His First Album in Twelve Years
His Lead Single + Title Track Conjures Imminent Catastrophe, Out Today
For fans who saw A Complete Unknown and think the great American folk music revival vanished when Dylan plugged in at Newport in 1965, we bring good news. The folk revival (or “folk scare,” as Dave Van Ronk called it) is alive and well in its home city of New York, and its musical maestro is Feral Foster. The folk and blues maven, whom the Village Voice named “Best Folk Artist” and whose music New York magazine labeled “expertly rendered traditional blues,” could have headed the Gaslight Cafe or the early, classic Newport Folk Fests, acoustic or electric with his powerful, fire-and-brimstone sophomore live set, New World Blues. The album shows off his peerless pipes and his incisive, empathetic, and forceful songwriting. Recorded live at the Brooklyn Folk Festival and at The Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club, the album is set for release on Brooklyn’s folk and roots label Jalopy Records on October 23.
New World Blues has “instant classic” written all over it. Foster weaves his timeless tales atop unique guitar arrangements, with his prodigious vocals on full display. At times Foster’s delivery is reminiscent of Howlin’ Wolf and the Animals’ Eric Burdon, at others, Nathaniel Rateliff and Dave Van Ronk.
This is Feral Foster’s first new album in 12 years. Feral’s live sets are legendary and in the intervening years he has focused on live performance and musical community building – the hard work of making a “folk revival”. He is considered central to the Big Apple folk circuit. Feral has run and hosted an eclectic, hootenanny-like series, “Roots n’ Ruckus”, reminiscent of the Greenwich Village “basket house” culture at the old Gaslight or Gerde’s Folk City, for over two decades at the Jalopy Theatre (Roots n’ Ruckus got its start in 2005 on MacDougal St. in Greenwich Village). Artists such as Alynda Segarra (Hurray for The Riff Raff), The Deslondes, Nora Brown, Charley Crockett, Nat Myers, and Miriam Elhajli either got their start there or tried out new material in the intimate format.
Foster’s songwriting and voice are unique. Rooted in blues and American folk music, Feral’s full range of influences extend to the Near East, and around the world. “This song’s about natural disasters,” growls Foster, as he does his best “Greek rebetika meets blues” riff on guitar and introduces lead single “New World Blues” to your eardrums. Over a whirling haboob of diminished chords, accompanied by a steady, anxious drumbeat, courtesy of Aaron Frazer (Durand Jones), Foster sounds like he’s being actively haunted (or exorcised) by a ’20s Delta bluesman. You can just picture Foster performing the tune in a juke joint, and like Nero, “fiddling” and yodel-singing about Rome (i.e. the world) as it burns to the ground. Jalopy Records shared the single today.
Next on the docket is Foster’s take on traditional “Tell Old Bill”, a song about the shock of a profound loss. This folk song first appeared to the general public in the 1927 book “The American Songbag”, compiled by poet Carl Sandburg, a founding document of the “folk revival”. While you’d expect Foster might just do his best impression of his forebears, the song being a highlight of “Mayor of MacDougal Street” Van Ronk’s early ’60s repertoire, as well as solo Byrd Roger McGuinn’s and Joni Mitchell’s, he’s much more an innovator than an imitator. Foster takes the “Bill” template and makes it his own, spit-shining the tune into a lurching and louder revelation that builds and builds, in many ways standing up to or trumping the original. It’s just one of many examples of how Foster finds a way to reinvent.
Even though there are reflective moments on New World Blues, such as “An Empty Glass’ Glee,” “Parade of Roses,” and “Sound of Tears,” where Foster can waltz with you, twirl you, and make you feel like the belle of the ball, each one eventually explodes like a sonic incendiary device. One melodic love grenade that’s already unpinned and ready to blow your mind? “Be Mine,” with lyrics like: “You send the breeze/all through the trees/and all the leaves are shaking/the naked earth/and all it’s worth/are ours for the taking.”
As one listens through this powerful collection, Foster’s mind is mostly on mortality, inequity, empathy for refugees, the effects of climate change and the venal nature of our time. Take “Black Friday Blues,” in which he rightly suggests that we’re living on the edge: “We all bought our plots on credit/we’re far too big to fail/buy yourself a shovel/they’re on sale.”
Besides “Tell Old Bill,” the lone tune on the set that’s not Foster’s own—Roosevelt Sykes’ “44 Blues,” which Howlin’ Wolf made famous as “Forty Four”—is nothing short of a showstopper. With a drunken barroom piano, Mike Bloomfield blues guitar arrangement, and syncopated backbeat accompanying, Foster transmogrifies the murder ballad into a werewolf, howling at the moon and clawing to get into your hearts and minds.
New World Blues full tracklist and credits
1. New World Blues
2. Tell Old Bill (traditional)
3. An Empty Glass’ Glee
4. Be Mine
5. Angels Are Listening In
6. Black Friday Blues
7. Sound of Tears
8. Parade of Roses
9. 44 Blues (Roosevelt Sykes)
10. Suffer Little Children
All songs and arrangements by Feral Foster unless otherwise noted
