It’s often assumed that acoustic instrumentation is better served in quiet, intimate settings, with candles burning low across wooden mantles and creaking floorboards joining in with the homespun harmonies. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that assumption, though it does prove a bit limiting in its scope. But then you hear bands like Ann Arbor traditionalists The Appleseed Collective and any notion of fixed aesthetics and vague assumptions are thrown out the window in favor of the development of an organic musical progression and the sense that this music has always been there, patiently biding its time — hovering in the air, waiting for just the right person to come along and pluck it like some tonal fruit. The band’s music has a rustic, communal feel. This is music best served alongside a roaring campfire but also has the ability to challenge the rafters of any grand arena. On their upcoming album, Young Love (due out January 21st), they mix bits and pieces of Americana with a more modern take on folk music, without having to sacrifice any semblance of musical individuality.
For our first glimpse of Young Love, the band has chosen to lead with “The Inability To Feel,” which carefully unspools threads of banjo and acoustic guitar to create beautifully skeletal melodies that wind themselves around singer Andrew Brown’s whiskey-soaked vocals. The song feels drenched in the lore of dark southern nights and desperate ends. But there is also a sly wink to the sounds of Dixieland and occasionally a subtly upbeat harmony works its way into the musical mire. And between percussionist Vince Russo, violinist Brandon Smith, singer/banjo plucker Katie Lee, and bassist Ben Rolston, there isn’t a note out of place, or rhythm that isn’t drawn out into a panoramic rustic landscape. This is widescreen folk music, and the desire to get lost among its musical intricacies almost becomes an inevitability.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the latest single, “The Inability to Feel,” from The Appleseed Collective’s upcoming album, Young Love.
