekly New Music Tuesday, where they highlight new recordings deemed worthy of mention, with one or two free tracks available each week, based on a rotating schedule by genre.
You will see a link for the Discovery Download on the front page of the iTunes Music Store – look for the FREE ON iTUNES link near the bottom of the page. It will also be available from the front page of the Country genre section of iTunes.
Speaking of King Wilkie…
We posted back in June when their video on the making of Low Country Suite was available at Amazon.com. That video is no longer up at Amazon, but we found it on YouTube.
UPDATE 8/21:The direct link to the King Wilkie Discovery Download in iTunes is here. You must have an Apple or AOL iTunes account (free), and be logged in to download this free track. The link is good through 8/27/07.
Here are three interviews we found this past few days in local newspapers’ coverage of upcoming entertainment events.
First up is King Wilkie, whose Reid Burgess was interviewed in The Dallas Morning News on July 23. He spoke with Mario Tarradell about the band’s decision to break with their traditional bluegrass sound for a more melancholy pop approach.
“I don’t think anybody wanted to go back in the studio and make the same bluegrass record,” Mr. Burgess, 27, says by phone from Richmond, Va. “Over the course of about five years we did every arrangement of a bluegrass song that we could possibly think of. I’m not the same person I was then. It would make sense to not do the same type of songs. We were steering ourselves in that direction. We were writing songs that sounded this way. We didn’t want to do the same thing again. It was starting to sound forced.”
The Vail Daily ran an interview with John Cowan on 7/23. John spoke with Ted Alvarez about his current CD, New Tattoo, and also about his days performing with Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Pat Flynn as Newgrass Revival. He suggests that he is enjoying returning to that Newgrass vibe with his road band.
"This incarnation of my band is the first time since New Grass that I’ve felt we could get back to that special place and make magic happen," he said. "For me it’s coming back to something I know really well ‚Äî It’s been a coming home of sorts. We’ve had this line-up of the band for over a year now and the response from the crowds has been overwhelming."
On July 27, the Cabot Star-Herald in Cabot, AR carried an interview with Larry Sparks. The piece is primarily about the new Sparks release, The Last Suit You Wear, but touches on Larry’s long career in bluegrass along the way. At one point, writer Charles Haymes brings up how much bluegrass has changed over the years, with pop and country influences being absorbed into the sound.
However, Sparks has stood as tall as a redwood tree, remaining unchanged and loyal to the genre.
“I’m exactly where I belong,” Sparks acknowledged. “I love bluegrass music. I’ve always felt that bluegrass music needed me and I know that I’ve needed it. I think we’re a good match for each other. “
King Wilkie and Rounder/Zoe have utilized online resources to push digital downloads of their latest CD, Low Country Suite, and to promote their summer dates.
At Rhapsody.com, they are offering an alternate version of the song Rockabye, (Farewell Lonesome Dove) in addition to the version on the CD, exclusively for Rhapsody users.
Over at the iTunes Music Store, downloaders get a bonus track, Boy From Richmond, when they purchase the full album in iTunes.
JamBase.com is also involved, giving away a copy of the CD, and tickets to a half dozen King Wilkie shows from their web site.
BMP has as its focus, the people who play, write, and produce the music, along with those who build and maintain the instruments on which it is played. They focus on the personalities, and seek to help fans get to know the people who make the music happen.
This summer issue also contains an interview with Reid Burgess of King Wilkie, where he speaks candidly about the band’s decision to move away from the traditional bluegrass format that brought them to early success. They were so enamored of Bill Monroe, that they chose the name of one of Bill Monroe’s horses as the moniker for the band.
“King Wilkie initially tried to fit the mold of Bill Monroe’s brand of bluegrass. To me, Bill Monroe is bluegrass and unfortunately he’s not still here to do it better than everybody else. I guess we eventually realized – like many people do – that we’re not Bill Monroe and never will be.”
Publisher Kevin Kerfoot shared a few other tidbits found in the new issue:
Other features include a Q&A with Doyle Lawson, Shop Talk with Tony Trischka, a DJ Profile on Main Street Bluegrass Show’s Ward McAfee, David Peterson’s Bluegrass Favorites, a Q&A with Bluegrass Boy #37 Frank Buchanan, an Instrument Profile on Gibson’s Ricky Skaggs Limited Edition Distressed Master Model Mandolin, a feature remembering Grand Ole Opry Fiddler Casey Jones – which includes an interview with his daughter Marilyn Boyd, a feature about the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s Video Oral History Project, a Promoter Profile on Carolyn and Johnny Vincent, and a Songwriting Profile on Larry Cordle. You’ll also find BMP’s Bluegrass Mailbag, Anything Bluegrass News, Top 20 Hot Singles and Top 10 Bluegrass CDs, Festivals, Grassifieds, Web Sightings, Bluegrass Store, and Fresh For The Pickin’ CD reviews.
King Wilkie has a “what I did on my summer vacation” video posted at Amazon.com, which offers a behind the scenes look at the recording of their newly-released CD, Low Country Suite. It covers to some degree how the IBMA’s Emerging Artist of the Year for 2004 went from a hip, young bluegrass act to an eclectic, grass/folk/rock amalgam in just three years time.
It’s an interesting story, where we see a successful touring band make the decision to come off the road, work day jobs outside of music, but remain together and active artistically – writing, arranging and planning for a chrysalis-like return.
See the six and a half minute video on Amazon, where you can also pick up the new CD.
UPDATE 8/21: Amazon is no longer hosting that video, but we have it posted here on Bluegrass Today.
Rounder Records has just uploaded audio samples for two new projects set for a June release.
Ron Block’s Doorway will hit on June 19. This is not really a bluegrass recording, but should be of interest to the many admirers of Ron’s musicianship and songwriting abilities.
Also previewed online is Low Country Suite from King Wilkie. Also on the fringes of bluegrass music, this young band (named for Bill Monroe’s equine companion), is “developing an idiocratic new sound – a dramatic push into uncharted sonic terrain” as per Rounder’s description.
Samples for each of the 11 tracks are up at rounder.com, and the band has four complete tracks for online listening on their MySpace page as well.
