The space where hard rock and folk music meet is not a very populated canon of music. Sure, the Byrds and Bob Dylan may have invented the folk-rock genre in the mid-Sixties, which Pentangle and Fairport Convention ran with into the late Sixties, but how many bands have you heard mixing crunching riffs and delicate folk-guitar noodling?
Well, two bands in 2009 have in different ways attempted this crossover sound and managed to create quite spectacular albums while doing so.
Both hail from the United States, the Akron/Family from New York City and the Decemberists from Portland, Oregon. There is, however, one fundamental difference to their approach to the “hard folk rock” genre.
Akron/Family on their new album Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free (Dead Oceans) lean more towards psychedelic-tinged folk, while the Decemberists new album The Hazards of Love (EMI) takes its inspiration from the more pastoral British folk.
Spawned from New York’s freak-folk movement, Akron/Family are a wild and woolly bunch, whose sonic experimentation is hardly ever reigned in.
In late 2007 original member Ryan Vanderhood left the band to live in a Buddhist Dharma centre in the American Midwest, throwing the band into turmoil as they began to figure out life as a three-piece.
Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free would follow as a result of these changes — a newly configured sound for a newly configured band.
Its artwork more than subtly references Sly & the Family Stone’s 1971 funk classic There’s a Riot Goin’ On, with the tie-dyed American flag hinting towards the band’s psychedelic influences.
While there are elements of funk to be found on Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, especially on the bombastic opening track Everyone is Guilty, most of the album tends towards psychedelic folk with hard rocking riffs thrown into the mix.
The most aggressive of all the new songs would be MBF, taking its Sonic Youth-esque guitar distortion into the jam-band arena, accompanied by blood-curdling screams.
However, before you can blink an eye Akron/Family are working their way through a delicate folk song such as The Alps & Their Orange Evergreen, a gentle meandering acoustic gem.
There are also some strong African influences on the album, such as the rhythm guitar on album highlight River, and in the guitar and percussion work during the intro of They Will Appear, which sounds as if it could have been recorded in West Africa.
However, soon enough the track has exploded into an aggressive swirling freak-out of sound that most would battle to define.
A band this good reminds me of that classic Hunter S Thompson line, “Too weird to live, too rare to die”.
They bring the album to a close with the emotionally charged piano number Last Year.
With repeated lyrics, “Last year was a hard year for such a long time/this year is gonna be ours”, its easy to interpret this album closer as a summation of the band’s new positioning as a three-piece, although it could quite as easily be a statement on the US’s transition from a Bush presidency to an Obama presidency, which would tie in with the stars and stripes artwork.
The Decemberists on the other hand are way more classic in their approach with their new album inspired by the work of Sixties folk singer Anne Briggs, whose EP The Hazards of Love gave it its name.
In a recent interview with Paste magazine lead-singer and chief songwriter Colin Meloy explained how he had bought a rare vinyl copy of the Briggs EP and, being so inspired by it, he attempted to write a title track for the album because Briggs had not.
The resultant rock opera that poured from Meloy’s inspiration is a rousing affair, which is raging rock’n’roll one minute and intricate folk melodies the next — a concept album that traces the doomed love affair between a woman named Margaret and a shape-shifting forest dweller named William.
Joining the tale in The Hazards Of Love is a great supporting cast of a jealous forest queen and a villain named Rake, who has murdered his three children.
Great storyline aside, Meloy and company’s music is something to truly behold.
A Bower Scene sees The Decemberists fronting all Nirvana-esque with a Smells Like Teen Spirit guitar lick and some heavy slabs of guitar worthy of Black Sabbath, while Won’t Wait for Love sees Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark with soaring vocals over an upbeat almost White Stripes-esque rocker.
But it’s not all primordial guitar histrionics. Isn’t It A Lovely Night is a corker of a folk song, featuring acoustic guitar, lap-steel and accordion backing for Stark and Meloy’s beautiful duet.
Soon enough, however, the album is back to the crunching riffs, especially on The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing, where My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden produces some spirited vocals for this rugged guitar monster.
Ultimately you are going to love or hate this album, but if you tend towards the former a treat is in store for you.
Long live hard folk rock.