Some Strange Country

Last updated
Some Strange Country
Some Strange Country Album Cover.jpg
Studio album by Crooked Still
Released 2010
Recorded 2010
Genre Progressive bluegrass
Label Signature Sounds Recording
Crooked Still chronology
Still Crooked
(2006) Still Crooked2006
Some Strange Country
(2008)
Friends of Fall
(2011) Friends of Fall2011
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Some Strange Country is the fourth studio album by progressive bluegrass group Crooked Still.

Crooked Still band

Crooked Still is a band consisting of vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, banjo player Gregory Liszt, bassist Corey DiMario, cellist Tristan Clarridge and fiddler Brittany Haas. They are known for their high energy, technical skill, unusual instrumentation, and innovative acoustic style.

Contents

Track list

  1. Sometimes in this Country (Trad. arr. Crooked Still) 4:00
  2. The Golden Vanity (Trad. arr. Crooked Still) 4:16
  3. Distress (Anne Steele/Trad. arr. Crooked Still) 3:05
  4. Henry Lee (Trad. arr. Crooked Still) 4:05
  5. Half of What we Know (Aoife Maria O'Donovan) 4:02
  6. I'm Troubled (Trad. arr. Crooked Still) 2:45
  7. Locust in the Willow (Brittany Haas) 3:49
  8. Turning Away (Greg Liszt) 1:40
  9. Calvary (Trad. arr. Crooked Still) 4:03
  10. Cold Mountains (Trad. arr. Crooked Still) 3:13
  11. You Were Gone (Aoife Maria O'Donovan/Brittany Haas/Tristan Clarridge) 4:23
  12. You Got the Silver (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) 3:50

Personnel

Aoife ODonovan singer songwriter

Aöife O'Donovan born November 18, 1982 in Newton, Massachusetts, is an Irish-American singer and songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the progressive bluegrass/string band Crooked Still and as a member of the female folk-noir trio Sometymes Why. Her first professional engagement was singing lead for the folk group The Wayfaring Strangers. She has performed and recorded with Ollabelle, Karan Casey and Seamus Egan, Jerry Douglas, Jim Lauderdale, Darol Anger, Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins, Christina Courtin, Chris Thile, Noam Pikelny, Edgar Meyer, Stuart Duncan and Yo-Yo Ma. O'Donovan has also performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Utah Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, she sang on most of the tracks on the album Be Still by the jazz group the Dave Douglas Quintet, featuring trumpeter Dave Douglas. During the summer of 2013, she toured with Garrison Keillor and his A Prairie Home Companion Radio Romance Tour. She performed at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark 2014. In 2016, she released her second solo record, In The Magic Hour, on Yep Roc Records, as well as the live record, Man In A Neon Coat: Live From Cambridge. In summer 2017, she joined Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home "Love and Comedy" Tour.

Banjo musical instrument

The banjo is a four-, five-, or six-stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity as a resonator, called the head, which is typically circular. The membrane is typically made of plastic, although animal skin is still occasionally used. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by Africans in the United States, adapted from African instruments of similar design. The banjo is frequently associated with folk, Irish traditional, and country music. Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in African-American traditional music and the folk culture of rural whites before entering the mainstream via the minstrel shows of the 19th century. The banjo, along with the fiddle, is a mainstay of American old-time music. It is also very frequently used in traditional ("trad") jazz.

Brittany Haas American bluegrass fiddler

Brittany Haas is an American fiddle player, who also sometimes sings and plays the banjo. She is maybe best known as a member of the Boston-based alternative bluegrass band, Crooked Still, which is currently on hiatus. She is a regular performer on Live From Here. She tours with the Haas Marshall Walsh and Haas Kowert Tice trios, and participates in many international fiddlecamps, including the Ossipee Valley Music Festival. As of 2018, she is a member of Hawktail, which includes Kowert and Tice, as well as mandolinist Dominic Leslie.

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References