Roots Round-Up (Marcella Simien, Rosier, Eliza Thorn and more)

There are surprising new sounds in roots music in North America these days, so that’s the theme for this month: surprise. Who’s making music that upends the old traditions, that draws new global connections, that builds new sounds?

It’s no exaggeration to call Marcella Simien Creole royalty. Not only is she the daughter of the great zydeco luminary Terrance Simien, she’s also from one of the first Creole families to settle in the Opelousas region of Louisiana (where Clifton Chenier was born). Her new album, To Bend to the Will of a Dream That’s Being Fulfilled (Swamp Soul Music ***), though, is a surprise, tapping into spoken word, philosophical thoughts and musical yoga elements, though you’ll still hear zydeco accordion (sounding like a harmonium on ‘Lelia’), washboard and some Creole French singing. Simien’s honey-dipped Louisiana vocals tie it all together in an intriguing new sound.

Made up of the scions of some of Québécois trad music’s key families, Rosier have always been a precocious band. As they ease into their 20s, their new album, elle veille encore (Rosier ****), is a thoughtful meditation on motherhood in French Canada. The songs are inspired by traditional lyrics, and there are certainly no shortage of songs of conflict between mothers and daughters in the tradition. The music, though, wanders far afield, from shimmering indie rock to Ghibli-esque classical arrangements. It’s an album chock full of new ideas for old traditions, boldly expressed.

I don’t know why it surprises me to hear perfect Southern drawls from Northern artists in country music. Canadian Bella White was the last one, and Nashville newcomer Eliza Thorn (originally from Connecticut) is the latest artist to surprise me out of Music City. It’s not that she can turn a perfect country phrase, because she can, it’s that she taps a vein of blues and soul in Nashville that pretty much everybody there seems to have forgotten about. It helps that her voice is pitch perfect for country, blues, or soul, and her new album, Somebody New (Eliza Thorn ****), is great fun.

The new flatpicked guitar album, Alone Will Tell (Morgan Harris ****), from Morgan Harris of alt-old-time stringband Tall Poppy is sure to garner comparisons to other monster pickers like Billy Strings, but this is more in the vein of Doc Watson, perhaps with a bit of the Irish melodies of John Doyle tossed in unexpectedly. The album is deeply melodic, one of those few guitar picking albums that sound like the artist is playing a whole tune, rather than a list of sick runs. The songs are homespun here, very much in the old-time tradition of interspersing a verse with instrumental elements. A short but delightful album.

With so much French in Canada, folks tend not to realise there are Spanish speaking traditions as well. From British Columbia, Locarno formed from Canadian/Mexican singer Tom Landa of West Coast Celtic folk rock band The Paperboys. Locarno represents his Mexican roots, tapping into cumbia and son jarocho with great verve on the new album, Colibrí Calíope (Tom Landa ****).

From Toronto, flamenco dancer and singer Tamar Ilana grew up the daughter of an ethnomusicologist who studied the songs of the Jewish Sephardic diaspora. On her new album with her band Ventanas, Azadi (Ventanas ****), Ilana brings Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) songs with roots in Spain, Portugal and North Africa into a larger Latin world, connecting the dots to Latin American and Afro-Latin traditions.