FACTS, MEDIA, AND LIES

Illustration by E.J. Pettinger                                                    

Quotes that make us seem cool.

"Hillfolk Noir have made a classic roots record using old style, one mic, low-fi technology, the music is fantastic but the feel of the record "Skinny Mammy's Revenge" has captured the passion and love of this genre absolutely perfectly.  As soon as you hear it, you are there with them, in that circle of musicians, hearing up-close their great songs, the heartfelt stories and you are next to them for every note... a roots classic without a doubt."  
~ Barry Marshall-Everitt, House of Mercy Radio
www.houseofmercy.net 

"Hillfolk Noir -  modern day old time wonderment."
~ Rick Stuart, Roots and Fusion Radio of Pure Radio, UK

"If John Steinbeck had a Speakeasy, Hillfolk Noir would be the house band." 
~ John Doe, of John Doe, X, The Sadies, and The Knitters

Reader's Choice, 2010, Boise Weekly - Boise's Best Band, Runner Up.  We are proud to be runner up in this category, which may seem silly, but #1 went to international sensation Built to Spill.  Plus, at least someone remembered the name "Hillfolk Noir!"  Thank you Boise!

"The band Hillfolk Noir rests its sound firmly on the trippy edge of countrified, psychedelic folk-rock.  You can pick out musical threads that reach back to 1920s vaudeville, Depression-era blues, and blistering 70s punk, mellowed through the lens of jazz-influenced post-Dadaism."
-Dana Oland, Idaho Statesman

"Whether its the tolling bells of deathbed fevers, the loping swagger of a stranger in town walking down mainstreet as every gunslinger in town stops and stares, or the wagon trains of woe rolling past desolate, arid, landscapes on a breeze of radiation, Ward and his Hillfolkers flow through the last wisps of a world gone very wrong for the protagonist with crooked, receding grins at reapers grim and eager as they transcend the alt.country hokum with a full-tilt-off-kilter medicine show of captivating enchantment that should diffuse beyond the canyons, badlands and sad-swaying hillsides of Idaho."
-Medicine Stu, Maverick Magazine

"To authentic to be considered alt anything."
"Ward is an evocative, charismatic singer-songwriter who embraces diverse shards of Americana"
"Time warped kaleidoscopes –sparse, historically reverent and pretty terrific."
-Michael Deeds, Idaho Statesman

"Much better than the crap on the radio"
-Amy Garrett, Boise Weekly

" Ward’s lyrical songwriting and the bandstands walking rhythms create original songs so true to our musical heritage, you’d swear these tunes date from a lost era of open space, boxcar wisdom and the wobblies."
Best Blues Band 2002
Boise Weekly

T.W. has what many musicians lack: soul (and a hefty dose of talent)
Best acoustic musician 2002
Boise Weekly

"I Move On is the best song I’ve ever heard."
2005
-E.J. Pettinger

Country rock, then more folksy, then something that sounds like Tom Waits, and then something that could have come out of late-60’s San Francisco."
-Rob Christensen, Tape Op

"You guys sound like Johnny Cash on Robitussin"
2005
Ryan, Pengilly's bartender

"This music is good, and it's drawn from the same pool as the music of Woody Guthrie, Johnny 
Cash, and Bob Dylan." 2004-Justin Prescott Arbiter

"Ward's greatest contribution to Idaho music is his ability to craft a perfect sentence, rhyme or list of objects to jerk a listener back into western focus." 2005-Nicholas Collias Weekly

"It's all genuine and heartfelt. He's pulling off the most difficult of musical tasks - making an old style fresh, allowing you to experience the Delta Blues, Midwest Folk, Protest Songs, Countrified ballads in an engaging new manner."
2005-Chris Winn-Boise Journal

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Full Review of Live at the Old Penitentiary - Idaho Statesman - February 2011

Hillfolk Noir 
***1/2

“Frampton Comes Alive!” nothwithstanding, live albums tend to appeal to established fans, rarely earning new ones. This candid concert snapshot of Boise band Hillfolk Noir, recorded in fall 2009, is a potential exception to that rule.

If you’re unfamiliar with Hillfolk Noir’s brand of old-timey twang meets psych-folk, diversely paced songs such as “Parcher’s Farm,” “Don’t Mean Nothin” and “At Least I’m Stupid” may hook you immediately.

If not, pop in the accompanying hour-long DVD. Filmed smartly in black and white, it contains only brief moments of the concert. Yet it fundamentally changes the way you perceive the songs.

Pre-show footage documents how this unique concert came to fruition inside the Old Idaho Penitentiary’s ghostly walls. Interviews make you relate to the human beings behind the acoustic instruments. (A super-sized, eight-member version of Hillfolk Noir performed.) Meanwhile, the dark side of frontman Travis Ward’s songwriting is magnified by the empty prison cells.

As the group plays, mandolin and fiddle melodies suddenly just feel older — as if they’re echoing through time. The intent audience, seated in folding chairs, is as deathly quiet as the spirits of the men who inhabited the prison.

Hillfolk Noir’s string-powered music may not suit everyone’s taste, but this refreshing CD/DVD set will help anyone understand and at least appreciate it. Organizing this gig inside the Old Pen — and filming it — was an inspiring stroke of creativity.

~Michael Deeds

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/02/18/1532020/local-cddvd.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1Iqh5cM6u

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Full Review of Skinny Mammy's Revenge - www.lonesomeroadreview.com - April 2011

4 stars out of 5

Subtitled The Gage Street Market Sessions, Skinny Mammy’s Revenge features better sound quality and production than its predecessor and as a result is a more complete and listenable project.

Featuring a dozen Travis Ward originals, this album would stand proudly even without the inclusion of various blues and folk standards; with them, the album becomes an hour-long pleasure.

A gorgeous take of Jean Ritchie’s “The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore” is bookended by a pair of old-time blues numbers, the first a Ward original. “Broken Record” is one of several Ward compositions contained herein that could have been lifted from a Revenant reissue while “Ragged and Dirty Blues” is familiar from any number of performers including Willie Brown and Sleepy John Estes. A pair of Henry Thomas, Texas blues are ably covered, “Run, Molly, Run” and “Charming Betsy,” while “The Coo Coo” and “Jack of Diamonds” are given a blues bent.

Ward’s songs may not have the authenticity of centuries old standards, but he has mastered the art of replicating their structures. Seldom using more than a dozen lines of lyrics, his blues-based creations, among them “Dyin’ Bed Blues” and “Mr. Wilson’s Lament,” contain the genuine ache, frustration, and turmoil found in tunes much older than he.

Ward uses a resonator guitar throughout, providing a naturally amplified sound to the recording and he lays out some finely played blues riffs. Alison Ward maintains a strong instrumental presence on Skinny Mammy’s Revenge, contributing banjo, saw, and laundraphone which is, I believe, washboard as well as harmony vocals.

Like other old-time revivalists, Hillfolk Noir has found a way to mix their own sound with that of musicians who performed several generations ago. Depending on the song, their music has both old-time, Appalachian string band and Delta blues qualities, making for an uncommon but ultimately sustaining dissonance.

What sets them apart from Old Crow Medicine Show and their ilk is an insistence to not allow themselves to get ahead of the music; by not allowing for pop culture compromise throughout Skinny Mammy’s Revenge, Hillfolk Noir allows their largely unadorned music to stand on its own—for better or worse—and to be absorbed by listeners discovering these types of sounds for the first time.

~ Aaron Keith Harris

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Links for other Hillfolk Noir related media:
www.myspace.com/hillfolknoir
www.facebook.com/hillfolknoir
www.sonicbids.com/hillfolknoir  

Youtube links:

     The Great Grizzly Bear Scare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUvAKfF_zj8&feature=related

     Streetside versions of (the end of) Ragged and Dirty Blues,
and Belly Up to the Sun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmIOU7vPjz8

     Live at the Linen Building (our CD Release show), Red Eyed Crow  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSjan9odQPE    

Collage of Trey McIntyre Project dance videos (10 original dance videos all choreographed to Hillfolk Noir compositions): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcpLtiaJLCo 

    Dig a Hole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkvM5C_kT2A

Music From Stanley Downloads: Each of these is a live performance that is then produced as a public radio show.  You can listen to the complete radio broadcast by clicking on the links below.
     Hillfolk Noir 2007 @ Music From Stanley
     Travis and Ali Ward 2008 @ Music From Stanley (for whatever reason, this one has great audio clarity)
     Travis Ward and Hillfolk Noir 2010 @ Music From Stanley

City Beat Radio show: This is the podcast of a radio show we did in Pocatello Idaho in August of 2009.  

To see clippings from newspapers and magazines
contact Rose Ward at 208-433-9306
She has the whole catalog from the last 39 years 
including: high school awards, tickets, report cards with F's,
pictures of Travis at prom with his mullet, and much much more.
Please don't call her...