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Put your hands on the remote! browse music »Four Shades of Green by Adam Hill
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fave it Americana | Progressive Folk
13 tracks | 37 minutes
Released Aug 2007
on Adam Hill
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 00:44 Down in the Valley lyrics BUY MP3 00:44 Down in the Valley lyrics "GIFT MP3" 00:44 Down in the Valley
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:24 Empty Rows lyrics FREE 03:24 Empty Rows lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:24 Empty Rows
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:04 Next Stop Winona lyrics BUY MP3 05:04 Next Stop Winona lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:04 Next Stop Winona
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:11 Maybe Crazy Baby lyrics BUY MP3 03:11 Maybe Crazy Baby lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:11 Maybe Crazy Baby
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:01 Down in the Valley lyrics BUY MP3 01:01 Down in the Valley lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:01 Down in the Valley
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:46 Beulahland lyrics BUY MP3 03:46 Beulahland lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:46 Beulahland
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:43 Clap and Sing lyrics BUY MP3 03:43 Clap and Sing lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:43 Clap and Sing
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:18 Cup of Dawn lyrics BUY MP3 03:18 Cup of Dawn lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:18 Cup of Dawn
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:29 Portland Winter Blues lyrics BUY MP3 03:29 Portland Winter Blues lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:29 Portland Winter Blues
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:13 Down in the Valley lyrics BUY MP3 01:13 Down in the Valley lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:13 Down in the Valley
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:28 Banks of the Ohio lyrics BUY MP3 04:28 Banks of the Ohio lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:28 Banks of the Ohio
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:23 Charcoal Crumbles lyrics BUY MP3 03:23 Charcoal Crumbles lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:23 Charcoal Crumbles
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 01:13 Down in the Valley lyrics BUY MP3 01:13 Down in the Valley lyrics "GIFT MP3" 01:13 Down in the Valley
New-timey folk from Portland, Oregon. These are no-picking bluegrass songs that are as subtle as they are significant and as detached as they are personal.
Bio / Background
“Think of a slightly inebriated Chris Thile of Nickel Creek. Now place that newest mental creation leading the charge of the old labor movement and diggin’ simple folk next to Seeger....His swaggering vocals stagger, swing, and jaunt through each tune with marvelous result.”
– Jake Nuckolls
CDReviews.com
August 24, 2007
The penning of the tunes on Four Shades of Green began more than a year ago, while Adam was hiding up in the hills of Central Oregon, daylighting as an orchestra teacher. But the documenting of the tunes didn't begin until he had retreated from his mountain retreat and moved to Portland last fall. Upon his arrival to town, he was quickly snagged and kept busy as a bassist touring with Taarka and Rogue Motel, and sitting in and freelancing with a slew of others.
↓ more ↓But in the long, slow, drippy days of mid-winter he found himself barricaded in a back bedroom amidst a mass of instruments putting down the tracks for what would become Four Shades of Green.
Four Shades of Green is a recording that showcases Adam's compositional prowess and sensible arrangements paired with clever and playful lyrics more than his virutosic upright bass playing. The tunes are short and sweet, and though not always terribly simple, they draw upon enough heritage of American folk music to be familiar. Combined with a modern approach, the rootsy element morphs into a new-timey sound for post-post-modern times.
From it's first notes of a old-timey fiddle scratching out an ancient gospel number to it subsequent smokin' guitar picking and clunky banjo plunking, Adam performs all the instruments and vocals on the recording. Uplifting trumpet and trombone make an appearance on the northwestern anthem, “Portland Winter Blues,” and haunting string effects and vocal production take the murder ballad, “Banks of the Ohio,” to the otherworld. The one exception to the solitary display is the presence of an eleven piece choir that complements the sing-along spiritual, “Beulahland.” The choir also reappears on the last track, which is the fourth in a series of soundscape interpretations of the popular gospel tune, “Down in the Valley.”
Full of tunes that get stuck in your head the first time and lyrics that you might want to hear twice, Four Shades of Green is an album that tells old stories in modern times. It takes a step forward in progressing the traditions of folk music in a fresh way while maintaining an acoustic element that sometimes gets lost in the ones and zeros of these days.
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