Swarme of Beese and the gothic folk dark passion of "Singing in the Dark"

 

"breaking through the woods, Lord it never felt this good..."

Every now and then you experience a song that bombards your heart and brain with imagery and depth of emotions. That is what occurred with I heard "Singing in the Dark" by Austin, Texas based Swarme of Beese. The artful heaviness on my shoulders has to do with the fact that there sound here has a kind of gothic folk atmosphere and the surprise, the surprise that this trio's sound felt so compelling because I normally veer towards different musical styles. The acoustic sway and fiddle feel like they are tapped out on 100 year old porches in places that favor gravel or dirt roads over cold concrete but what really blows me away is the vocal countenance. There is so much character in Lynne Adele's and songwriter / front man's Stephen Canner's vocal aesthetics. Lynne's voice is in the candled spot light here with Stephen supporting with harmonies. Her vocal sway, strong, sinewy and beautiful feels at once like a sagely storyteller that spins rustic tales containing ghosts and hard imagery: "breaking through the woods, Lord it never felt this good, craving you like maggots crave the dead..."

The folk here is swimming in psychedelia and speaking of the trio's aesthetic, a source close to the band describe it as “hillbillies who got lost on their way to the moonshine still and stumbled upon some mushrooms.” I like that description.

The band began its life as acoustic Americana trio The Victor Mourning, formed in Austin in 2008 by songwriter/frontman Stephen Canner, with Lynne Adele on harmony vocals, and Stefan Keydel on fiddle.

-Robb Donker Curtius 





THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

https://www.swarmeofbeese.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Swarme-of-Beese-104086661895443

https://swarmeofbeese.bandcamp.com/

Swarme of Beese, from Austin, Texas, weave subtle layers of instrumental texture and hints of psychedelic folk into the minor keys and stripped-down underpinnings of the band’s hillbilly noir aesthetic, creating a mutant folk sound with a strong American gothic undercurrent. A source close to the band has described it as “hillbillies who got lost on their way to the moonshine still and stumbled upon some mushrooms.”

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 Swarme of Beese, folk indie, psych folk, gothic folk, folk noir, psychedelic, "Singing in the Dark", filddle, acoustic, vocal harmonies, rustic storytelling,