(photos E. Smith)
On today’s show I speak with Frank Fairfield. I was knocked out by his new album on the Tompkins Square label and was glad to finally catch up with Frank at his home in Los Angeles, CA when I was out there back in January. Frank plays banjo, fiddle and guitar in an old time style and is a really great singer. We talk about his music and his ideas about music in general, Frank plays some tunes live on the show and also plays several favorite 78rpm records from his own collection. Frank Fairfield has a rare gift for interpreting what he calls “the American repertoire.” He gives the music an authentic presence that is very exciting. Frank has embodied the music he plays. Although his repertoire is from a different landscape then we see around us today he has found a way inside and expresses it with emotional depth and energy that is very enjoyable to see live as well as listen to on the record.
Frank plays at Tommy’s Loft in downtown LA.
Great interview! Really great perspectives on this recent perception of a surge in this kind of music.
Great interview. Fairfield sounds like he’s stuck on the Harry Smith anthology. Very insightful as well. Thanks.
What a brilliant show. Truly enjoyed every minute. Really looking forward to this project Frank has going with Tompkins Square. I bet some of the releases they come up with are going to be mind blowing.
Much love from the UK.
Craig.
That was a really great show – as well as being an amazing performer I think he had some unique insight on the music. Remarkable.
J.
I think Charley Patton, Skip James, Roscoe Holcomb, Fiddlin’ John, The Carter Family, etc., all ate food out of cans and would not have been recorded for our listening pleasures if not for the industrial revolution. I can empathize with your distaste for the idea that “things changed very quickly recently” and for how, but this nostalgia for some sort of self-idealized past seems silly, as do your after-the-fact opinions about reconstruction era politics. One can hear by your nervous giggle that you suspect so, but I guess your thirst for the limelight by trying to seem more knowledgeable than “the people” that live today supersedes any desire to sing about your own culture (or lack thereof, and in your own dialect). Haha, “Appal-A-chan”. But, in your defense, I guess you are respectively a product and creator of the era (or immediate past and future) no matter what you do, and “the people” have dressed much better in the past. Sounds good. Also, unfortunately there is a popular music nowadays. Just because it’s been shoved down people’s throats does not mean it isn’t popular.
Sincerely,
The Devil’s Advocate