The Free Wild Wind & the Songs of Birds

by The Crooked Fiddle Band

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releases June 7, 2024

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1.	Midnight Frost…
2.	…Frost on the Thistledown
3.	A Cold Wind Blows
4.	Return of the Blackwing
5.	Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
6.	Deadly Nightsnakes 03:40	buy track
7.	Now Only the Flowers Gather
8.	The Wood Wakes
9.	Old Thunder
10.	The Call

about

Art As Catharsis are proud to announce the upcoming album from The Crooked Fiddle Band, The Free Wild Wind & the Songs of Birds - an expansive and cinematic release which weaves together folk music traditions, post and progressive rock, and chamber music.

The Free Wild Wind has a more reflective air than its predecessors, with a renewed focus on cinematic composition and dynamics. One can hear the influence of Norwegian chamber-prog band Meer in the expanded orchestration, the epic flavour of the film scores of Bear McCreary, and a Celtic crossover flavour that brings to mind The Decemberists, or even further echos of 70s mainstays Planxty or Steeleye Span roaring into the 21st century.

“This album is more pastoral, more folk-based than much of our previous output,” explains guitarist and cittern player Gordon Wallace. “Revisiting earlier albums we noticed the sheer intensity of them, and wanted to create a more dynamic album of rare peaks, that spends more time in the valleys and the hinterland.”

As a result, The Free Wild Wind finds ample space for both the quiet beauty of Jess Randall’s compositions and Gordon Wallace’s timeless songwriting, while allowing for the instrumental pieces to swell and contract with ease and grace. It also showcases the band’s ability to evoke landscape and narrative in purely instrumental pieces - listening to the album images of sweeping mountain vistas, mist-covered forests, and the dry soil of the outback are often conjured in the mind's eye.

The Free Wild Wind marks the band’s fourth album, and the second to be recorded by engineer Clayton Segelov. It follows two albums recorded with Steve Albini, Overgrown Tales (2011) and Moving Pieces Of The Sea (2013), and the band’s ARIA-nominated record Another Subtle Atom Bomb (2019).

The quartet are joined by guest vocalists on three songs, with multi ARIA and Golden Guitar winner Fanny Lumsden featuring on A Cold Wind Blows, her brother Tom Lumsden adding his voice to The Call, and Richard Cuthburt singing the beautiful cowboy lament of Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie - performed to a wonderfully subtle 25/8 rhythm.

As the culmination of 18 years of composing, performing and touring together, The Free Wild Wind & the Songs of Birds may be the band’s most fully realised artistic statement to date. It’s an album which reveals a band masterfully in control of their art form, boasting sophisticated, and deeply-felt compositions from a band at the height of their powers.

The Crooked Fiddle Band’s new album The Free Wild Wind & the Songs of Birds is out 7 June 2024 on Art As Catharsis.

credits

releases June 7, 2024

Produced by Joe Gould & Clayton Segelov
Album concept by Gordon Wallace & Joe Gould

All tracks written by The Crooked Fiddle Band except ‘Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie’ which is an adaptation of a traditional cowboy song of the same name (itself an adaptation of a sailor's song from 1839)

Copyright 2024 Gould/Randall/Stevens/Wallace

Performed by:
The Crooked Fiddle Band

Jess Randall: violin, nyckelharpa
Gordon Wallace: cittern, guitar
Mark Stevens: double bass, mountain dulcimer
Joe Gould: drums, percussion, vibraphone, additional guitar, backing vocals

Guests:
Russell Rolen: cello
Fanny Lumsden: lead vocal on A Cold Wind Blows
Richard Cuthbert: lead vocal on Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie
Tom Lumsden: lead vocal on The Call
Tom Morris: low whistle on The Call

Recorded by Clayton Segelov and Angie Watson at The Brain Studios, Sydney (violin recorded at St Stephen's Church Hall, Tea Gardens)

Cello recorded by Taylor Hales at Electrical Audio, Chicago
Additional recording by Joe Gould at Adversary Studios, Sydney

Graphic design by Sam Harwood
Photography by Duncan Wallace (The Sun Slowly Rises Over Edgar pond, Lutruwita / Tasmania)

Written and recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, whose sovereignty was never ceded. Additional recording took place on the unceded lands of the Worimi, Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations.

Thanks to all our friends, families and everyone who’s supported us along the way, especially:

Laura, Toby, Gus & Jack Stevens, Sarah Steel, Leila & Killian Wallace, Lachlan Ryan, Mike Solo & Birds Robe, Lachlan Dale & Art as Catharsis, Clay & Angie @ The Brain, Az @ Adversary, Emma Davis, The Dead Maggies crew, Charity Mirow, Cathy Kirkpatrick, Andrew Lorien, Andrew Ford, Steve Albini, Dan Freeman, Fanny Lumsden, Tom Lumsden, Richie Cuthbert, Tom Morris, Tawfik El Gazzar, Alli Wolf, Duncan Wallace, Lucas Shipway, Leroy Lee and Miles Fraser.

Jess’ nyckelharpa is made by Lennart Lovdin, violin set up by Bronsai Watkins
Gordon plays a cittern by Fylde Guitars

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

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about

The Crooked Fiddle Band Sydney, Australia

The sound we love is dark and often driving, but also writhing and ecstatic.

Recommendations

shows

Jul 13

Willie Smith's Apple Shed

Hobart, TAS

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