Old Forge This Week

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Music has guided Driftwood to hallowed ground many times since its founding members, Joe Kollar and Dan Forsyth, started making music as high schoolers in Joes parents basement. Whether the Upstate New York folk rock groupwhich today also includes violinist Claire Byrne, bassist Joey Arcuri, and drummer Sam Fishmanare converting new fans on a hardscrabble tour across the country or playing to a devoted crowd at hero Levon Helms Woodstock barn, the bands shapeshifting approach to folk music continues to break new ground. And yet in many ways Driftwoods latest work, the transformative December Last Call, finds the group coming home. Recorded in that very same basement where the Driftwood dream began, December Last Call lyrically reflects on the recent past, musing on the ways the group grew up, together and apart, through curveballs like new parenthood or pandemic shutdowns. But sonically, the bands sixth album looks confidently to the future, experimenting with new sounds while staying true to the bluegrass roots that built them. Across the albums nine tracks, the band often leans into hard-rocking electric guitars and driving percussion: On Every Which Way But Loose, we get a foot-tapping beat and a sweeping chorus, and on Up All Night Blues, the band shines with an ambling, sing-along-able reflection on the challenges of new motherhood. But other tracks, like standout closer Stardust, take a simpler route, allowing bare-bones vocals and acoustic instrumentals to underpin a deeper emotional message.One of Driftwoods biggest differentiatorsand perhaps its biggest strengthis the sheer breadth of talent in its lineup, with Claire, Joe, and Dan all contributing as songwriters and vocalists. This creative push-pull, where each selects songs to share with the group and record together, bakes vulnerability and collaborative spirit into every recording. Its at the heart of what we do, says Dan. Everybody has a strong love for songs, for songwriting, and we each appreciate everybody else and the way that they contribute to that. While 2019s acclaimed Tree of Shade tapped Simon Felice as producer, the band opted to self-produce this latest effort, leaning into their creative impulses and striving to capture their distinctive live energy. Figuring out how to channel that on-stage intensity into a recording has actually, in many ways, been a lesson in restraint. When I look back at the things we were writing and playing, oh, I dont know, 10, 12 years ago, they were really arranged: a lot of you do this here, were going to do this there, were going to break down, were going to do a big build, Claire explains. These days, its more like, Lets play the song and just see what happens.

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