Those of you familiar with the acclaimed roots duo Tui will be familiar with Libby Weitnauer, who performs alongside Jake Blount. Their 2019 album Pretty Little Mister explored the lost history of American roots music in which minority artists’ pioneering contributions have long been ignored. Weitnauer also co-founded new indie-folk outfit Dallas Ugly, who’ll have a new album coming in early 2022.
Drawing from her family background in East Tennessee but now based in Nashville, Libby Weitnauer makes her solo debut this month. To be released on 7” vinyl, to allow listeners to hear the stories unfold in their living rooms much like they have been told for centuries, Sixteen Kings’ Daughters is a contemporary exploration of two traditional ballads. One tells of a fierce fight against a male attacker, the other of heartbreak and abandonment. Together with producer Mike Robinson, Weitnauer creates a new soundscape for the tales and trials of women told in old songs.
As far as debut singles go, this is up there with the best. Top class musicianship all the way through and a strong intuitive connection to the song – the haunting stringed atmosphere is an original touch and blends seamlessly into the tune. It’s superbly crafted, Libby has clearly taken a lot of time and thought in creating the single, and I can’t wait to hear more.
The single is accompanied by a beautiful video directed and animated by Anne Beal – created using watercolours; the whole thing is mesmerising, capturing the spirit of the song as well as the landscape of the setting. We are pleased to be premiering the video on Folk Radio ahead of the single’s release on July 23, 2021; Sixteen Kings’ Daughters is also our Song of the Day.
Libby on Sixteen Kings’ Daughters:
“Between a somewhat supernatural connection to this ballads’ collector and the powerful story it tells, I knew I had to record this song as soon as I saw it in Dr Dorothy Horne’s collection at the Maryville College archives. Years ago, I began a search for music collected in my hometown, Maryville, Tennessee, and I was in complete disbelief when I discovered that the primary collector of Maryville ballads in the 1930s was the same woman who had lived and died in my childhood home before my family moved in. Dr Horne, the woman in question, collected it from a woman named Vina Cooper through a series of transcriptions that I pieced together to make the bones of “Sixteen Kings’ Daughters”. Mike Robinson (producer) and I decided to take a text painting approach to this track and hope to have captured the darkness and complexity in this story of assault and then self defense.”
Anne Beal, the animator
“I created the animated film for “Sixteen Kings’ Daughters” using watercolor inks. Knowing the backstory of Libby’s relationship to the ballad, I wanted the film to be set in Eastern Tennessee. The lyrics say, “she throwed him into the sea,” but I felt a lake, of which the Tennessee Valley has many, was the more appropriate body of water where our villain should meet his demise. I was delighted that Libby agreed, and I asked her to take some photos the next time she went hiking. The film’s visual landscape was based on Libby’s photos of Eastern Tennessee, and my vivid memories of growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.” (https://www.annebealanimation.com/)
Pre-Order Sixteen Kings’ Daughters: lnk.to/16kingsdaughters
Bandcamp: https://libbyweitnauer.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.libbyweitnauer.com
Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Raitz