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This is an indie-folk adaptation of a traditional ballad inspired by Dillard Chandler's a cappella performance on field recordings from 1960s North Carolina (Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads). The ballad is Read more
This is an indie-folk adaptation of a traditional ballad inspired by Dillard Chandler's a cappella performance on field recordings from 1960s North Carolina (Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads). The ballad is reimagined here as an Indie-rock composition with lush and brooding instrumentation that captures the sexual longing and emotional angst between two lovers. Equal parts indie-rock and Southern Gothic, Sun Heron will appeal to fans of Bonny Light Horseman, Sam Amidon, and Cold Mountain.
New Album- Awake, Awake
When Jonathan Moody was seventeen, his brother gave him an album for Christmas, Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads. Though stark in their simplicity, the performances in these field recordings belied a beautiful tradition of balladry woven into the daily lives of backhill homesteaders near North Carolina’s Big Laurel River. The ballads, handed down from centuries before, were sung as if they recounted first-hand experiences. The paradoxical intimacy between song and singer transcended history and geography, the juxtaposition seeming impossible, yet here it was.
Already a multi-instrumentalist with an interest in the unusual or overlooked, Jonathan would regard Dark Holler with fascination, and above all, a feeling that it contained a kind of magic hidden in plain sight. After years of listening and singing these songs again and again, a certain musical alchemy began to take place: where the songs once were not his own, somehow over time they became treasures that belonged as much to him as to anyone who ever sang them. And somehow he also belonged to them.
In Sun Heron’s debut album, Awake, Awake Jonathan presents the ballads of Dark Holler with a contemporary indie-folk sensibility using lush, yet intimate instrumentation that draws from the past and present. It is a practice in resurrection. With influences ranging from Sam Amidon to Bonny Light Horseman, the soul of the songs awakens anew.
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