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Jimmy Hughes
(BoS B®©<§)'
Folklore,
longer just lies told by old people. Folklore is
now also a band, and a very fine one, indeed.
And it's not just a band, but also a project,
and a collaborative one, at that. Yes, many talented individuals
contribute to the musical wonder that is Folklore, the latest local
indie-rock supergroup, including such peerless personages as C'est
Mortel's David Specht, Wee Turtles ringleader Jon Croxton, and
Ian Rickert of Fairmount Fair and Bugs Eat Books (and who also
works at Flagpole). Only one man, though, calls the shots, and
that man is Jimmy Hughes, the friendly gadabout and jack-of-all-
trades responsible for such notable musical endeavors as Boys' Star
Library, Fairmount Fair, and some of those guitar parts you hear
on newer Elf Power songs. When Hughes tells former Master of the
thought into the backstory; you wouldn't necessarily pick this up
from one listen, but at least in my brain it's all very thought out
and planned. It's basically fictionalized, but I almost sort of prefer
it to be thought of as an actual folk legend, although there is a
present tense to it.
FP: So what’s the concept behind the story?
JH: It's about this character, H. W. Beaverman. At the begin
ning, he's dead, and I, as the narrator, go around and interview
people who knew him, and the songs are what they say about him.
Each song is sung from the first-person perspective of a different
character, and from each person we learn a bit more and move
down the rumor tree from Beaverman being dead to him being
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Folklore isn't just a band name, though; it's a raison d'etre.
Much like famed wordsmith Washington Irving, Hughes, a na
tive of Syracuse, NY, aims to craft new folk tales out of various
upstate New York occurrences and idiosyncrasies. Irving became
the first American author to be taken seriously in Europe, in part
by focusing on folk legends from this region. Hopefully, Hughes
will also find such fame, even though the future and the Internet
have made folklore as antiquated and useless as letter-writing and
journalism. Still, Jimmy Hughes hopes to resuscitate those days
when primitive man made up stories to justify his fear of shadows,
thunder and uppity cattle.
Folklore's first album The Ghost of H. W. Beaverman is a self-
released collection of mellow psych-pop gems that utilizes various
narrators and points of view to craft an ever-shifting picture of the
title character. It's both a work of fiction, a project of personal
folklore and a great, ramshackle pop record that resembles the
softer side of Roky Erickson. It's also the rare concept record that
doesn't let the story overwhelm the songwriting. In anticipation
of this week's CD release show—a four-band bill on which Folklore
plays second—Flagpole had the opportunity to chat with Hughes.
Flagpole: Is the record based on actual folktales from upstate
New York?
Jimmy Hughes: The story's based on a lot of things. Some
actual folk legends, and some fictionalized ones. I put a lot of
alive and talking to me. Basically, I interview back through time
to reconstruct this person. It's also set up as being like my own
actual research into this folk story.
FP: Who is H. W. Beaverman?
JH: It's a real name I've seen someplace and that stuck
in my head, and [that] I imagined a figure around. I was in
Binghamton, NY, and there was this large bridge that goes over
the Susquehanna River; underneath that bridge was this weird
sketchy area with these decrepit old cabins from like the '50s, and
one of them had the name “H. W. Beaverman' on it. It was quits
legible from the bridge.
It was a really weird house, full with shredded papers, as full as
if it had no roof and the house got full with snow. There was this
weird abandoned car out front, kind of a nice car, but it had flat
tires and had obviously been abandoned there for a while, but the
registration was brand-new, it was current
FP: And then you built a character around that name?
JH: The character formed in my head after the name. So this
old guy Beaverman goes to these different places, like a cabin
and a bait shack, and doesn't really talk to people, but everybody
knows who he is and talks about him and thinks they know him. A
lot of its based on my grandfather, these antics and practical jokes
that he would pull, and then little doses of rural legends added in
to make it more elaborate.
FP: How did you incorporate these legends into the songs?
JH: A portion of the story is based on stories from Lake
Bonaparte that my cousin or aunt told me, then I expanded on,
but with some factual stuff in there.
Like there's a mention in the record of a place called Beer
Island; it was a private island with a liquor license and a bar, and
people would take their boats there and drive home drunk. It's not
there anymore. An army base. Fort Drum, is nearby and those ca
dets would come in and go to Beer Island, back in the '50s or '60s,
they'd go drinking but wouldn't have a boat, so my cousin would
take them out there and charge them. And that's sort of dealt with
in the song "The Drowning At Lake Bonaparte."
FP: A lot of different people played on this record, both musi
cians and singers. How did you decide who to work with, and who to
ask to voice the various characters?
JH: I'd been writing the songs for a while; it took us about two
years to record, but a lot of the songs date back far before that. I
didn't obsess over the recording too much; it's more fun that way.
Pete Erchick [of Olivia Tremor Control, Circulatory System, etc.]
was a huge help; he doesn't play with us live, but there were a few
nights where I was thinking songs were missing something, and
Pete would come over and listen to the recordings and just jam
out.
He came up with some great stuff, as did John Fernandes [also
of OTC, Circulatory System, Elf Power, New Sound of Numbers,
etc.]. The song structures were there, we'd work out the basics, but
as far as lead parts, a lot of them were jammed out. W? did that
with almost everything. [Croxton] hadn't even heard the songs
that much before coming up with the drum parts, but he and I
play pretty well together.
With the singing, based on the way the songs were written,
and the way I was singing them, I had the idea to remove my
voice from some of the leads, and have it be a bit more character
developed. In each case, I knew who I wanted to be involved, and
I tried to pick songs that I thought they'd be good at. The way The
Father was written, I thought that would be better with Andrew
[Rieger, of Elf Power's voice, compared to The Vet, which works
better with Bren [MeaaJ's voice. I wanted female voices for the
two girl characters, and bugged Amy [Dykes, of I Am The World
Trade Center] and Heather [McIntosh, of the Instruments] about it.
And with Scott [Spillane, of the Gerbils], his sense of humor
reminded me of my grandfather, and since the title character was
based somewhat on him, it made sense.
FP: Will there be more Folklore in the future, or is this a one-off
project?
JH: I've got another record halfway written, and I definitely
want to do some more. We're planning to do a few experiments
where we hang out and jam while the tape's running, try to get
some ideas from that, just play music and see what happens. I'm
writing more structured songs, too, but I want to work on a com
pletely collaborative record where we have a storyline to work with
but things come together collaboratively. The band is pretty solid
right now.
Jn the next one, though, if there are people that played on
Beaverman that want to join in again, then I'd be more than glad
to have them come jam with us, but I'd like to make a record
that's more honest to the live performance, get the core band
involved. We get together and hang out in practice and it's never
stressful, [and] always pretty awesome.
Garrett Martin
\
WHO: Circulatory System (Phase Two),
New Sound of Numbers, Folklore, Summer Hymns
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Wednesday, February 7
HOW MUCH: $5
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FEBRUARY 7,2007 • FLAGP0LE.COM 31
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