root salad House And Land
That weird old Appalachian drone infuses their alluring music. Cara Gibney checks out the duo.
S
arah Louise Henson and Sally Anne Morgan of the folk and old-time duo House And Land were explain- ing the origins of the Appalachian music styles that they interpret, sing, and play together. They were explaining the sense of place, and the sense of self that their music carries. The conversation put the minimalism of their music into context; it explained the use of drone. And as the dialogue unfolded, the depth of influence that nature holds on the sounds and the spaces the pair create in their music became abundantly clear.
Despite a shared interest in particular styles of traditional and modern music, the two Asheville, North Carolina, musicians were blissfully unaware of each other until relatively recently. You may know Sally Anne Morgan – singer, square dance caller, fiddle, banjo and guitar player – as the fid- dler with Appalachian old-time band Black Twig Pickers. With Morgan it all started back when she was “probably nine years old” and she began playing violin. By the time she hit college her allegiances were squarely placed with old-time music which she played for years; initially just with musi- cians, then later for square dances and tra- ditional dances. When she first heard twelve-string guitarist Sarah Louise Henson play “some of her solo stuff in Asheville” it was very clear by her performance, which included a cappella singing and American Primitive guitar, that “Sarah was doing something really different. Something I have not heard before.”
“I live outside of Asheville and I’ve been in kind of my own bubble for a long time,” multi-instrumentalist Henson smiled in response. With solo releases under her belt, Henson is a self-taught guitarist who since school has never been a fan of music theory. “[It] kind of put me in my own world,” she explained how her self-styled tuning and playing helped to separate her from the music world around her. “Music,” she told me, “has been an incredibly solitary pursuit.”
In June this year, House And Land released their debut, self-titled album. It’s a collection of ten Appalachian ballads and traditional Southern hymns whose centuries- long lineage can be traced to England and beyond. With that history comes a culture of patriarchy that Henson and Morgan worked with, to suit what needs to be said in 2017. In the case of songs like Johnny the lyrics were changed in order to break age- old stereotypes. Other songs, such as Rich Old Jade were seen “as a form of conscious- ness raising, and so were left unchanged”.
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Morgan explains: “These songs in many cases are so old you don’t know what ver- sions they are. They are so changed interact- ing with people in their times and in their places … that I don’t feel like there is any- thing wrong with changing a few things to reflect our times.”
A
key element to the sound of House And Land is the use of drone, in which an unbroken chord or note is sounded through -
out a piece of music. For Morgan and Hen- son this is an acknowledgment of the drone that is used in Appalachian music. It is also one vehicle through which they can express their shared love for, and influence of, mod- ern, experimental and minimal music; which in turn draws on significant influence from traditional music around the world.
Similarly, House And Land also leave scope for the impact, not only of the notes in their music, but also the intervals between those notes. ”We just started play- ing on our porches and in our living rooms,” Morgan explained. “Doing what we did live, without any microphones or recording devices.” Often their arrangements are sparse, economical. “We were shaped by our limitations to some extent too,” Mor- gan continued. “There is a practicality to how we play our music.”
On the album, drone manifests itself vocally, and through instruments including
fiddle, banjo and Indian shutri box. “It is spiritual,” Henson told me. “And I think it is universal and primal in that way … there are a lot of drones present in nature. In Appalachia there is an insect called the cica- da and they sing in drone. I think that it has always been landscape influenced.”
So, before the practicality is consid- ered, or the playing; even before the arranging, their music is very much inspired by nature. Henson’s rural “sonic environ- ment is full of birds; I go walking around creeks a lot. I do think that that has all seeped in,” she explained. “I feel very, for lack of any better words, spiritually con- nected in similar ways to my music and to nature. I think that’s because they bring out similar feelings in me. There is a relation- ship there because I am so much about place – in my work, and in my life. Place is really important to me.”
And this touches somewhat on the duo’s name: House And Land. “That’s where this music happened. It happened in porches and it happened out in the fields, it is a phrase in a lot of ballads, it is also in one of the songs on our record, and I think it also has to do with my dream of owning a house and land one day.” A phrase expressing sev- eral generations’ sense of self, time, and place, that reverberates through the core of House And Land.
houseandland.bandcamp.com F
Photo: Judy Henson
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