New Los Angeles Folk Festival sets toes tapping at Zorthian Ranch

 

The locally fabled yet relatively unknown Zorthian Ranch in Altadena served as the idyllic pastoral venue for Saturday’s New Los Angeles Folk Festival, a one-day event that brought together 28 bands and solo artists and included the emerging and established as well as the traditional and experimental from L.A.’s folk music scene and beyond to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The 45-acre ranch, home to eclectic artist Jiryar Zorthian until his death in 2004, was for decades a bohemian haven frequented by local celebrities, artists and musicians, but has sat largely neglected for the last few years. That wasn't the case this weekend.

The lineup, which featured headliners Spindrift, Amanda Jo Williams, Frank Fairfield and Djinn Aquarian, offered traditional folk fare while challenging the notion of what defines the genre. “People talk about punk music as the DIY scene, the alternative scene, the underground scene, but I think this is just as important. And to me, folk and punk are almost the same thing, just remove some symbols,” festival founder Daiana Feuer said regarding the festival’s defiance of conventional parameters, one that extended to the location.

After a 10-minute hike up to the hillside retreat (for those who didn’t want to brave the precarious ride up the narrow road in the festival shuttle), attendees walked through the ranch’s vast sea of junkyard treasures, stopping to contemplate the numerous curiosities that filled the landscape from decrepit trucks and weathered midcentury farm equipment to purposeful installations that included Zorthian’s best known structure, an elephant constructed from burlap, rope, buckets and a fire hose, featuring a papier-mâché missionary's head inside the animal’s stomach.

Frank Fairfield's latest crate-digging finds; plus McCabe's date

If Frank Fairfield didn't exist, we would have had to reanimate him.

The cliche "they don't make them like they used to" is easily disproved when discussing the twentysomething banjo-fiddle prodigy. Fairfiled is signed to Tompkins Square Records, one of the finest reissue imprints going, and few musicians can channel the distant past with the fidelity and integrity of Fairfield.

From looks to slang to soul, Fairfield rambles like a dispossessed man permanently out of time, a Dust Bowl pilgrim unmoored from a rusting Packard. His sophomore album, "Out on the Open West," channels arcane days and cloudy nights. Voodoo folk that never fails to transport you to a different era or emotion.

He's playing alongside the Americans on Sunday night at McCabe's. If you're looking for a cheaper option than Stevie Wonder at the Bowl, this is your best bet. In honor of the performance, we asked Fairfield to share a few of the latest archival finds that have captured his imagination. Check them below the jump.

Frank Fairfield premieres 'Poor Old Lance' from new album 'Out on the Open West'

Frank Fairfield isn't a ghost, but he should be. He has no business living here, surrounded by the Swedish House Mafia set, starlets and smog.

Maybe you've noticed him hiding in plain sight -- a pale apparition who used to busk at farmers markets and street corners, earning his living by singing desperate songs from deceased authors.

His banjo strums sound like they could snap necks, and his violin skills sound acquired at an Appalachian county fair circa 1924. Instead, he is in his mid-20s and grew up in the San Joaquin Valley. There are old souls, but Fairfield's is obviously ancient. He owns a Gramophone and a 16-millimeter projector. His voice sounds like it has spent the last eight decades soaking in scotch.

For a generation fractured by smart phones and smug ironicists, Fairfield's music feels artesian and fluid. The Fleet Foxes put him on first, offering an emphatic co-sign and a tour-support slot. Robin Pecknold understood that Fairfield is no put-on or poseur. So did the makers of the SXSW-selected documentary about him. Fairfield doesn't have a Twitter account, not because he's that consciously non-conformist but because it could never be his medium.

Download: (Pop & Hiss Premiere) MP3: Frank Fairfield: "Poor Old Lance"

What he has to say comes out in a song such as "Poor Old Lance," from his forthcoming sophomore effort, "Out on the Open West," released by New York old-time religionists Tompkins Square. It takes you back to Daguerreotype days. Violins and wobbly ragged vocals. It doesn't make you want to dance, it makes you want to do a jig.

Most Mondays, Fairfield can be found gigging at downtown's Redwood Bar. But he's been on the move lately, touring with Cass McCombs and preparing for a monthlong European jaunt. Before he skips town, he'll be preaching to the converted at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest & Folk Festival on May 15. 

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-- Jeff Weiss

Photo: Frank Fairfield. Credit: Frank Fairfield

 

Frank Fairfield starts new label, releases rare gramophone recordings compilation, unveils new (old) MP3

Listening to an MP3 of an ancient gramophone recording feels like an oxymoron. To get the authentic experience, you'd need to buy a Delorean, a magical hot tub or take a trip to Frank Fairfield's apartment to listen to the ultra-rare and long-forgotten shellacs on his record player.

Of course, the baby-faced banjo and fiddle phenom is unlikely to invite you over for afternoon tea. But if he did, you'd be treated to one of the most remarkable collections of old-time music this side of Steve Buscemi's record room in "Ghost World." Thankfully, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has opted to share his collection with the world, starting his own Pawn Records imprint, a subsidiary of New York's Tompkins Square.

Slated for release on June 29, "Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts: Rare and Unheralded Gramophone Recordings From Around the World (1916-1964)" collects rare 78s from Atlanta to Hawaii to Kisumu, Kenya. Fairfield's crates display an incredible breadth and depth -- listening to the compilation, one is instantly transported through a kaleidoscopic whirl of different eras and experiences, a cracked window opened into worlds full of dust and din. Googling will yield little on these artists. It's a welcome antidote to the overdose of information inculcated by the Internet age.

Impeccably transferred by vaunted record collector and producer Michael Kieffer, Fairfield and Tompkins Square have offered up an MP3 of Tuatu Archer's "Ama Ama." Spittoon and straw hat not included.

Click through to read Fairfield's liner notes about the track. 

Download:
MP3: Tautu Archer -- "Ama Ama"