This Friday, Native Harrow deliver their fifth LP ‘Old Kind of Magic‘ via Loose Music (pre-order here). While Stephen Harms and Devin Tuel now reside in Sussex, these two would have fitted in well at Lookout Mountain among the likes of Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Chris Hillman, Judee Sill, the Mamas and the Papas, Carole King and many more. Their title track ripples with that mythologized Laurel Canyon vibe yet also carries that distinct and unmistakable Native Harrow DNA which has become more unique and refined with each iteration – it’s one that we’re very fond of.
They’ve shared this great acoustic session with Folk Radio, and they also talk about the album and track below. Don’t miss their upcoming In-Store Tour, details below.
Native Harrow on Old Kind of Magic
“Old Kind of Magic” was the first song we began writing for our new album, Old Kind of Magic. As soon as Devin wrote the chorus, we knew it would be the title track of the next record. Even in its unfinished state, this chorus had the presence and immediacy we knew we wanted to set the tone for our next chapter. And for over a year, all we had was that chorus. We tried to pair other verses to it, we wrote an entire album worth of songs that fit like a puzzle piece to that chorus, but never quite clicked. In that time, a global pandemic grew and changed and morphed, our 4th album Closeness came and went, and we entered Reliable Recorders in Chicago, IL to record an entirely different batch of new songs. But “Old Kind of Magic” was still just a chorus and it did not make an appearance in these sessions. We knew our 5th record would be named for that chorus and we knew these new songs, though we loved them, wouldn’t be a part of that world. Time advanced, the state of the world shifted again, and we found ourselves strangers in a strange land. We arrived in southern England the week after the capital riots in Washington, DC, and the week before the third lockdown in the UK. In the dark of the English winter, at the dawn of a new life in a new place, the verses of “Old Kind of Magic” revealed themselves and we began again, again.
We wrote and recorded Old Kind of Magic from the top flat of an old Regency building, just steps from the English Channel, in Brighton, England. We recorded the album completely by ourselves before sending the tracks to our longtime collaborator Alex Hall in Chicago to add drums and more percussion. Friends from London, Georgina Leach (strings) and Joe Harvey-Whyte (pedal steel), contributed the finishing touches.
We have now relocated from Brighton to rural Sussex. We’ve filmed the videos for OKOM in the fields and buildings that surround us. This duo session of “Old Kind of Magic” was filmed in the studio space we now work in, not only on the music of Native Harrow but painting, writing poetry, crafting a novel, continuing to fashion and shape an artistic life.
On the title track “Old Kind of Magic”, glittery Rhodes and glistening hollow-body guitar parlay with bright-eyed bass and outstretched California canyon drums, creating a sound described by the band as evoking “the golden light of 70’s FM radio, spilling across the plush wall-to-wall carpet of suburban reminiscence and recollection.”
Pre-order here ‘Old Kind of Magic’
In-Store Tour
28 Oct – Rough Trade West, London @ 6pm
29 Oct – Union Music Store, Lewes @ 2pm
01 Nov – David’s Music, Letchworth @ 6pm
02 Nov – Truck Records, Oxford @ 6pm
03 Nov – Jumbo Records, Leeds @ 6pm
04 Nov – Spinning Discs, Sheffield @ 6pm
05 Nov – Vinyl Tap, Huddersfield @ 2pm
06 Nov – Jacaranda, Liverpool @ 5:30pm
17 Nov – Eel Pie Records, Twickenham @ 6pm
18 Nov – Sound Knowledge, Marlborough @ 7pm
19 Nov – Hundred Records, Romsey @ 2pm
20 Nov – Vinilo Record Store, Southampton @ 6pm
21 Nov – Pie & Vinyl, Southsea @ 1pm
More here: https://www.nativeharrow.com/