I first saw the Foghorn Stringband perform in Kilborne Hall at the Eastman School of Music with Dirk Powell and Riley Baugus in March of 2005. It was a great excuse to splatter a space usually treated with classical music etiquette with hoots and hollers. Based out of Portland, Oregon, Foghorn is not an attempt to reproduce a 19th century dance band, but they are a traditional American stringband in the best sense. They perform with a raw intensity that captures the spirit of the old time tradition while making the sound their own. Foghorn plays with the conviction that old-time music is still relevant in a post-modern world, and I wholeheartedly agree.
Weiser Sunrise is Foghorn's third album, and features the same personnel as the previous two albums, Rattlesnake Tidalwave and Reap What You Sow. One characteristic that distinguishes Foghorn's sound is the 3-finger style (or Scruggs style) employed by banjo player P.T. Grover Jr., which gives songs unique rhythmic color and a driving feel. Grover plays the melody in approximate unison with fiddler Stephen Lind and mandolinist Caleb Klauder. Klauder's mandolin gives a percussive jolt to phrases, playing in exact unison with the fiddle. Together the three deliver melodic lines with clarity, vigor, and stylistic perfection. This egalitarian approach to melody challenges the attitude often found in the old time scene that old time music is all about the fiddle. Bassist Brian Bagdonas and guitar player Kevin Sandri are undoubtedly one of the best rhythm sections on the old time scene. They are so solid that it's easy to take them for granted as they lay down the foundation to Foghorn's sound.
The song selection is well balanced, with standards like Mississippi Sawyer and Sally Anne and more obscure tunes such as Kicking Up The Devil On A Holiday (my favorite cut on the album). The recording itself is transparent and clean. Like their other albums, Foghorn picks both instrumental and vocal songs of varying tempos in both duple and triple meters. The singing of Lind, Klauder, and Sandri is understated and feels like it grows naturally out of the music rather than being featured specifically.
I highly recommend this spirited and unpretentious album from one of the best old time stringbands in the country.
