In just a few hours a much anticipated Cultivar CD release show will begin! Sweetbriar Rose plays tonight at the Old Swedes Church! After two warm-ups, playing the Lovers League release show 10/26 at Connie's Ric Rac and the "CD Release Warm-up" at the Grape Room 10/30, the official release is tonight in grand fashion!
Cultivar released this August is the newest work from songstress Heather Shayne Blakeslee and her team of folk-stars Shane Leddy, Joy Theissen, EJ Simpson, and Walter Foley. If you haven't checked out Cultivar yet, it has a full palate of instrumentation bringing Blakeslee's songs to a vibrant life! From swanky muted trumpet, some fierce mandolin, and sultry vocals, this isn't your standard modern folk-rebirth album!
Heather Shayne Blakeslee was kind enough to give some insight on the album and the live show!
"Each show is different! We may add a cello, or a new voice, or pare things down depending on the room and the audience, or who is available. Because we've been playing so many shows I feel like we're finally where we all want us to be for our live performances, in a place where it's really tight, but also fluid and dynamic. It feels really good to be on stage with this group of collaborators right now, and the audience is really responding. It's great to be a part of it and to keep stretching and evolving.
The instrumentation on the record is definitely more layered since it's a different listening experience. You're not going to find a harmonium on stage, but you'll hear that low resonance now in a Turkish frame drum from our percussion player. While we did record some live tracks with us together, on Lily of the Valley for instance, I told Andrew Lipke, our producer, that I didn't want it to sound spare in anyway. Andrew is a very gifted musician, and I don't read music, so we often used visuals to communicate, "this needs to sound like a puppet falling down in a jumble during this part" or "Shane's bass needs to be the undertow of the river in Bride to the Sound," and he totally got it every time. One of the reasons I chose him as a producer is that I knew from listening to his records, which I love, that even though we have very different musical abilities, we both think cinematically about music. It was so easy to work with him and 99% of the time, we agreed on how to approach a song."
If you need more convincing, check out this preview by the Philadelphia City Paper
Sweetbriar Rose plays tonight at the Old Swedes Church! Doors @7pm
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