Ep. 44: BA Fielder
Recalling the songsters of the early 20th century, songwriter and music maker Brad Fielder presents a program of original and traditional material. Inspired by old time, country blues, ragtime, and bluegrass, the songs are brought to life on acoustic guitar, banjo and resonator guitar. The occasional melodic augmentation is realized on kazoo, harmonica, or mouth horn. It is the music of the people, for the people--folksy, country, and bluesy. Sometimes accompanied by one to three players, the instrumentation is rounded out by bass, fiddle, tuba, and percussion. When performing solo, Fielder has been known to incorporate drums and percussion, transforming into a one man street band.
“Tom and Carol Fielder, my grandparents, made their home in northwest Oklahoma near the town of Ames in Major County. From George H. Shirk’s Oklahoma Place Names, I learned that prior to 1902, that tiny berg was called Hoyle, after Hoyle Creek which is a tributary to the Cimarron River. As my mind wandered over the decades of my own life, and I came to be a writer of songs tinged with nostalgia, it entered my artist’s narrative that Hoyle is not a place lost to time. New Hoyle exists wherever I am, and you will come to know that place when you listen to these recordings, Welcome to New Hoyle. Mostly written and polished in a Norman, OK house built in 1904 and torn down in 2021, these songs are another installment in the chronicles of New Hoyle, a place with no location and a time with no frame.
In the third week of August, 2021, the human population of New Hoyle (Boudreaux the dog stayed home) drove the van to Bristol, VA, for the opportunity to record with Jon Atkinson at BigTone Records. Kansas City musicians The Matchsellers, Andrew Morris and Julie Bates (banjo/mandolin/guitar and fiddle), and Norman sousaphonist Charley Reeves rounded out the band of long time New Hoyle residents. All three lent their fine playing, as well as arranging prowess to the album. Tracked live to mono tape on vintage audio gear from the golden age of radio, each take was the final mix. Recording in the undisputed birthplace of country music was intentional, as the aim of this project was to make these songs come alive in a way that fully acknowledges their origins. Welcome to New Hoyle.”
