Frank Fairfield takes "Down Home Music in the Southwest" to Haarlem and Utrecht
04-08-2014For the uninitiated, Frank Fairfield is a Fresno, California native (and now Los Angeles resident) and a genius on the fiddle, guitar, banjo who possesses a broken soulful voice that perfectly reflects the tragedy and damnation of the subject matter reflected in the timeless American music that he’s made his stock and trade through his albums on Tompkins Square, and through countless tours from coast to coast.
Frank sings tunes he has worked hard to collect from around the world as well as his own well-dusted ditties. His eclectic sets feature soaring hillbilly ballads, arcane rambling songs and murder ballads delivered in a reedy tenor with that irresistible American Primitive quality. Still in his twenties but steeped in the pre-War Americana of Mississippi John Hurt and Dock Boggs, he cut his teeth as a street performer in LA and has the raw intensity and quick-fingered technique to make your hairs stand on end. Alternating between banjo, fiddle and guitar, he performs a different set of traditional songs and originals each night, drawing on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the American folk canon.
Last weekend he performed at the OFF Festival in Poland but tomorrow night he'll be doing his first of two concerts in The Netherlands. Taking his new release "Down Home Music in the Southwest" on his own label Beaumont Record Company on the road he's doing these two shows overhere:
06-08-2014: Haarlem (NL) @ Parksessies
24-08-2014: Utrecht (NL) @ DBs