As mentioned previously on Folk Radio UK, on the 26th of August, Nora Brown returns with her third album, Long Time To Be Gone, released via Jalopy Records. Taken from that album, Nora has shared a video of her performing “Cumberland Gap” from the recording session at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, NY. She’s performing on a fretless tackhead banjo i.e. the head is fastened to the hoop using tacks, so there are no mechanical means of tensioning the head, such as a tension hoop or nuts etc. like the one in the main image above.
“I learned this version of this classic tune a bit from John Haywood of Whitesburg KY, and some from Lee Sexton Of Linefork KY,” says Brown, continuing “This is a tune where a little style switching is needed for the right hand.”
Long Time To Be Gone is Nora’s third full-length album which was recorded at the historic St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights. “I recorded my last project in an underground tunnel,” says Brown, “but this time we were working in a cavernous church, which allowed us to really experiment with all the sounds that different locations in the sanctuary and different mic configurations could produce. When you listen, you can hear the expanse of the space pretty clearly, which was really important to our approach on these recordings.”
Nora Brown has been confirmed for Newport Folk Fest and AmericanaFest in the US; see dates below:
July 22 – Newport Folk Fest – Newport, RI
July 27 – Folk Holidays – Namest nad Oslavou, Czech Republic
August 14 – Music Haven Concert Series – Schenectady, NY (with Steep Canyon Rangers)
August 20 – Upper Salford Township, PA – Philadelphia Folk Festival
August 26 – Brooklyn, NY – St. Ann’s Church (album release show)
August 27 – The Music Hall Loft – Portsmouth, NH
September 1 – Club Passim – Cambridge, MA
September 3 – The Guthrie Center – Great Barrington, MA
September 17 – AmericanaFest – Nashville, TN
September 29-30 – Trans-Pecos Festival of Music & Love – Marfa, TX
November 12 – The Parlor Room at Signature Sounds – Northampton, MA
Pre-order Long Time To Be Gone via Bandcamp