Dear Companion | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 22, 2007 [1] | |||
Genre | Folk music | |||
Label | Drag City/Wichita/P-Vine | |||
Meg Baird chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
The Philadelphia Inquirer | [2] |
Pitchfork Media | (7.8/10) [3] |
Allmusic | [4] |
Popmatters | (7/10) [5] |
Drowned in Sound | (8/10) [6] |
Dusted Magazine | (positive) [7] |
Uncut (magazine) | (positive) [8] |
Foxy Digitalis | [9] |
Dear Companion is Espers vocalist Meg Baird's first solo album. It was released in 2007 to critical praise. The album contains three traditional folk songs, four covers of more recent songs, and two original songs written by Baird. The album is lightly orchestrated traditional folk music, without Espers' psychedelic and prog influences, dense orchestration, and dark atmosphere. Dear Companion was recorded at the same time as the Espers album II , at Baird's home in Philadelphia. [10] Two of the traditional songs ("Willie o Winsbury" and "Barbry Ellen") also appeared on Leaves From Off the Tree, an album by Baird, Espers bandmate Helena Espvall, and Sharron Kraus that came out the year before. [10] Two versions of the title song open and close the album, the second one a cappella. [11]
"Barbara Allen" is a traditional folk song that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It tells of how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love, then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.
The Stills were a Canadian rock band from Montreal, Quebec, formed in 2000 and disbanded in 2011.
Hem is a musical group from Brooklyn, New York. Band members include Sally Ellyson (vocals), Dan Messé, Gary Maurer, Steve Curtis, George Rush, Mark Brotter (drums), Bob Hoffnar, and Heather Zimmerman (violin). The group sometimes expands to include other musicians and orchestral accompaniments.
Benjamin Thomas Jacobs, more commonly known by the stage name Max Tundra, is an English multi-instrumental musician, singer and music producer. His work is noted for its maximalist approach, which is predominantly electronic music but incorporates non-electronic styles and instruments. Jacobs' production style has been noted as an influence on the hyperpop style which became prevalent in the 2010s onwards.
Liege & Lief is the fourth album by the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. It is the third album the group released in the UK during 1969, all of which prominently feature Sandy Denny as lead female vocalist, as well as the first to feature future long-serving personnel Dave Swarbrick and Dave Mattacks on violin/mandolin and drums, respectively, as full band members. It is also the first Fairport album on which all songs are either adapted (freely) from traditional British and Celtic folk material, or else are original compositions written and performed in a similar style. Although Denny and founding bass player Ashley Hutchings quit the band before the album's release, Fairport Convention has continued to the present day to make music strongly based within the British folk rock idiom, and are still the band most prominently associated with it.
Wichita Recordings is an independent record label located in London, founded in 2000 by Mark Bowen and Dick Green. Its most notable signees include Bloc Party, The Cribs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Best Coast, Los Campesinos! and Peter Bjorn and John. The label signed Clap Your Hands Say Yeah for a UK distribution deal for the group's debut album. They also signed the UK producers Simian Mobile Disco for the UK.
Willie O Winsbury is Child Ballad 100. The song, of which there are many variants, is a traditional Scottish ballad that dates from at least 1775, and is known under several other names, including "Johnnie Barbour" and "Lord Thomas of Winesberry".
Espers was an American psychedelic folk band from Philadelphia, United States, that was part of the emerging indie folk scene. They formed in 2002 as a trio of singer-songwriter Greg Weeks, Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons but later expanded to a sextet including Otto Hauser, Helena Espvall and Chris Smith. Their music is reminiscent of late-sixties British folk as well as many contemporary folk acts. Most of the band's members have also featured on recordings by a number of other folk artists such as Nick Castro and Vashti Bunyan and as a result have become an important part of the psychedelic folk revival.
Jack Rose was an American guitarist originally from Virginia and later based in Philadelphia. Rose is best known for his solo acoustic guitar work. He was also a member of the noise/drone band Pelt.
Awkward Annie is the seventh studio album by English contemporary folk musician Kate Rusby, released on 3 September 2007 on Pure Records. The album is the first to be produced by Rusby herself, following her split with husband and producer John McCusker.
Walk It Off is the second album from the Minneapolis-based band Tapes 'n Tapes, released on 2 April 2008.
Face Control is Handsome Furs' second full-length album, which was released through Sub Pop Records. The album was recorded and mixed by Wolf Parade's Arlen Thompson at Mount Zoomer, and it was mastered by Harris Newman at Hotel2Tango.
Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound and Comets on Fire. She was also a guitarist and the lead female vocalist in Philadelphia psychedelic folk rock band Espers, and played drums in Philadelphia punk band Watery Love. Baird frequently collaborates with the Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore.
The Valerie Project was a Philadelphia-based psychedelic folk band. Their first (self-titled) album, released in 2007, is intended to serve as an alternate soundtrack to the cult Czech New Wave film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. They have performed live at screenings of the film. The band is led by Espers member Greg Weeks and also includes Brooke Sietinsons and Helena Espvall of Espers, Margaret Wienk, Jesse Sparhawk, and Jim Ayre of Fern Knight, Tara Burke, Mary Lattimore, Jessica Weeks, and Charles Cohen.
Sharron Kraus is an English singer, songwriter and musician with strong ties to the US. Kraus was born in New York but grew up in Leicester, England. She has lived in Philadelphia and collaborated with American musicians, including Meg Baird, Helena Espvall, Christian Kiefer, Tara Burke (Fursaxa), and Gillian Chadwick.
Epic is the second studio album by American singer–songwriter Sharon Van Etten. The album was released on September 21, 2010.
Cervantine is A Hawk and a Hacksaw's fifth studio album, and the first to be released on the new label, L.M. Dupli-cation. The album's sound stands out from previous recordings, drawing a stronger influence from Greek Romani music, and the mariachi that had surrounded the group in New Mexico.
The Trouble with Sweeney was a band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that existed from 1999 to 2004.
Child Ballads is a studio album by American singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and musician Jefferson Hamer, released on February 11, 2013, by Wilderland Records. It serves as Mitchell's sixth studio album and Hamer's second. The album is composed of old folk ballads from the collection of the same name by Francis James Child re-arranged by the duo. They recorded the album with producer Gary Paczosa in early 2012. Child Ballads received generally positive reviews from music critics.
Don't Weigh Down the Light is the fourth studio album by folk singer Meg Baird, released in 2015 on the Wichita label in the UK and the Drag City label in the US.