Define ‘folk’ as you will. The term, with its divergent meanings and connotations and applications, has lost its ability to capture a contemporary “genre” in the strictest sense of the word. But as an essence, a philosophy, an outlook, it is still vital. It is still alive when musicians (or anybody, for that matter) share their songs or their stories or themselves with one another. Folk is about sublimating the human condition into art, plain and simple. And though the traveling bards may be working at Guitar Center and the hootenannies relegated to places that serve $6 Pabst, the urge to share, to trade, and to express keeps the folk tradition alive. Compilations are, perhaps, the closest thing the digital realm has to embodying the folk ethos. The artists join hands, so to speak, and share one, maybe two songs apiece. It’s like being around a campfire or in Washington Square Park, minus the whole live human thing. Any reader of this blog knows that compilations have been vital in the transmission of contemporary folk and psych music and, to me, it makes perfect, natural sense. Folk was never about headliners, it was about equal billing.

Curated by Buck Curran of Arborea, Leaves of Life will be released June 23rd on Borne Recordings. All proceeds benefit the UN’s Food Aid Agency, World Food Programme, and human rights advocacy monitors, Not On Our Watch. There will also be a digital version of the album with Bonus Tracks by Jozef Van Wissem, Plains, Denise Dill, and Laurent Brondel, so be sure to pick up a copy and hear some great songs.

[ First Listen ] Silver Summit – “Oaks”

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Leaves of Life Track List
1. Alela Diane with Mariee Sioux, “The Cuckoo”
2. Rio en Medio and Israel Cilio, “Mary”
3. Fern Knight, “Our Mountain the Mother”
4. Marissa Nadler and Black Hole Infinity, “Dead Wives Club”
5. Devendra Banhart, “Hotel St. Sebastian (demo)”
6. Arborea, “Son of the Moon, Daughter of the Sun”
7. Micah Blue Smaldone, “The Clearing”
8. Larkin Grimm, “The Butcher”
9. Mi and Lau, “The Funeral, The Pray”
10. Mica Jones, “Best Life”
11. Starless and Bible Black, “All the Finest Beams”
12. Cursillistas, “Mothers Taught”
13. Silver Summit, “Oaks”
14. Big Blood, “Sick With Information”
15. Eric Carbonara, “Sundown at Parakeet Park”
16. David Garland, “Splinter Heart”
17. Magic Leaves, “Lasso Reason”
18. Citay, “Little Kingdom”
19. Ora Cogan featuring Anni Rossi, “My Belle”

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