Shadowfax Release Their Debut Album Orpheus Live at the Wise Hall in a Shifting Arrangement
Photos by Lucas Blaney at Light Your Brilliance
Review by Keir Nicoll
There is a new folk force in town. They are named Shadowfax and they brought their large arrangements of band members to the Wise Hall for a release showing for their debut album, Orpheus. Anyone familiar with Greek mythologies will know of Orpheus' skill with music and his tragic love of Eurydice, his wife condemned to the underworld. They bring various mythological and folklorique themes into their music and over the course of the night and brought in all of the members of the band in various groupings. Overall, there were five different sets, with an assortment of songs drawing from the mythical imagination and then the headlining one, which was a play-through of the album.
The first set was Ben Wayne Kyle who was then joined by Ally Jed rocking a shock of white hair in her long black tresses. The one song that really stood out in their 15-minute set was a cover of “Just the Two Of Us” by Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr.
They made way for a duo of band leader Jeremy Fornier-Hanlon and Simon Posluns who played “In Tall Buildings” by John Hartford, “Old Home Place” by J. D. Crowe and the New South, and then finished with “The Tennessee Waltz” with enough in the way of diminished chords to make the set sound that much more interesting. Fornier-Hanlon had a stripe of teal over his eyes and the same-colored pants and band on his guitar.
The third set was William John and Gabriel Beisetzer who graced the stage with the song “Reno '' written by Beisetzer with themes of life on the road emerged, as the vocalist sang “Cause I can't live to walk another mile.”
After the first three sets, there was a changeover. Then a larger ensemble of two guitars, a bass and drums came on. They performed a song “Uninvited” also written by Beisetzer, a bold and brazen tune that left me in the dust.
There was a nicely-spaced and hot guitar-solo. The sound of the old-folk tradition was being hailed here. The next song “Will O' Wisp' was written by Fornier-Hanlon, showcasing his impressive songwriting chops. Then two backup singers, Ally Jed and Jozy, came on, one in a traditional brown and the other a classic white dress, looking to be from the old pre-turn-of-the-century era, as they danced and swayed. They covered folk icon Gillian Welch’s “Look at Miss Ohio” with the beautifully poignant lyrics, “Yeah I want to do right but not right now,” hearkening to the moral struggle of life.This was aptly followed by a cover of the Decemberists “The Rake’s Song” featuring vocals on the off-beat and guitars on the on-beat about the trials and tribulations of marriage.
This provided a more rock-oriented effort belting out the anthemic “Alright, alright, alright!!!” At this point, they were arranged in a 3, 2, 1 formation onstage, with the singers and guitarists clustered together making for fantastic optics.
They then sang two bluegrass songs called “Pallet” that went, “Lay me down a pallet on your floor,” about household hospitality and charity. The lyrics also recalled how “I think so much, I haven't slept a wink.” involving a religious guitar solo to boot. Next was the song “Mountain Dew” with the girls square-dancing two-stepping and hand-clapping which paired well with the appealing track.
After another brief changeover, the grand eleven-piece Shadowfax mounted the stage, consisting of William John (electric guitar, vocals), Gabriel Beisetzer (electric bass), Michael Wadham (drums) Ally Jed (vocals) Jozy (vocals) Ben Wayne Kyle (acoustic guitar) Thad Bailey-Mai (trumpet) Nicky Walsh (trombone) David Brown (tenor saxophone) and Bradshaw Pack (pedal steel).
They had the appearance of a traveling circus, their review stature in place. Fornier-Hanlon was appropriately clad in a velvet black coat with gold flames on the cuffs and tails. They began with well-held poise to sing about being “In the shady grove,” for “Ferns.” In this number, the pedal steel sang above the song and there was a southern-fried-style guitar-solo. There were prominent trumpet, sax and trombone for the next song, "Stars and Shells". This song began with a long-sustained horn chord and then a solemnly-strummed guitar. “Stars and Shells” includes the lyric, “an old shadow encased in a shroud,” which lends itself to the dark story of Orpheus and Eurydice, who must go to the underworld. The third song, “Salome,” about a dangerous woman, says “You best turn away if you see Salome.” “Slumbering Man,” quoth, “roots crawling under my skin,” and “the old once were young,” in a kind of nostalgia for a time before sleep overtook you and the narcolepsy of age took you into its grips. The music lilted, “as the river flows,” they sang in beautiful vocal harmonies with the three singers. There was a nice jam-out section at the end. Next, they played their single, “The Inferno,” to much great effect, with their big-band folk sound easily carrying the power of this arch-environmental song, about the 'fragility of fleeting life'.
For the next song, Fornier-Hanlon stood with outstretched hand as he song, “peace of mind was all you'd ever yearned.” Lots of long and sustained notes in this one. The last song, “The Vagrant,” closed out with again the theme of the road, of sadness in life, being destined to roam and drinking alone in Smugglers' Bay. “This road is my home,” Fornier-Hanlon sang. There was another beautiful, lilting pedal-steel solo and more trumpet in this song. For their one-song encore, they sang “Tried to write a simple song/It's hard to think of anyone but you,” to uproarious applause.
Overall, the night carried out very well, as all of the musicians showed their talent and advanced understanding of their medium. As a traveling ensemble, they would recall Bob Dylan and Joan Baez' Rolling Thunder Review, for its consideration of the alt-folk canon. They brought in some of the old, in their introductory acts and then propounded their own new style, with the play-through of their debut, Orpheus. It is clear that they are well-versed in this genre and that they are seeking to continue its longevity and historically important themes into the modern-day, as we continue to wonder about the life we live, its conditions and the thoughts of what it is to be a human now, as it ever was.
You can listen to Shadowfax here
