Besides enjoying a great Appalachian ballad-singing performance, by the time you’ve soaked up this post and video you’ll know what a crankie is and want to see this duo live on their upcoming UK tour.
Our Song of the Day is The Devil’s Nine Questions which is performed by Anna and Elizabeth (Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle), they use a handsewn crankie to illustrate this tale – made by Anna using cloth and cut-paper scrolls depicting scenes from ballads. The song is a traditonal ballad that they learned from a Mrs. Rill Martin & Texas Gladden of Giles County & Salem Virginia. The song ends on the faster tune Billy in the Lowground which also has older Scottish and Irish variants.
Anna and Elizabeth also perform using a combination of crankie and shadow puppets. Watch the video below and imagine how magical this would be heading out into the woods at night with just candle light. It’s a bit like stepping back in time…
If you’ve just fallen in love with their music then make sure you catch their UK Tour next month:
Their Show is a captivating mix of ballads, foot-stomping dance tunes, stories and visual art. It’s a throwback, honoring the cultural and musical heritage from the hollows and old-time musicians gone but not forgotten.
UK Tour
MAY
7 Guildford, Music Institute Folk Club,
8 London, Musical Traditions Club
9 Orwell Bluegrass Festival
10 Dorset, Square & Compass Pub
11 Todmorden, The Golden Lion
12 Liverpool, The Caledonia
13 Sheffield, Upstairs at The Shakespeare
14 Newcastle, Upstairs at the Bridge Hotel
15-16 Fife, Scotland, Fife Traditional Singing Weekend
17 Stockton on Tees, The Waiting Room
18 Edinburgh w/Foghorn Stringband, The Traverse
19 London, The Green Note
20 Kent, The Bowerhouse
You can buy their second self-titled album now. Available on Free Dirt Records
Order it here.
