Foghorn Stringband

Internationally acclaimed Foghorn Stringband has been at the vanguard of a revival in American old-time music for over a decade now. They’ve traveled the globe, been signed to a major label, and inspired a new generation of old-time musicians, all without compromising their love of traditional American music. But they’ve gathered new ideas and new band members too. Their unique sound still comes from the fiery, intertwining melodies of Stephen “Sammy” Lind’s fiddle and Caleb Klauder’s mandolin, but now they’re supported by the bedrock-solid rhythm foundation of Reeb Willms’ guitar and Nadine Landry’s bass. And when it comes to vocals, they deliver; four powerful and exceptional voices resulting in countless combinations of harmonies. A typical Foghorn set is based around exquisitely rare old-time tunes and songs, but a vast knowledge of early country music and recent explorations in Cajun song traditions have molded a powerful new sound. Any band would be happy to have mastered one music genre, but Foghorn Stringband have a roaming spirit, and are already sparking new revivals of American roots music traditions.

Wowing audiences across the country and across the pond playing over 200 days a year, Foghorn is one of the most sought after acts for festival stages and music camps, and ares band mates for world renowned master old-time musician Dirk Powell and Cajun legends Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege. On their critically acclaimed CD, Sud de la Louisiane, released earlier this year, Foghorn draws from the same repertoire that has always inspired their work: the tunes and songs of the American South, from the hollers of Appalachia to the early days of country music. Together, they blend voices, repertoire and instruments to create a diverse performance true to the roots of American music, throwing some Cajun songs and Caleb Klauder’s vintage sounding originals in the mix. Performing live, these multi-instrumentalists gather around a single microphone in the middle of the stage.

They play the old way, the way you’d have heard stringbands play on Southern radio stations back in the 1930s. They don’t fancy up the music to make it more modern, instead they reach deep into the heart of the songs, pulling out the deep emotions that made them so enduring in the first place. It’s a whole new world today for folk musicians, but the four powerhouse musicians in the Foghorn Stringband prove that they’re still riding on the cutting edge, with one foot in the analog past and one foot in the digital future.

Audio

Videos

Foghorn Stringband

Foghorn Stringband – “Just a Little” at IBMA 2011, Nashville, TN (Sep 28, 2011)

Foghorn Stringband – “Shortnin’ Bread” at IBMA 2011, Nashville, TN (Sep 28, 2011)

Foghorn Stringband – “Le Sud de la Louisiane” at IBMA 2011, Nashville, TN (Sep 28, 2011)

Foghorn Stringband – “I Dreamed…” at Sioux River Folk Festival (August 6, 2011)

Foghorn Stringband – “Farther Along” at Sioux River Folk Festival (August 7, 2011)

Foghorn Stringband – “I Want to be Loved (But Only by You)” recorded live at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country, April 2011

Click here for more videos of The Foghorn Stringband on YouTube!

The Scuttlebutt

[Sud de la Louisiane] is a very exciting record, well balanced in every respect, replete with fabulously classy (and admirably unshowy) yet totally highly energised playing that smacks of long hours satisfying a dance-floor crowd, along with some beauteously edgy vocal harmonies; and what’s more, it proves without a doubt that old-time music still has plenty of mileage and relevance in this cynical day and age. Is this record joyfully feelgood? – hey, you bet! -David Kidman, Folk and Roots, Dec 2011 – READ ENTIRE REVIEW HERE!

The foghorn album’s great album “Sud de la Louisiane” challenges all the rules, dancing across boundaries that others were too afraid to even acknowledge. Every track is a bold bluegrass move. But for these guys bold was never going to be a problem. One of the best albums of the year. – John Shelton Ivany’s Top 21, Oct. 9, 2011

There might not be more aptly named pickers at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass this year than the Foghorn Stringband. At Monday night’s showcase performance, the quartet’s fiddle tunes on steroids cut through the haze of the Nashville Convention Center ballroom and cleared the heads of listeners for the nontraditional acts to follow. – David Morris, Bluegrass Today, Sep 27, 2011

For a slice of bona-fide old-time Americana — or, as they describe themselves, the kind of “ass-kickin redneck stringband music” you’d expect to hear on some front porch in Appalachia in the 1930s — there is no better contemporary band than The Foghorn [Stringband] … which has been together for ten years. Based in Portland, Oregon, with four albums to their credit, [The Foghorn Stringband] has long been one of the brightest stars on the thriving Old Time Music Revival scene in the Northwest. – Jackie Morris, Folkworks, Sep 2011

Portland’s Foghorn String Band stands at the top of today’s vibrant old-time music revival and a fine example of what an unending revival it is. Each album finds them deeper into the tradition, more familiar with the rich resources of roots music, and more focused, but still propelled by that undercurrent of punk energy. —Art Menius, WMMT

Read lots more reviews here.

Press Materials

All press materials can be found at foghornstringband.com/press-kit/