Happy Birthday Catherine Irwin!

Raising a glass to the amazing Catherine Irwin with a few stellar performances you may have missed.

Freakwater shares "Fullerene" digitally and recirculates 2016's Scheherazade album

Freakwater's excellent 2016 album Scheherazade is available now via Bandcamp. Hear Catherine Irwin's lovely "Fullerene" below. 

Here's the scoop...

Portland's Fluff and Gravy Records and Freakwater are thrilled to announce the re-release of their 2016 magnum opus, Scheherazade, and to begin of what is hoped to be a long and storied partnership. To celebrate we are digitally releasing the single "Fullerene" for the first time. Previously only available in physical format as the b-side to "The Asp And The Albatross" 7", the track is classic Freakwater. Recorded during the Scheherazade sessions, the Catherine Irwin penned track finds the band at their peak. 

As Irwin recounts, "I was burning some stuff in my living room one night. I remember looking up and noticing that the flames were casting shadows on the wall. The flames themselves were casting shadows.

"The song was almost called The Allegory of the Cave. That title seemed too pretentious -- which is pretty hilarious in retrospect. A fullerene is a beautiful little carbon molecule whose shape resembles one of Buckmister Fuller’s geodesic domes."

Anchored around the fragile and compelling harmonies of Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Irwin and the subdued, oracular bass playing of Dave Gay, the utterly unique sound of Freakwater is distilled from many sources. There’s the elemental ache and loss in the soil and limestone of Kentucky, the songs and struggles that passed over and over the Atlantic from the British Isles centuries ago. There’s the energy and freedom in the ratty punk clubs of Louisville and Chicago at a time when rules and formalities were meant to be ignored. 

Freakwater's song "Fullerene" is now available digitally and as the b-side to The Asp And The Albatross on 7" vinyl (right here). You can get Scheherazade digitally, on LP and/or CD at Bandcamp and the Fluff and Gravy Records Store (here) with wider physical distribution to follow. Check out "Fullerene" followed by a performance of "The Asp And The Albatross" below. 

Recently, Janet and Catherine from Freakwater spent some time hanging out with Sally Timms and Jon Langford of The Mekons which led to the 'Freakons' joint venture and a surprisingly engaging concept album about the pitfalls of coal mining. You can get the album directly from Fluff and Gravy's site here.

Mekons' Sally Timms & Jon Langford join Freakwater for Freakons project

What better way to deliver grim tunes about the horrors of coal mining than the sweet voices of Catherine Irwin and Sally Timms.

Mekons + Freakwater = Freakons

The Mekons and Freakwater have been friends for decades, forged in the punk rock/art school crucibles of late ’70s Leeds and mid ’80s Louisville respectively. Both bands mined British folk and American classic country music for three-chord songs whose lyrics fit the nihilism or political rage or outlandish joy of the moment. Many of these songs were about coal mining. Traditional songs about heroic union organizers, deadly mine disasters, wailing orphans, or mining's grim history of economic and ecological devastation fit seamlessly alongside each band's original material. And so it is with FREAKONS. 

Deep pit mines, strip mines, mountaintop removal, collapsing slag heaps. Deadly work, poisoned water, and fantastic songs. Always fantastic songs. 

This is where the FREAKONS were born, from the very bowels of the earth. 

The Mekons’ Jon Langford & Sally Timms and Freakwater’s Janet Bean & Catherine Irwin are joined here by the stellar string and vocal harmonies of Jean Cook (Ida, Tara Jane O’Neil, Skull Orchard) and Anna Krippenstapel (The Other Years, Joan Shelley, Freakwater), along with special guest, the beloved guitar genius Jim Elkington (Richard Thompson, Eleventh Dream Day, Horse’s Ha, Skull Orchard, Freakwater, The Zincs). 

Belgian painter Jo Clauwaert created the album’s intricate gatefold cover. Images from song lyrics and related history emerge and recede again in this gorgeously illustrated artistic fever dream. 

Pre-order the debut album from Freakons (out March 25th) via Bandcamp right here or directly from the label, Portland's Fluff & Gravy Records right here. 

Check the release trailer and the video for "Blackleg Miner" following the tracklisting below.

Freakons – s/t

1. Dark Lords Of The Mine

2. Chestnut Blight

3. Abernant 84/85

4. Judy Belle Thompson

5. Canaries

6. Blackleg Miner

7. Phoebe Snow

8. The Mannington Mine Disaster

9. Never Thought I'd See The Day

10. Dreadful Memories

11. Coorie Doon

12. Blue Scars Of A Miner

"Phoebe Snow"

Interestingly enough, the Freakons debut includes a song about the fictional Phoebe Snow, not the popular 70s singer/songwriter – born Phoebe Ann Laub – who voiced numerous commercial jingles. The character "Phoebe Snow" was a white dress wearing Victorian traveller who appeared in a series of Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad posters at the turn of the century (see below) as part of a popular advertising campaign to create the impression of cleaner railroad travel with anthracite coal. 

Earnest Elmo Calkins' advertising campaign used "Phoebe Snow" to sell the concept of cleaner railroad travel with anthracite coal.