EXCLUSIVE: Down Hill Strugglers Premiere New Jalopy Records Album 'Old Juniper' in Full
By Jof Owen
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To celebrate the release of Down Hill Strugglers’ brilliant new album, Old Juniper, on Jalopy Records we’ve got the album in full exclusively for you to listen to on Holler ahead of its release.
The Appalachian-style folk trio who have had music in the soundtracks to films like Inside Llewyn Davis and Dreamland, as well as band members Eli Smith and Walker Shepard spending two and a half years working on in-game music the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games), on which Smith served as Traditional Music Consultant.
Over the years, the band, consisting of Eli Smith, Jackson Lynch, and Walker Shepard, have played The Kennedy Center, Newport Folk Fest, The Library of Congress, Brooklyn Folk Fest and NPR Mountain Stage, and now they prepare their first record in seven years and their first album of all originals.
“It was interesting writing an album of all new music as an old time string band,” laughs Eli Smith. “We hope we made something that is old, new and true... The record reflects the diverse roots of old time string band music, where we are at home, and the experiences had by us in our modern lives.”
“This album marks a bit of a rebirth for the Down Hill Strugglers,” he adds, reflecting on the time between Old Juniper and their last album Lone Prairie in 2017. “The pandemic and aftermath kept us quiet for a long time. The music on this album was drawn from a deep well of music that we love, recorded on commercial 78rpm discs and on field recordings made by folklorists over many decades.”
“Old-time music is a catch all for historic American folk music,” Smith explains. “It encompasses fiddle music, banjo tunes, guitar picking, songs and ballads, blues, religious music, work songs, and more; a broad range of music ministering to different parts of life. As the history of recorded sound becomes longer, there have been revivals and revivals of revivals. The soul music revival is popular. Bands playing in that style are working with aesthetics developed and popularized mostly in the 1960's and 70's. That was 60 years ago. We are working in a style that was first recorded around 100 years ago.”
“The old time music that was recorded across the United States in the 1920's and 1930's was the first picture of that sound, and the artists from that era set precedents and defined the style. But the music goes back much farther in time, and extends forward to now. Our music reflects that history, combined with our diverse tastes and experiences living our lives now.”
Recorded live to tape with the band members around a single microphone, there is a breath holding intimacy and a feeling of being there in the room with them when you listen to the recordings
“We hope that this brings an immediacy to our recorded music that can sometimes be lost on over produced recordings,” Smith explains about the way they made the album. “The recording sessions were done at the Jalopy Theatre in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY. The title track was recorded in our bandmate Walker's sister's barn, upstate. You can hear the crickets chirping in the background on that one, it's kind of a field recording.”
Among other things, Old Juniper takes its inspiration from Burnett and Rutherford, Gribble, Lusk and York, Roy Acuff, Lead Belly, Dave McCarn, Alfred Karnes, Wade Ward, Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, the Carolina Tarheels, the Grinnell Giggers, Weems String Band, Reaves White County Ramblers and many more from across the country, as well as music recorded on 78rpm records from Zambia and Kyrgyzstan.
“Everything considered innovative in music is a re-combination of old elements, put together in a new way,” Smith adds contemplatively. “Nothing, or very very little, is truly new. The joy and excitement is found in the discovery of new combinations that feel natural, not a self conscious fusion.”
With that in mind, one of the band’s great triumphs with Old Juniper is the freshness that the songs have along with its easy familiarity. Despite taking their inspiration and musical cues from roots music of the past, the album never feels nostalgic in its reverence and affection for old time music.
“Old time music, as it says in the name, is a backward facing music,” agrees Smith. “It connects us to history and to musicians and communities who came before. It's music that should seem familiar, even if you've never heard it before. We are looking for that feeling in our own new music.”
“The place where collective tradition and individual creation meet is an important one. We are inspired, not restricted by traditional music. Writing the music on this album reflects a conversation between ourselves and the many people who loved and played the broad range of vernacular music that we draw from.”
As well as being the band’s first album since 2017, Old Juniper is also their first since the passing of band member, photographer, filmmaker, folklorist and former member of the New Lost City Ramblers John Cohen, who later in life played in the Down Hill Strugglers and died in 2019 at the age of 87.
“Ever in our thoughts and in our music is our bandmate, now gone,” Smith says. “His original band, the New Lost City Ramblers set a model for what we, and many old time string bands do, now. The Ramblers would always name their sources in their excellent liner notes. I learned a lot, early on, from reading those liner notes.”
Listen to Old Juniper in full below exclusively on Holler before its release on August 16th on Jalopy Records.
