Red Yarn debuts new music at the Fambly Ramble
Red Yarn, created by Andy Furgeson, is a dynamic family performer and teaching artist who has transformed traditional folk songs, puppetry and storytelling into engaging shows for all ages.
The Fambly Ramble is a new concert series here in Portland, and boy do they have a special treat planned for April 23rd at McMenamins Mission Theater. This Saturday’s show will feature performances for adventurous families by Portland’s very own Red Yarn and GRAMMY-nominated Gustafer Yellowgold.
This weekend’s concert is extra exciting because Red will be celebrating the release of his highly anticipated third album, Wake Up & Sing. He debuted songs from the project in his hometown of Austin, Texas during SXSW in March.
Recorded with Grammy-winning producer Dean Jones, the album is a homage to Furgeson’s favorite old children’s records and songbooks – and likely some of yours too! He will be performing the new album with his full band, the Critters.
In March 2015, Furgeson made a pilgrimage to the Hudson River Valley to see the environments that inspired his musical heroes, from Seeger’s Clearwater to The Band’s Big Pink house in Woodstock. Furgeson spent two days at Jones’ No Parking Studio in Rosendale, NY, with intentions to record a six-song EP.
Jones left the studio with 12 songs, as Furgeson dug deep into his notebooks of folksong adaptations and rhymes written for his young son. Over the next year, Furgeson and Jones sent tracks back and forth, crafting 11 of them into the full-length album you’ll hear on Saturday.
Furgeson’s rootsy vocals, tight harmonies with his wife Jessie Eller-Isaacs, and driving guitar and banjo work are still on display, but reframed within Jones’ whimsical palette. The sound is rounded out by Jones’ percussion, Jed Greenberg’s bass and fiddle, as well as guest appearances by 2016 GRAMMY Award nominee Morgan Taylor of Gustafer Yellowgold, Portland kindie mainstay Mo Phillips, and Jane Scarpantoni on cello (REM, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen).
Since committing himself full-time to Red Yarn in June 2012, Ferguson has performed 250 shows per year and taught music and puppetry to thousands of students.
With an energetic performance and well-known folk recordings, this red-bearded musician has instituted positive, lush values to the “kindie” (“kid” + “indie”) audience while reinventing the American folklore genre for younger generations.
Red Yarn emerges from the strange animal world created with his first two albums to sing sunnier songs about waking up, childhood play, animal adventures, and parenting.
On Wake Up & Sing’s opening track, “Beautiful Day,” Red Yarn sings a sweet invocation to the tune of an old folk hymn: “Good morning, getting better / So wake up and sing / Good morning, we’re together / What more could life bring?”
Its soothing melody sets the perfect mood for the rest of the album. Dedicated to his “little Yarnies” – the Portland children for whom he has performed almost every day for the last four years – Wake Up & Sing shows a bright and warm side of this rising family music star.
Other tracks, including “I Had a Rooster” and “Clap Your Hands,” have an up-tempo rhythm that is truly infectious – so contagious, in fact, that they’ll be stuck in your head for days after. And if they’re not, your kids will surely break out in a cappella every now and then.
Red released his first project “The Deep Woods” in October 2013, which garnished the national attention around the solo artist’s admiration for folk tradition. This grant-funded, self-produced collection of animal folksong adaptations and rambled imaginations received high praise among “kindie” critics, including a #3 spot on Zooglobble’s Top 20 Kids Albums of 2014.
As a kid, Ferguson built tiny worlds with toys, clay and cardboard, bringing them to life through play and home movies. So it’s easy to see where he gets his inspiration. He developed a love for community singing at his family’s downtown church, and through his high school punk band he discovered the visceral power of live music.
The show starts at 4pm, and there will be activities provided by Hike it Baby, NW Kids & SCRAP PDX when the doors open at 3pm. Tickets are going fast and a little birdie told me there are only 50 tickets left, so if you want to catch this amazing show, make sure you buy them quickly! Tickets are just $10 per person and babies in arms are free.
