NASHVILLE, TN. (Top40 Charts/ By Kissy Black/ Lotos Nile Media) - Signature
Sounds recording artist Crooked Still releases their highly anticipated third album, today June 24th, titled Still Crooked. A world tour to support the record will follow. The band, made up of founding members Aoife O'Donovan, Greg Liszt and Corey DiMario, along with two new players, presents fluidity across musical genres: old time, folk, bluegrass and world music, on all of their recordings. Journalist Greil Marcus recently recognized the worldliness of their capability in Interview Magazine, "The songs to which Crooked Still applies itself were made to capture whole countries of experience, fantasy, forgetting, revenge, guilt and escape...The band takes up the songs as if they contain knowledge far beyond any person who might sing them."
Crooked Still is an energetic band who thrive from their collective and collaborative energies. After five years together, the departure of Rushad Eggleston forced Crooked Still to amend their ensemble. Moving from a quartet to a quintet, two new members join the group, Brittany Haas on five-string fiddle and Tristan Clarridge on cello and second fiddle. Crooked Still drew inspiration from the new, raw creative energy when recording their third record, Still Crooked.
The band, determined to capture the magic moments of inspiration that happen during live performance and musical exploration, recorded the album 'live' in a large room together. In a world of computer-altered music, the band wanted to create a sincere album that respects the musical roots from which their sound stems. After three days of intense rehearsal, the ripening of the new Crooked Still took place. Producer Eric Merrill captured the songs on the album in one day, the fourth day of the new line-up.
Major players in what is being touted as a "folk revival movement" in both No Depression and The London Times, Crooked Still is singled out as an ensemble who records songs steeped in history, sometimes with such seminal works that go all the way back to oral tradition, all the while delivering them with a modern freshness that demands attention. A testament to their abilities is repeated invitations to participate in classic American music festivals such as Newport Folk Festival, Merlefest and Telluride Folk Festival. Lauded in the foreign press and regular performers on the international festival scene, Crooked Still has a global and ever-growing audience.
The release of Still Crooked cements their reputation as a vital, young band that dances around the tenets of musical genres with acoustic instrumentation of fiddle, banjo, cello and bass. Central to the music is the haunting voice of Aoife O'Donovan, a captivating songbird whose vocal inflection taps into the pathos of the human experience. Songs on the album range from sedate to raucous. "Did You Sleep Well?" is a fast paced and sassy tune while "Captain, Captain" is an over four hundred year old song with hauntingly applicable contemporary lyrics. Every one of the thirteen tracks features virtuosic playing, insightful vocal delivery and clever rhythms.
Crooked Still merges classical, traditional and modern American styles and raises the bar of dynamic musicianship. They are a blended musical family, whose influences - ranging from iconic folk to modern hip-hop and funk - coalesce into a modern musical hybrid played on classical instruments. 'We're a groove-based band without a drummer,' O'Donovan explains. 'We push the beat, staying true to the tradition while we bring old songs into the 21st century.'
Early Praise for Still Crooked:
"Maybe the most cohesive of the
Boston dark-folk/bluegrass band's three excellent albums - chilling and otherworldly, what fantasy writers like to call 'eldritch.'" - Ken Barnes, USA Today
"There 's no wasted energy here, no random notes played, and the only surprise is how beautifully it comes off." - Grant Alden, No Depression
"Undone in Sorrow, Crooked Still: No one captures the eerie, gorgeous menace of classic Anglo-American folk ballads like this
Boston band." - Ken Barnes, USA Today
"Part of a new, energetic underground, this crew delivers album three with a zeal that is going to propel them swiftly to the top of the underground." - Chris Spector, Midwest Record
"Grounded in bluegrass, a groove based band without a drummer, the
Boston based ensemble inhabits the music of American tradition at the same time they take it to unexpected places." - Kerry Dexter,
Music Road
"You may know some of the songs and you're familiar with all the instruments, but no one has their combination. That, by the way, is the definition of style - when critics or fans have difficulty coming up with comparisons." - Jim Blum, Folk Alley
"The self-styled, alternative bluegrass group Crooked Still has pretty much made a perfect album; no frills, no fancy studio production, no gimmicks, just great songs and stellar performances that have been recorded with unparalleled intimacy and taste." - Jonathan Keller, The Marquee
"In a world where there are many great bands and it's hard to differentiate one band from another, contemporary bluegrass band Crooked Still stand out." - World
Music Central
"The "new" Crooked Still sound is more traditional, in terms of genre, but it is also simultaneously something more than it was, a stellar maturation of previous efforts." - Cover Lay Down
"Crooked Still has emerged from what must have been some heavy internal turmoil with another kick-butt record of old time classics and obscure beauties, performed in their own unique blend of angelic vocals and fiery bluegrass." -
Stuart Mason, Fiddlefreak Folk
Music Blog
More praise for Crooked Still
'A highly skilled outfit with an ingenious flair for steering traditional music in unexpected directions...rarely have musings about death, misadventure and murder sounded so lovely' - The
Boston Globe '...your expectations of how bluegrass and old-time classics should be performed will be turned on its ear.' - Vintage Guitar Magazine
'O'Donovan. Aoife O'Donovan. Remember that name, because with a sultry voice that makes her sound like a blusier Alison Krauss, she's about to become the newest darling of the Americana set...' - USA Today
'The band takes up the songs as if they contain knowledge far beyond any person who might sing them.' - Interview Magazine
Upcoming Tour Dates:
June 28 - Owensboro, KY - ROMP
June 29 - Nashville, TN - The Basement
July 4 - Quebec City, QC - Quebec 400th Anniversary Celebration
July 5 - Ottawa, ON - Cisco Systems Blues Festival
July 14 - Alexandria, VA - Birchmere
July 15 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe' Live
July 16 - New York, NY - The Bowery Ballroom
July 17-18 - Cambridge, MA - Club Passim
July 19 - Greenfield, MA - Green River Festival
July 20 - Brownfield, ME - Stone Mountain Arts Center
July 22 - East Burke, VT - Tamarack
July 23 - Portsmouth, NJ - Prescott Park Arts Festival
July 24 - Hillsdale, NY - Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
July 26-27 - Floyd, VA - Floyd Fest
July 30 - Qualicum Beach, BC - Qualicum Beach Community Hall
July 31 - Vancouver, BC - St.
James Hall
Aug. 1 - Seattle, WA - Occidental Park
Aug. 2 - Portland, OR - Pickathon
Aug. 3 - Bend, OR - Les Schwab Amphitheater
Aug. 4 - Corvalis, OR - House Concert
Aug. 5 - Bellingham, WA - Green Frog Cafe
Aug. 6 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
Aug. 10 - Charleston, WV - Mountain Stage
Aug. 30-31 - Pagosa Springs, CO - Four Corners Folk Festival
Sep. 1 - Salida, CO - Steam Plant Theater
Sep. 6-7 - Remus, MI - Wheatland
Music Festival
Sep. 13-14 - Canton, MA - ICONS
Sep. 19 - Berryville, VA - Watermelon Park
Oct. 17 - Middletown, CT - Crowell Concert Hall
Oct. 31 - Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultrual Center
Nov. 01 - Chicago, IL - Morse Theater
