I’ve always felt a bit sorry for poor Alela Diane. A supremely talented individual, she’s had the extreme misfortune to emerge from the mountains of California at the same time as hipster-beloved harpist Joanna Newsom – and from the moment Joanna started her unwieldy squeaking on 2004’s The Milk-Eyed Mender, there seemed no hope of Alela’s altogether more temperate brand of folk music, holding the attention of the public for more than a few, passing seconds.

But now Ms. Newsom seems to be on an extended hiatus, and in her absence Alela’s been slowly garnering the attention she deserves (Pitchfork, having ignored her debut, awarded her sophomore album a highly respectable 8.0), and she’s been dutifully doing the festival rounds – playing End of The Road, Latitude and Primavera – and touring with folk heavyweights such as Iron & Wine and Blitzen Trapper.

So for an artist essentially at the peak of her game, is a duet EP such a good idea? Both duets and EP’s have been horrifically done in the past – both seem to be an excuse to dress up substandard material for the sake of a release – and when you add in the fact that Alela’s duet partner is old friend Alina Hardin, you’d be forgiven for wondering just how much work went on in the studio. And when you toss in the fact that three out of the six tracks are covers, Alela Diane fans must be quaking in their fringed boots.

Thankfully, this EP is far from the disaster its circumstances predict – it’s a thing of pastoral, austere beauty, and has the rare gift of recalling the past without cheapening it – Alela’s brand of nostalgias is effortless, almost instinctive, as though the voices of ancient troubadours trickle in with her own.

The EP kicks off (Although ‘kicks off’ seems to be too aggressive a phrase for this EP – it more gently wafts out of your speakers) with ‘Amidst The Movement’, and here we see Alina Hardin earn her album co-credit with ease – although both singers are stunning on their own, their sum is greater than their parts; their voices entwine spellbindingly, and Alina’s high, floating mewl gives Alela’s sonorousness a welcome lightness.

Elsewhere, the results are equally as stunning – ‘Crying Wolf’, with it’s gently-undulating guitar line, bell-like vocals, and chaste, Christina Rossetti-inspired romanticism, is simply the purest piece of music I’ve heard for quite some time, and ‘Matty Groves’ shows that Alela can carry off lengthy, Ys-style narratives with ease- but to be honest, comparing Joanna Newsom and Alela Diane is almost completely void – yes, they are cut from the same cloth, but while Joanna’s weightily ambitions spirals towards the treetops, Alela’s bucolic, mud-streaked blues are far happier residing peacefully on the forest floor.

Buy music on [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=332690996&s=143444&uo=4" title="iTunes" text="iTunes"]

Alela is giving away a track lifted from the EP called ‘On The Bowling Green’. You can get it from here.

Alela Diane is about to embark on her first proper tour around the UK [you can catch her at Cambridge (09/09), Bristol (10/09), Cardiff (11/09), Exeter (13/09), Birmingham (16/09) & London Shepherd’s Bush Empire (17/09)] and whilst she’s here, she’s going to blog about her travels…

I’ve been tying up all the loose ends as best as I can before I leave this time. Packing bags, visiting friends, and signing all sorts of crazy papers that mean I’ll own a house. It’s so nice here in Portland. A perfect day today, that says ‘it’s coming on fall’- with a gentle breeze of delicate temperature & hints of plant life hunkering down & getting ready for hibernation. After the surreal jaunt across the blue & over the clouds tomorrow, I’ll be on the highways of yonder, for the month of September.

I’ve been in and out of Portland during the brief ‘break’ from touring that August was supposed to be… But, it turns out New York City called, and I went there to feel all that is not still. After I was home for 3 days or so, I went down to my hometown of Nevada City, California for a week. It was a lovely time spent with family & friends – in the pines, and near the final waters of summer. I visited the cabin that I lived in a few years back, a structure of logs built on my friend and fellow songstress, Mariee Sioux’s family land. That cabin is where I wrote many of the songs for To Be Still… tucked into its low ceilings & drinking my tea. Mariee’s folks, my mom, my love & my nearly-in-laws, shared a homegrown meal from the garden, amongst the flowers.

It has been goodbye and farewell all year long, and so, leaving tomorrow – quite honestly – feels too soon.
But, it’s time to sing again, and it’s time to share the songs- for now, and for the music.

Leaving is bittersweet for someone who loves home as much as I- especially now- when the constant movement of the past year is still circling in my spirit & bones… The keys for a beautiful old farmhouse will be available to Tom & me in a matter of days, but we won’t have the chance to step inside the door or light a fire in the woodstove- until we’ve got 7,000 miles under our boots.

Nevada City is a township of just over 3,000 in rural Northern California but one that has been populated by artists, hippies, Senators, actors, poets and writers. It also was the home of the first Californian Gold Rush where a huge seam of gold was discovered by prospectors, “found by the old buzzards who roamed the hills” like those in Central City from On The Road.

Alela Diane is one of the souls that inhabit Nevada City. This is important because Diane’s music is rooted in traditional forms of American music. Her ouevre is an evocation of pine covered mountainsides, miners shacks, campfires with beans and franks cooking, plateaus and plains. The Sierra Nevada is deep in Steinbeck country, so these associations aren’t unwarranted and Diane certainly draws upon the topography of California. There is something so evocative for a non-American of these paradigms of Americana that is hard to keep from being swept along by utterances such as “California hills could surely welcome us back home”.

‘To Be Still’ is the title track from Diane’s sophomore album and is a meditative and lyrical evocation of folk pastoralism. This isn’t to say that Diane is a revivalist concerned only with antiquity and content to trade on folkisms or archetypes. Instead Diane uses the frameworks of folk and blues without becoming reverential, yielding poignant narratives all told by that beautiful, plaintive voice. ‘Fat Mama’ sketches a tale of a housewife in a faded backwoods town – “she cooks and she washes and carries on all day long” and acts as a companion piece to ‘The Ocean’ from To Be Still. There is a similar honesty and depth of interpretation at its heart.

The sparse melancholia of her debut The Pirate’s Gospel has been augmented by an increase of, in her own words, “instrumental filigree”. This is particularly the case on ‘To Be Still’. Woozy sighs of dreamlike pedal steel guitar accompany Diane’s vocal, as clear as still water, alongside finger-picked guitar and mallet drums.

Despite this newfound ornamentation there is an economy in phrase and execution across the three tracks. Diane’s diction is less cluttered and an unhurried approach to production and songwriting yields great results. Yes, heritage acts are marketable right now (see also: Fleet Foxes, Joanna Newsom etcetera ad nauseum) but the quality of Diane’s work allows her to also transcend any attempt at positioning or typecasting.
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Alela Diane on Myspace

So you’re having a bunch of shows in Hyde Park, during the (brief) height of the Great British summer, and what do you do? Why stick it in a tent, of course. Granted, everyone would be eternally grateful if, true to form, it was pissing it down tonight,  but it’s not and it seems a damn shame having to shuffle inside a big old circus tent when it’s so nice lazing around outside on the grass. Which may explain why there’s a fairly small crowd for folk-tress Alela Diane, tonight’s main support act. Those who did head inside were rewarded though, as she delivered a warm, glowing rendition of highlights from her debut To Be Still. With her dad on mandolin duties, and a full band, she pulled of a gloriously golden sound that rivalled soaking up the sun outside.

The tent did, of course, fill up though, as Bon Iver took to the stage around 8:45pm. Opening with a long, anticipation-building intro to ‘Lump Sum’, it was a fairly low-key beginning to the proceedings, even by his low-key standards. But after he’d eased in gently he whipped out that battered old steel guitar and smacked the audience round the face, dropping what must’ve been the track most them bought their ticket for –  the trademark ‘Skinny Love’. It wasn’t wasted early on in the set though, but set a very very high bar for the rest of the show, which Bon Iver cleared easily. And, of course, it was bloody beautiful. There was a rare outing for’ Brackett, W9’, featured on the Dark Was The Night compilation. The warm, fuzzy guitar sounds combined with swelling vocals were lovely to hear live, and then progressed surprisingly well into ‘Blood Bank’, as though the two songs were brothers.

Generally a man of few but always kind a humble worlds, Justin said the past two years had been ‘indescribable’, so he therefore wasn’t going to attempt to describe it. A solo ‘Re:Stacks’ was definitely one of the most heartbreaking moments of the evening, with an entire tent brought to it’s knees by the beautiful rubato delivery on the chorus. ‘Babies’, from the Blood Bank EP was also surprisingly epic, building towards a huge, all-encompassing final chorus. Ending on the warm, amiable  tones of ‘For Emma’, the band leave stroll off the stage to rapturous applause. It seems they’re picked up a few bad rock and roll habits, as there’s more than a pregnant pause before they return. Covering the classic Jayhawks track, ‘Tampa to Tulsa’, Mike Noyce takes over vocal duties, and it’s a full and accomplished voice that comes from this delicate, still-wet-behind-the-ears slip of a boy. ‘Creature Fear’ sends the audience off into the (still light) park, with huge reverberating drums sounds and a final cacophony of sounds, giving this track a new lease of life.

This show is yet another dollop of icing on the Bon Iver cake. Consistently good, consistently challenging, consistently pushing themselves -  they truly are an audience’s bands, and they certainly knocked this show out of the park.

My Bloody Valentine

H-O-L-Y-S-H-I-T

Check out the lineup for this years Primavera Festival. Full details in the official press blurb below.

Barcelona, 18th of February 2009 – Once again, the best of international independent music will meet in the Parc del Fòrum of Barcelona. The festival, which this year will take place from the 28th until the 30th of May, maintains its eclectic quality by presenting an array of artists, who stand out in the originality and quality of their performances. The festivalgoers will witness an amazing display of talent from the participating bands.

This new edition of Estrella Damm Primavera Sound will be marked by the double performance of My Bloody Valentine, the mythical band of the 90s who made a comeback last year, by the visit of Sonic Youth with their new record, the classics of indie rock Yo La Tengo, the elusive electronic music of Aphex Twin, the ex lead singer of Pulp, Jarvis Cocker and the British band Bloc Party.

In the section of artists with a long history are artists of the calibre of The Jayhawks and the return of one of the most important bands of post punk: A Certain Ratio. Joe Henry (selected by Rockdelux as best concert of 2008) and the veteran Michael Nyman will also perform at the festival. Other influential artists who will be there in the Forum from the 28th to the 30th of May are Shellac, the Black Lips revitalizing punk, the frontman of Grandaddy Jason Lytle, the mythical and overpowering The Jesus Lizard, Magnolia Electric Co, from France, Phoenix, the Sonic Boom Spectrum, the kings of drone metal Sunn O))), Kimya Dawson or the hardcore Fucked Up.

Every year we try to include a high number of bands playing in Spain for the first time and this year among the chosen ones are: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Crystal Stilts, Girls, Lemonade, Sleepy Sun, Shearwater and Carsick Cars, a young band from China, protégés of Sonic Youth.

The national bands, which will increase in the next few weeks, include Extraperlo and The Lions Constellation launching their debut LPs, the comeback of Veracruz with one of the records of the year, the psychedelic metal of Cuzo and the robust post hardcore of Rosvita.

The area of more experimental sounds is covered by artists such as Ariel Pink and Marnie Stern, the unbeatable duo Lightning Bolt or what promises to be the concert of the 2009 edition, Dan Deacon with an ensemble of 15 musicians presenting his new record.

Electronic music and hip hop still have their space in the Estrella Damm Primavera Sound with the visit of the rapper Ghostface Killah, a live performance by Squarepusher, the revelation Ebony Bones, the captivating eclecticism of Girl Talk, the ever efficient EL-P and dance music from DJs like A-Trak (Dj of Kanye West and the coolest hip hop agitator) and Michael Mayer.

The full festival tickets for Estrella Damm Primavera Sound 2009 can be purchased for 115 € (+ booking fee) up until February 22th. The full festival tickets will cost 130 € (+ booking fee) from February 23rd.

The only official ticketing companies are: the entire Tick Tack Ticket network, the CD Drome shops in Barcelona and Madrid, Seetickets UK, Fnac France and PayPal through the festival website.

CONFIRMED ARTISTS: A-Trak, A Certain Ratio, Alela Diane, Andrew Bird, Angelo Spencer, Aphex Twin, Ariel Pink, Art Brut, The Bad Plus, Bat For Lashes, Black Lips, Bloc Party, Bowerbirds, The Bug, Carsick Cars, Crystal Antlers, Crystal Stilts, Cuzo, Chad VanGaalen, Damien Jurado, Dan Deacon Ensemble, Deerhunter, Dj Mehdi, The Drones, Ebony Bones, El-P, Extra Life, The Extraordinaires, Extraperlo, Fucked Up, Gang Gang Dance, Ghostface Killah, Girl Talk, Girls, Jarvis Cocker, Jason Lytle from Grandaddy, Jay Reatard, The Jayhawks, The Jesus Lizard, Joe Crepúsculo y Los Destructores, Joe Henry, John Maus, Karl Blau, Kimya Dawson, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Lemonade, Lightning Bolt, The Lions Constellation, The Mae Shi, Magik Markers, Magnolia Electric Co., Mahjongg, Marnie Stern, Michael Mayer, Michael Nyman, My Bloody Valentine, The New Year, Oneida, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Phoenix, Plants & Animals, Ponytail, Rosvita, The Secret Society, Shearwater, Shellac, Simian Mobile Disco, SkatebÅrd, Sleepy Sun, The Soft Pack, Sonic Youth, Spectrum, Spiritualized, Squarepusher, Sunn O))) performing “The Grimmerobe Demos”, The Tallest Man On Earth, Throwing Muses, Uffie, The Vaselines, Veracruz, Vivian Girls, Wavves, Women, Wooden Shjips, Yo La Tengo and Zombie Zombie.

ATP STAGE: Ariel Pink, Carsick Cars, The Drones, El-P, Gang Gang Dance, The Jesus Lizard, Lightning Bolt, Magik Markers, Shellac, Sleepy Sun, Sunn O))) and Wooden Shjips.

Anyone familiar with Guy Garvey’s radio show will know that Alela Diane is currently sitting pretty as Garvey’s artist du jour. She’s a regular on the playlist, and often on the other end of the phone for a guest appearance and to soak up the compliments.

But just in case Guy Garvey’s stamp of approval isn’t enough to shift the units, To Be Still has got the goods that should see it flying of the shelves. Or at least making it into the odd Amazon basket.

This album is like a collection of short stories in song form, some personal, some in the third person. Each track has its own narrative, to make up a bigger picture of either Alela Diane’s life, or something pretty close to it. Mainly accompanied by an acoustic guitar, it’s the highly crafted song writing in which the talent lies in. There’s a mix of traditional folk melodies (‘The Alder Trees’, ‘Take Us Back’) with more percussive numbers (‘Dry Grass and Shadows’) and modern tales of the self (‘My Brambles’).

Alela Diane’s vocals are a melting pot of female singer songwriters past and present, from Joni Mitchell to Jenny Lewis to Laura Marling. Despite her American provenance, there’s a hint of an English accent in the way she sings in her deep, at times slightly coarse, voice.

Nature is a strong theme throughout To Be Still, from animals to landscapes to the elements. The lyrics almost read like a Ted Hughes poem at times – “Last year’s antlers/Mark the trail” - and are unlike anything written by her contemporaries. She seems to write songs in the way people like Leonard Cohen to – with time, consideration, thought, and many re-writes. Not just a few clichés strung together.

There’s a lot of female singer/songwriters about at the moment, but Alela Diane stands head and shoulders above them all. And let’s face it, were we expecting Guy Garvey to be wrong?
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Alela Diane on MySpace

Those fine folk down at End of The Road Festival are up to their old tricks again; booking some of TLOBF’s favourite bands to entice us to spend a weekend under canvas in Dorset at the beginning of September. The first names out of the hat are, in alphabetical order:

Alela Diane
Archie Bronson Outfit
Bob Log III
Charlie Parr
Efterklang
Howlin Rain
Joe Gideon and the Shark
Lay Low
The Low Anthem
Motel Motel
Peter Broderick
Sam Baker
Sparrow & The Workshop
Steve Earle
Tallest Man on Earth
This Frontier Needs Heroes
William Elliot Whitmore
Whispertown 2000

The festival, in the beautiful Larmer Tree Gardens, runs from 11-13 September and you can pick get more information and tickets from their website www.endoftheroadfestival.com