The Fossil Lickers, by The Fossil Lickers

The Fossil Lickers

by The Fossil Lickers

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Ross Arlen Tieken I have been listening to this album nonstop since I got it. I daresay I’ve heard it more than the actual band members at this point.
I want to share my impression of this music with anyone that cares to listen, as this recording has seeped into my everyday patterns of life to such an extent that I feel it is an extension of myself.

When I first heard The Stanley Brothers (when I was ten or so), I fell in love with Bluegrass. Because of my generation’s easy access to music, I have nursed, since then, an obsession with old-time music, its various flavors, its history and lore.
Ralph Stanley, Pete Seeger, and contemporary groups like Old Crow Medicine Show, Wood & Wire, and the like, are extraordinary musically. They’ve taken a form of music which is deeply indigenous to Rural experience in the United States and elevated it to a form. They’ve polished it to a gleaming shine, which has made it timeless and universal (and, well, marketable). They have fashioned, out of rough but glittering rock, a gemstone—universally appreciated, universally valued.
But when you dig down a little deeper, you find older, mysterious roots to this music. Tuneless plucking on a jaw harp. Accents so thick you could spread it on toast. Misplaced notes. Drunk fiddlers. People performing not for an audience of radio waves and festival-goers, but for dancing farmers and for their own damn satisfaction. They play because the music pours out from them. Jean Ritchie. Mance Lipscomb. And, in a more contemporary setting, Frank Fairfield, and Don Flemons. They’re people that would play whether or not they had an audience. That might even prefer to play without an audience.
Their music is rougher. Misplaced notes. Odd and inconsistent decisions. A little imbalanced, perhaps. It’s, frankly, unpolished and uncut. But the life in them is undeniable. Irresistible. It might be hard to listen to at first, if you’re used to being presented with a precious jewel. But there’s an unmistakable vivacity to it that cannot be replicated.
In other words, it’s a fossil.

On this album, there are songs to match every mood. The usually insipid tune “Indian Ate A Woodchuck” is made eminently danceable. “Billy On the Low Ground” lives in a strange space between eternity and narrative. The plaintive wailing of Chirps & Williams leaves me close to tears every time I have the guts to sit down and listen, rather than jig incompetently. You can play this album as a backdrop to a quiet afternoon. You can play this album for dancing around your kitchen. But it also stands up to close scrutiny as the most moving, authentic, and dangerously intimate old-time album I have ever had the honor to hear. It’s not about creativity. It’s not about the band. It’s not the excellent droning banjo or the whining, shivering fiddle. This music grows from the ground. It’s like stumbling onto a wildflower meadow. It’s like coming home to a house you’ve never seen before. It’s mysterious, layered, and hauntingly familiar.

Thank you, Fossil Lickers. I expect more soon. Favorite track: Chirps & Williams.

Andrew Norton, Night Folk in the Afternoon thumbnail

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes in custom designed paperboard case (not yet pictured), with artwork and by James Trimble.

Includes unlimited streaming of The Fossil Lickers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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edition of 100

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Limited Edition Cassette: BHR001 - THE FOSSIL LICKERS (tape)
Cassette + Digital Album
Edition of 50 copies - design by Matthew Boteilho

Includes unlimited streaming of The Fossil Lickers via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Billy in the Low Ground 05:04	buy track
2.	The Lost Girl 05:04	buy track
3.	Goat Won't Go 04:17	buy track
4.	Beautiful Linda Getchell 02:50	buy track
5.	Flatwoods 02:52	buy track
6.	Cattle in the Cane 05:04	buy track
7.	Chirps & Williams 03:01	buy track
8.	New Money 03:16	buy track
9.	Far From Home 02:46	buy track
10.	Indian Ate The Woodchuck 05:47	buy track
11.	Marion Reece's Cumberland Gap 02:54	buy track
12.	Charleston Girls 03:14	buy track
13.	Texas Shuffle 02:18	buy track
14.	Ducks on the Millpond 03:41	buy track
15.	Waynesboro 03:12	buy track

about

The Fossil Lickers are named in homage to the extensive collection of fossils in the basement of friend and fellow oldtime music superfan Daniel Bachman’s family home. This is their second record, and their first under the Fossil Lickers sobriquet, decided upon after a challenging tour of east Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. It’s also the first record to be released on fledgling Houston label Blue Hole Recordings, which proprietor and primary Fossil Licker Will Csorba founded to put out meaningful guitar-focused music from Houston and beyond. Crackling and electrifying, this music is deeply felt, featuring 15 favorite traditional folk songs with an invigorating modern touch.

Cameron Knowler, regarded as one of the best flatpickers in the state, now adds banjo to his arsenal. Will Csorba parries with his unique country blues-influenced fingerstyle accompaniment. And James Trimble, who can play jaw-dropping melodic runs or drone like Henry Flynt or Tony Conrad, joins them on the violin. They’ll be touring the US later this summer, and they’re likely to add more friends along the way. Here, they invite you to join them.
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“A guitar celebration with its head in the clouds and its feet dancing a hole in the dusty dusty ground...as many twists and turns as the Rio Grande” — J. Moss

They choose plunk over twang, groove over speed and ragged over right...Old-time is participatory music, and The Fossil Lickers is the next best thing to doing it yourself. “ — Isaac Olson

“Definitely with an old time vibe, but without the weird musty smell of a museum or, you know, oppression….these cats are looking back and forward, all at the same time.” — George Kent

“Another one of favorite albums of the year is the Fossil Lickers’ s/t debut, released on a new label out of Houston called Blue Hole. This young band really nails the County Records vibe without resorting to pastiche, and writes beautiful original tunes to boot (check out “Goat Won’t Go”). All told, this is probably my most-played album of 2018; it’s a Toth House go-to and never fails to lift our moods. I’d advise you to get in on some of these limited release while you can.” — James Toth (Wooden Wand)

credits

released April 10, 2018

Will Csorba - banjo, guitar, vocals
James Trimble - fiddle
Cameron Knowler - guitar, banjo, banjolin

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