King Wilkie Return on April 28 with Cinematic Concept Album “King Wilkie Presents: the Wilkie Family Singers”

Long-awaited third album features special guests David Bromberg, Robyn Hitchcock, John McEuen, Sam Parton (Be Good Tanyas), Peter Rowan, and Abigail Washburn.

NEW YORK, NY – King Wilkie Presents: The Wilkie Family Singers, the new album from the ever-evolving King Wilkie, will be released on April 28 on the newly minted Casa Nueva imprint. The ambitious and evocative work is set against the backdrop of the fictitious Wilkie Family: a household containing the six Wilkie children, their shipping magnate father and matriarchal mother, a pair of housepets, a distant cousin, two family friends, and a music therapist. These are the songs they sing – to each other, to themselves, to no one in particular. There is no plot, no dialog, no storyline: only an imaginary context acting as a setting for the music. “You aren’t supposed to know that much about these characters,” says King Wilkie founder and principal songwriter Reid Burgess, “and you shouldn’t need to in order to listen to the album.”

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2003, King Wilkie has defied expectations at every turn. Their 2004 debut Broke, presented them as a young, furiously hard-driving bluegrass band. They won endless acclaim, a coveted Emerging Artist of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association, and a wide audience for their conviction and dedication to the form. With 2007′s Low Country Suite, it became readily apparent that their music was expanding outward into a more idiosyncratic and personal style that incorporated influences ranging from pre-bluegrass American music to British Invasion art song.

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Uncle Earl

Old-time-tastic!

by Michael Parrish

String band music is not standard fare on country music cable channel CMT. Yet earlier this year, acoustic quartet Uncle Earl could be seen in regular rotation on the channel, performing its very traditional-sounding instrumental “Streak o’ Lean, Streak o’ Fat.” The music may be traditional, but the video involves a kung fu showdown: Two warring dance clans engage in a clogging duel, join together for one big group clog, then sit down to eat together.

Uncle Earl

Commercially successful female string bands have a rich history, stretching back at least to the 1920s with the Coon Creek Girls, but there has never been an ensemble quite like Uncle Earl.

The group was initially established by current guitarist KC Groves and singer/songwriter Jo Serrapere, back in 1999. The name did not refer to any real person, but instead represented an archetype of a musician that might be found playing the group’s style of music. Over time, musicians came and went before the group solidified near the end of 2003 as a touring entity that included Groves, multi-instrumentalist Kristin Andreassen, clawhammer banjo player Abigail Washburn, and fiddler Rayna Gellert. All had previously worked in musical settings of various types and had active solo careers. However, the four musicians found the chemistry of their new partnership irresistible, and the lineup stuck. In the five years the current group has been together, the members’ enthusiasm, virtuosity, and engagingly quirky onstage manner has made the group a festival favorite.

At this year’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado, the four g’Earls (as they have come to label themselves) were a constant musical presence, individually and collectively. After they wound up an afternoon “New Generations Jam” workshop with the Duhks and a variety of other young old-time musicians, guitarist KC Groves and Rayna Gellert were able to sit down at a coffee shop to discuss the proper descriptor for the traditional string band music they play. Is it “old-time” or “old-timey?”

“Some people are sticklers about that. I never say old-timey myself,” said Gellert.

“I hear people say bluegrassy a lot. That’s kind of bluegrassy,” offered Groves.

“Actually, in describing Uncle Earl, I could say old-timey. It’s like saying old-timeish, which I would say about our music. We’re a heavily old-time-influenced string band,” Gellert said.

“We’re old-timey!” Groves agreed.

“Old-time-tastic!” Gellert asserted.

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #139 (December 2008/January/February 2009). The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

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