| New Weird America | |
|---|---|
 August 2003 issue 234 of British music magazineThe Wire. | |
| Other names | Freak folk[1][2] |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 2000s, United States |
| Other topics | |
New Weird America is a music scene that emerged in the early 2000s. The term was coined by writerDavid Keenan in the August 2003 issue of British music magazineThe Wire as a play onGreil Marcus's phrase "Old Weird America" from his bookInvisible Republic which referred to music ranging fromHarry Smith'sAnthology of American Folk Music toBob Dylan. The movement is inspired by the folk music of the 1960s and 1970s, while encompassingpsychedelic folk genres such asfree folk andfreak folk.
The term was coined byDavid Keenan in the issue 234 (August 2003) ofThe Wire, following theBrattleboro Free Folk Festival organized byMatt Valentine and Ron J. Schneiderman.[3][4][5][6][7][8] It is a play onGreil Marcus's phrase "Old Weird America" as described in his bookInvisible Republic, which deals with the lineage connecting the pre-World War II folk performers onHarry Smith'sAnthology of American Folk Music[9] toBob Dylan and his milieu.[10][11]
TheBrattleboro Free Folk Festival was the summit gathering of the free folk scene that was largely centered in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut. The festival includedDredd Foole,Sunburned Hand of the Man,MV & EE, all members ofCharalambides in different configurations,Jack Rose,Chris Corsano, Joshua, andPaul Flaherty –– most of whom operated out of thePioneer Valley area. The scene drew on a wide range of musical influences, which Keenan summed up as "acoustic roots todrone, ritualistic performance,Krautrock, ecstatic jazz,hillbilly mountain music, psychedelia, archival blues and folk sides, Country funk and more."[12] Adding, "ask any of these musicians where the initial energising spark for the New Weird America came from and they'll point you right back toDredd Foole's epochal 1994 solo album,In Quest of Tense."[13]
In 2008,Pitchfork stafferAmanda Petrusich stated:[14]
Free-folk is also heavily influenced by British folksingers from the latter half of the twentieth century, mirroring, however inadvertently, the exact origins of all American folk music, which itself was inspired by Celtic, Scottish, and English folk songs in the early 1800s. British bands and artists likeBert Jansch andPentangle,Comus,Shirley Collins,the Incredible String Band,Donovan,Vashti Bunyan,Fairport Convention,Roy Harper, and loads of others peaked in Britain in the 1960s and '70s
This largely underground scene, which also incorporated musicians from outside the region, includingSix Organs of Admittance andCharalambides, was generally referred to as "free folk", as named byMatt Valentine. Wrote Keenan:
Mostly based outside of the major US cities, disparate, culturally disenfranchised cells have begun to telegraph between each other, forming alliances via limited handmade releases and a vast subterranean network of samizdat publications, musician- and fan-run labels and distributors like Apostacy, Child of Microtones, Eclipse,Ecstatic Yod, Fusetron, Qbico, Seres, Siwa,Sound@One, Spirit of Orr,Time-Lag, U-Sound,Vhf and Wholly Other. This particular cottage industry came into existence initially out of necessity, as no one else would touch this music.[15]
A higher profile collection of American musicians emerged at roughly the same time as Keenan's article. Almost entirely unconnected from the Free Folk scene and supporting labels, this far more visible and commercially successful wave is commonly referred to asFreak Folk. With influences more primarily centered on psychedelic rock and folk groups of the 1960s and 1970s, including American performersHoly Modal Rounders and English and Scottish groups, such asPentangle,Incredible String Band,Donovan andComus,[8] this wave was spearheaded byDevendra Banhart,Joanna Newsom, andVetiver. Both scenes were widely referred to in the music press as "New Weird America."[1]