Laura Cantrell - Humming by the Flowered Vine [20th Anniversary Edition]
“Be it in her own songs or those of the past, in the hands of Cantrell every sinew of her genre seems to be writhing with life, its true magic evoked in a sensual way no history lesson could ever manage. Cantrell opens country music up like a flower, and Humming by the Flowered Vine is a work of formidable and pristine beauty, emanating all of its flavour.” – Drowned In Sound
“With Humming by the Flowered Vine, Cantrell has proven she’s the rightful heiress to Lucinda Williams. Like Williams, Cantrell writes beautifully stark songs that find the poetry in simple images, songs that reveal the profound revelations in everyday life. Moreover, she not only performs covers, but finds songs that reflect the heritage of traditional American music.” – POPMatters
Propeller Sound Recordings rereleased country music artist Laura Cantrell’s Humming By The Flowered Vine, originally released in 2005 on Matador Records. The “Humming album,” as it became known to Cantrell fans, is a pivotal work in Cantrell’s music career – her previous recordings Not The Tremblin’ Kind and When the Roses Bloom Again had been released in the UK by Glasgow-based indie label Spit and Polish/Shoeshine; in the US, they had been the first full-length, single artist releases on Brooklyn’s Diesel Only Records, run by Cantrell’s husband Jeremy Tepper, and they’d established Cantrell as an Americana talent on the rise. “With my first two albums, we’d had an intense five years – starting with Tremblin’ Kind’s release in January 2000, from our first appearance at Celtic Connections in Glasgow that year, we sprinted nonstop – touring all over the UK and Ireland, earning the support and friendship of BBC legends John Peel and Bob Harris, opening for Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello in the US, playing every kind of gig from local bars all the way to the Grand Ole Opry, it was a terrific blur of hard work and happy accidents,” Cantrell recalls.
“We were thrilled when the opportunity came to work with Matador. Making ‘Humming’ represented a creative leap, working with producer JD Foster and engineer Andy Taub at Brooklyn Recording. Having recorded my previous albums with my gigging band, largely in home studios, these sessions were expansive, with additional musicians like Dave Schramm, Joey Burns and Jon Convertino from Calexico, Amy Helm and Fiona McBain of Ollabelle. As the musical possibilities and sonic palette bloomed, I hoped my songs and voice would hold up in new surroundings. When I felt challenged or unsure, Jeremy was confident and excited, and his enthusiasm kept me steady through the process.”
The Humming By The Flowered Vine reissue features two songs by Dave Schramm, “And Still” and bonus track “Hammer and Nails.” Cantrell recalls, “I’d loved Dave’s ‘Hammer and Nails’ since he’d released his acoustic album with that tune as a title track a few years earlier, and I’d played it a fair amount on Radio Thrift Shop. I remember in the recording studio being really proud of our version, then realized as we finalized the track list we’d need to leave it off the album for time. I’m so happy it will be available to everyone finally, it has a depth that resonates even more so now.” Humming also features some of Cantrell’s best songwriting up to that point – “Bees,” her tribute to legendary BBC DJ John Peel which was also featured in the BBC television series Skins, “California Rose,” about pioneering country artist Rose Maddox, personal reminiscences like “Khaki and Corduroy” and “Old Downtown” – and her arrangement of “Poor Ellen Smith,” based on the version published by Ethel Park Richardson, Cantrell’s great, great Aunt, in her 1926 book American Mountain Songs.
In her 26-year career, Cantrell has explored many facets of a musical life: singer-songwriter, touring musician, radio host (she is currently the host of “Dark Horse Radio,” a program devoted to George Harrison on SiriusXM’s The Beatles Channel). Since 2000, Cantrell has released six studio albums and a compilation of live performances on the BBC. She has toured extensively in the US, UK and Ireland, and was a favorite of pioneering British DJ John Peel, who called her first album, Not The Tremblin’ Kind, “my favorite record of the last ten years, and possibly my life.” (continue reading bio on our DISCO)