Weirs - Diamond Grove (Dear Life)[Alt-Folk]
- The Slow Music Movement
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's October 16th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***
Regular readers might remember me tipping Weirs on the strength of this album’s first single, the white gospel strains of “I Want to Die Easy” a while back? Well I was somewhat non-plussed by the rather provocative choice of “Everlasting” as their second “single”, or maybe I should be giving them props, but the album is finally here, and all is well again.
Based around North Carolina, Weirs are an experimental, non-hierarchical collective that depending on what’s happening, number from two to twelve people at a gig, are rooted in age old tradition, with a DIY ethos and a pleasing fondness for giving things a twist or ten. The new album saw nine of the crew: Child-Lanning; Justin Morris, Libby Rodenbough, Evan Morgan, Courtney Werner, Mike DeVito and stalwarts Andy McLeod, Alli Rogers, and Oriana Messer squeeze into an old house on a dairy farm in 2023, and boy did those cows get a treat.
Whether it’s the aforementioned white gospel (it’s a thing you know), the outsider droning strings and age old alt-folk tale “Lord Randall”, the field recording infused orchestra tuning discordant soundscape of “Everlasting”, the patiently building ultimately edgy pump organ and string soundscape meets early twentieth century tavern tale of “Edward”, the oddball autotuned and layered vocals of “Doxology (I)”, insect sounds meeting avant orchestral palette cleanser of “(A Still, Small Voice)”, the twenty minute uneasy ambient folk strains of “Lord Bateman“ or the circle completing ecclesiastical “Doxology (II)”, the album is an outsider folk meets leftfield white gospel one of a kind and deserves your close attention.
Playlist Companion
Find Weirs in the Slow Folk Playlist.