Bonny Light Horseman - Sweetbread (official audio)

From the forthcoming album Rolling Golden Holy, out 7 Oct 2022 with 37d03d.

https://lnk.to/RollingGoldenHoly

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“We cut ‘Sweetbread’ late in the evening at Long Pond studio last summer. Kinda like starting to watch a movie too late, everyone was getting a little sleepy-eyed. Anaïs went off to bed with her then-one-year-old while some of us kept jamming on the main riff for a while, unsure of what we were moving towards. It got really, really late and the tune we started playing had abstracted itself to an unrecognizable shape as we stretched and improvised through the form,” explains Josh Kaufman. “The next morning listening back I thought this is SO groovy and different than anything we’d made up to that point, but very much still sounded like us. We were giddy to play it for Anaïs and have her take a pass singing over it. She sang the verses down over the improvised jam and it really felt magical to us. It’s very rare for this band to use a song without a live vocal, however it became the path forward for ‘Sweetbread.’ It’s a funny thing, texturally and energetically, quite a leap from the ethereal/oceany tones and vibes that tend to typify our sound, and on the other hand, since it’s drawing shape and inspiration from older folk songs like ‘Jack Of Diamonds’ and ‘Rye Whiskey,’ it’s very much in the wheelhouse of songs from our first LP… kinda like a sister song to Green Rocky Road or something. It’s adventure music and it’s elastic and it pays no mind as it jumps out of the speakers.”

Bonny Light Horseman’s debut was a folk masterclass, re-imagining centuries-old standards with effortless grace and wonder. Those Grammy-nominated, list-topping songs not only suggested renewed possibilities for aging songbooks but also marked the arrival of a trio fully capable of reorienting the wider folk landscape. Rolling Golden Holy marks their return with preternatural beauty, charm, and imagination. This is a band working at the edge of modern folk.

The band thrives in rendering fresh wisdom and insight from old models, whether scraps of ancient songs or the spark of entwined voices. Theirs is a space created for sharing, learning, risking, singing, and playing as one. The new album is the band’s testament to interdependence, partnership, and trust at a moment when we crave such connections so much. Anaïs Mitchell, Josh Kaufman and Eric D. Johnson as a trio fully appreciate what they have found in one another through Bonny Light Horseman; on Rolling Golden Holy, we get to live inside that magic, too.

Bonny Light Horseman Tour Dates:
https://www.bonnylighthorseman.com/live

9/17 – Easthampton, VA – Arcadia Folk Festival
9/30 – Sonoma, CA – Sonoma Winery Barn at Gundlach Bundschu
10/01 – San Francisco, CA – Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
10/02 – San Francisco, CA – Palace of Fine Arts
10/04 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
10/05 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theater
10/07 – Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theatre
10/08 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
10/09 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
12/1-4 – Key West, FL – COAST Is Clear Festival
12/06 – Nashville, TN – Basement East
12/07 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
12/08 – Asheville, NC – Masonic Lodge Theatre
12/09 – Durham, NC – MotorCo Music Hall
12/10 – Washington, DC – Howard Theatre
12/11 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
12/13 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
12/14 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
12/16 – Westerly, RI – United Theatre
12/17 – Portland, ME – Portland House of Music
12/18 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
02/04/23 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
02/05/23 – Glasgow – St. Luke's (Celtic Connection)
02/06/23 – Manchester – Band On The Wall
02/07/23 – London – Union Chapel