2017 release. Plainspoken but poetic, timely and timeless, poignant yet pointed: the American folk song tradition has a long history of confronting specific injustices while embracing a universal humanity. On the starkly moving Town and Country, vocalist Dominique Eade and pianist Ran Blake take the long view of our own tumultuous moment in history with a wide-ranging collection of folk tunes that examine the travails of Americans from Main Street to the mountains. With the varied repertoire on Town and Country, Eade and Blake - long-time colleagues both on the stage and as educators at Boston's New England Conservatory - present a broad notion of folk song that's as diverse as the nation itself. There are the expected classic tunes and country ballads, the ill-fated coalminers, the tragic romantics grasping out their last breaths, the cries of faith and determination sent heavenward. But in the agile imaginations of these two inventive artists, who share a love for skewing the traditional through a modernist lens, the folk idea is broad enough to include film noir laments and TV-scaled road songs, moonlit love and Third Stream austerity.

Tracklist:

Lullaby
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Moon Riverwest Virginia Mine Disaster
Elijah Rock
Give My Love to Rose
Harvest at Massachussetts General Hospital
The Easter Tree
Moonglow / Theme from Picnic
Thoreau 1
Moti 1
Pretty Fly 1
Open Highway 1
Gunther 1
West Virginia Mine Disaster 1
Harvest at Massachussetts General Hospital 1
Moonlight in Vermont 1
Goodnight, Irene

UPC: 016728148429
Label: Sunnyside
Release Date: 6.9.17
Format: CD

Dominique Eade / Blake,Ran - Town & Country (CD)