Genre

Acoustic / Folk, Blues, Country / Western, Other

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Hillfolk Noir

Filtered through a half-century of folk, country and rock ‘n’ roll, and fed by family history and an affinity for acoustic mountain music, medicine show culture and Depression-era string-band blues, Hillfolk Noir’s peculiar roots gumbo is, like the carnival midway, at once inviting and foreboding. Look no further than 2008’s ”Diggin’ Songs” — a concept album of toe-tapping songs about grave matters — for proof. Hillfolk Noir’s contribution to this century-old language has been described as a dark, country-tinged, swampy-swingin’, hillbilly-delta-blues-ragtime word machine. Acoustic death-folk works, too. Or Junkerdash, the band’s invented name for its singular sound.

Travis and Ali Ward, the husband-and-wife half of Hillfolk Noir’s touring quartet (also featuring Mike Waite (El Dopamine, Lowbelly) and Jared Goodpastor (Boise Rock School)), grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, a panhandle county seat near the Canadian border where ghostly echoes of the region’s settlers reverberate off the walls of the valley. “We make the music for ourselves because we love it; we are having a great time and hopefully that is infectious,” Travis says. “Music, especially live music, can be such a powerful experience for all kinds of people. Live music is a shared experience – a series of moments that can really change a person’s day or outlook. That being said, our music seems to strike an emotional chord with many people – perhaps because to pull off this really acoustic old-time sound, we sing and play our guts out. Every song.”

Hillfolk Noir has recently (Dec, 2010) released two new records — both on-location field recordings ”Live at the Old Idaho Penitentiary” is a multi-track recording of an eight-piece band performing live in an old prison block at the historical Old Idaho Penitentiary. ”Skinny Mammy’s Revenge” is a series of recordings made in living rooms and cabins. All of the songs were recorded around a single microphone to analog tape. Other notable projects include the aforementioned ”Diggin’ Songs,” the score to a film (”Ibid”) by Frozen River director/Oscar nominee Heather Rae and Russell Friedenberg, and a monthly DVD video subscription project with the Trey McIntyre Project contemporary dance troupe. This project will be released as a combined CD/DVD by the end of 2011. Hillfolk Noir is also nearing completion of a new record, release details still to come. Hillfolk Noir has performed with James McMurtry, Built to Spill, Bonn ie “Prince” Billy, The Devil Makes Three, Yard Dog Road Show, The Caleb Klauder Band, Gerald Collier, Heroes and Villains, Train, Jesse Dayton, the Dusty 45s, Neva Dinova, Neko Case, Justin Townes Earle, Deer Tick, Gourds, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band and tons of other great acts that you may or may not have heard of.