It must have been one of those Bandcamp recommendations… Because I have zero recollection of ever hearing or reading about the folk duo from the Northwestern corner of the US before I found myself pressing play on Flow, their brand new release, the third album in their discography.
When you don’t really know what’s coming, it’s always a joy times two when you’re happily surprised – and with this one, I definitively was that, y’ all.
So why do I think Flow may be one of the top folk releases this year (and it’s only March)? Quite a few reasons!
Both parties in the Countercurrent duo – Alex Sturbaum (guitars, electric guitar, bouzouki, button accordion, bass, bodhran, vocals) and Brian Lindsay (fiddles, mandolin, electric mandolin, tenor and 5-string banjo, synths, feet, percussion, vocals) – are truly excellent and also versatile musicians, as their toolkits testify. The playing is relaxed and vivid, truly enjoyable all the way.
And no wonder: their web site tells us that “Alex was born into a musical household, they soon fell in love with the jigs and reels of Irish and Scottish music, the sea songs of the Canadian maritimes, the fiddle tunes and ballads of Appalachia, and more”, and that “Brian spent much of his youth going to sessions in the NY area and studying with respected Irish fiddle player Brian Conway. An accomplished performer and Mid-Atlantic Irish Fiddle champion by the age of 17, Brian has also finds the influences of many other musical styles and traditions make their way into his playing.” Well okay then… whew.
Most probably due to their varied influences and talents, Flow lays out a very nice spectrum of acoustic music that’s, for the most part, neither clearly North American nor Celtic/British but something very nice and natural in between. I guess “Transatlantic” will do for a tag here, but with the emphatically added point that they have a sound of their own and nothing feels like recycling stuff.
Most of the 15 tunes are originals and prove their ability as songwriters, and Nancy Kerr’s I Am The Fox gets a very, very treatment here. Its socially critical stance is continued in Alex’s Six Workers, stylistically a biting old school union song but written in our own time and events, as it comments on the tragedy in an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, 2021.
That song is the one serious – but fierce – moment on Flow, an album of music so inviting and bright (the first track is even called Brighter), it energizes the listener in this time of constant stream of very bad news and events seemingly everywhere. My favorite tracks are the constantly moving Basketball, the already mentioned I Am The Fox, the irresistable country swing of Curiouser, and Ursa Minor, the one prog folk tune here, with its really odd but swingin’ time signatures, or are they polyrhytms? Very proggy anyway!
I really, really enjoy Flow and think it’s just perfect springtime music, too. Also, take heed of the listening instructions: “This album is a cohesive moment of our original tunes and musical ideas; we encourage you to listen to it in its entirety, uninterrupted.” Hear hear!
All my best wishes from Finland to Alex and Brian – keep the current counter and keep proving to the world that very good things can come from the US, even now 🙂
FolkNotes 