Tangleweed's Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals

Our most recent CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, received a nice review in Sing Out!. Reviewer Tom Druckenmiller liked our take on traditional stringband music, as well as our approach to original material:

Tangleweed writes tunes about their lives in today’s world. This may turn off some traditional music purists, but if the classic bands sang songs about the life they were living “back in the day,” why doesn’t that apply today?

You can read the full review in the Summer, 2009 issue of Sing Out, or read it online.

Tangleweed's Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals

Tangleweed’s third CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, got a very nice write up in Record Department:

Chicago Americana quintet Tangleweed takes its influence from traditional fiddle tunes, bluegrass, blues, hymns, rags and rave-ups that grew out of the rural South. Tangleweed meticulously collected hidden gems, the lost, forgotten and/or obscure songs from Folkways reissues, 78s, box sets, traditional songbooks and the history of Americana music. This is especially evident in the title of their third album, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals taken from a little known 1920s classic. The album is rich, organic and authentic – Tangleweed carries on the tradition of old time music while expanding upon it with a few contemporary classics of their own.

Check it out at Record Department’s site: RecordDept.com

Tangleweed's Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals

Our latest CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, got a favorable write up in this month’s Bluegrass Unlimited:

This latest collection features traditional numbers “Sandy River Belle,” “Short Life Of Trouble,” and “Listen To The Mockingbird” blended with original material. Noted performances include “California,” “Mississippi Trashboat,” and a rendition of the bluegrass classic, “Pain In My Heart.” Tangleweed has created a vigorous collection of contemporary bluegrass capped with originality.

Read the full review at Bluegrass Unlimited’s site

The Rural Roots Music Commission has named Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals as its ‘Traditional Music CD of the Year’. Thanks!

According to Cool Noise, Tangleweed is a band that ‘reeks of authenticity’. They posted a very kind review of our newest CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals.

Tangleweed are an Americana five-piece from Chicago who have a recent album “Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals”. The fiddle and banjo give away that they play a good bit of Bluegrass. It is quality stuff that reeks of authenticity – this band really knows their musical history. But there is more than history here – songs like Trishanku’s Heaven and California are great additions to an American songbook.

On a few of the tracks, Tangleweed demonstrate some irish folk roots music. In particular they cover a traditional song (once performed by Ewan McColl, I believe) Join The British Army. Now, I’m not very keen on people going “Too ra loo ra loo ra loo”; okay as background in a crowded pub maybe but I have great prejudice against all of that ‘finger in the ear’ cliché of folk. However, after immensely enjoying this track I can now say: if you have to “Too ra loo ra loo ra loo” then this is the way to “Too ra loo ra loo ra loo”.

Read the review and hear a song clip at Cool Noise.

Positive reviews continue to flow in for our newest CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals. The latest comes from Andy Riggs at Americana-UK.

Tangled Up In The Bluegrass Weed Of The Folk Criminals

Over the Xmas break I was given the film ‘The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford’ (a great film in my opinion and I can’t stand Brad Pitt usually). I mention this because Tangleweed have made a record that could have been a soundtrack for that film.

This is country music from a simpler time, with banjos and fiddles taking centre stage. The ‘Weed’ are a five piece band with Billy Oh taking vocals and fiddle, Kenneth Rainey (mandolin & vocals), Paul Wargaski (bass), T R Fisher (banjo, vocals) & Scott Judd (guitar, vocals). Taking traditional songs and their own songs written by the entire band, there is nothing to dislike on this record.

The song titles show that the lads are entrenched in their roots: ‘Logjam’, ‘Pick Poor Robin Clean’, ‘Join The British Army – The Dubliners’, and ‘Mississippi Trashboat’ – you can see what territory we are in here. Anyone with Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs in their collection will enjoy this record.

Visit Americana-UK to read the review, as well as their review of our previous CD.

Positive reviews of Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals keep coming in. This comes from RootsTime. The pull quote is the last line: “The men of Tangleweed are our Folk Heroes of the moment.” Dank u wel.

De vooruitgang heeft ook zijn nadelen. We mogen dan wel beschikken over technische snufjes als mobiele telefoons en satelietverbindingen, toch heeft de mens in zijn onaflaatbare drang naar progressie onderweg iets belangrijks verloren. Integriteit en moreel besef is in onze jachtige maatschappij soms ver te zoeken. Als we de middelen van het verleden terug oppikken, vinden we misschien iets van die verloren gegane waarden terug. Dit is kort samengevat de filosofie achter de sympathieke akoestische band Tangleweed, afkomstig uit Chicago en bestaande uit vijf muzikale reactionairen. Hun wapens, bestaande uit een banjo, een mandoline, een viool, een gitaar en een bas zijn 100 % akoestisch. De muziek die Tangleweed hiermee creëert is een soort americana folk met een grote authentieke waarde, gespeeld met een punk attitude. De gedrevenheid van dit vijftal levert sprankelende resultaten op. Dit is ook te horen op hun derde cd, die de interessante titel ‘Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals’ meekreeg. Op de hoes zien we een vooroorlogse foto (uit het Chicago History Museum) van een jongetje van een jaar of tien, duidelijk working class, met een sigaret in zijn linkerhand. Het ‘slechte pad’ ligt duidelijk open voor dit kereltje. Misschien kan goede muziek zijn ellende wat verzachten? Tangleweed biedt in ieder geval een flinke dosis muzikaal enthousiasme. Luister bijvoorbeeld naar het gedreven ‘California’ of het catchy ‘Pick Poor Robin Clean’. Laat je meeslepen door het verhaal over de moord op ‘Little Sadie’. Drijf mee op de ‘Mississippi Trashboat’ of waag een country walsje op de tonen van ‘Short Life Of Trouble’. In het slechtste geval kan je nog steeds dienst nemen in het leger (‘Join The British Army’). Bij deze laatste song moesten we, toegegeven, even denken aan de muziek van de Ierse Dubliners. Maar de meeste van deze collectie songs werden door de leden van de groep zelf geschreven of zijn eigen arrangementen van bekende of minder bekende Traditionals. Uitzondering hierop is de briljante cover van de Jagger-Richards klassieker ‘Dead Flowers’, die onder de Tangleweed behandeling klinkt alsof het een oude folksong was uit de jaren ’20 van vorige eeuw. Wie dezer dagen op zoek is naar een nieuwe, eerlijke plaat die geworteld is binnen de rijke Amerikaanse folktraditie is bij Tangleweed op het goede adres. De mannen van Tangleweed zijn onze Folk Heroes van het moment.

A friend of my brother was kind enough to translate the Dutch-language review of Most Folk Heroes… I recently posted to the site:

Tangleweed is a terrific, fresh string band that we have been enthusiastic about before. Their album “Most Folk Heroes Started Out as Criminals” is again a pure joy to listen to. Good open play, fine singing, especially with a a really beautiful polyphonic singing, as if you are adding a punk flavour to bluegrass. Call it streetgrass, newgrass, or whatever they call it these days, but it is in fact just good old acoustic music with a rock and roll edge.

Tangleweed plays traditional numbers like Sandy River Belle, murder and homicide songs like Little sadie, rebellious Irish songs, but also a Rolling Stones cover which they make sound authentically old. Their commentary for that song “Dead Flowers” also shows the sense of humour within the band: “This is a lovely tune first recorded by an obscure quintet from the British Isles. The lyric “I’ll be in my basement room with my needle and my spoon” alludes to two of Mick Jagger’s great passions: embroidery and commemorative spoon collecting.”

This music of the other numbers radiates the same fun as that commentary demonstrates. This is infectious music. Very highly recommended.

He offered this one small caveat: “Dutch uses a whole different sentence structure and grammatical construction from English…so while the translation sounds a bit awkward, I tried to stay as close to the original meaning.” Thanks, Newt.