“There’s a lot of tears”
Folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman find new emotional currency in centuries-old songs
THE defining thread to all this is what my wife calls ‘timeless humanity’,” says Eric D Johnson of his new three-way project, Bonny Light Horseman. “Friends keep texting me, saying, ‘Man, these songs are making me cry!’ There’s a lot of tears. People have always loved and lost, had sex and been sad, but the fact these songs are so ancient yet so relevant is very powerful for people.”
The Fruit Bats leader and sometime member of Califone and The Shins formed Bonny Light Horseman last year with acclaimed singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and multi-instrumentalist/producer Josh Kaufman. Drawn together by a deep-rooted fascination with traditional folksong, they cemented the union with an appearance at Wisconsin’s Eaux Claires festival, run by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner of The National. “We didn’t even have a band name at that point,” recalls Mitchell, “but there was chemistry from the get-go. We worked on a bunch of stuff, all based on trad music, sometimes heavily co-written, sometimes not, all really open with lots of space for music, feelings, improvisation.”
It wasn’t until they accepted Vernon and Dessner’s invite to take part in a week-long artist residency at People/37d03d festival in Berlin, however, that Bonny Light Horseman took shape. “We arrived in this sleep-deprived, vulnerable state,” Mitchell explains. “I remember Josh playing me a sketch of a song and me just weeping in this little old plaster-cracking room with morning light streaming in the window. We arranged some songs in that dreamlike state and then just started recording with everyone we could grab out of the hallway.”
A host of helpers – among them Vernon, Dessner, Lisa Hannigan, The Staves and Kate Stables aka This Is The Kit – joined the Berlin sessions, before the threesome finished off the album back in the States. Largely made up of centuriesold songs from the British Isles, Bonny Light Horseman manages to tease fresh meaning from these ancient ballads by adding harmonyrich choruses and various subtle amendments. All of which gives it a very modern sense of place. Their version of “Blackwaterside”, popularised by the likes of Led Zeppelin and Bert Jansch, messes with tradition by reframing it as a duet. “I don’t think it’s ever been done that way before,” says Johnson, “but it is this story about a lopsided love affair, so why can’t it be from both perspectives? The guy’s kind of a bastard in it, too.”
The album also makes room for a couple of originals, though they’re in keeping with the guiding source material. “Deep In Love” began life as a Fruit Bats tune that Johnson couldn’t quite finish. “It was a blank demo I was circling around and couldn’t find the verse for,” he recalls. “Then Josh showed me the lyrics for this old Welsh folk song. So the verses became these 500-yearold words. It was an incredible alchemy, it came together in seconds.” Meanwhile, Hiss Golden Messenger’s MC Taylor chipped in a verse for new song “Mountain Rain”, which plugs into the traditional world with its lyrical evocation of the old John Henry myth.
All three members may have other things to pursue, but, happily, Johnson insists “we’re planning into the future. This is not a one-off.” Mitchell seems to feel the same way. “We didn’t want this to be academic. It’s about emotions. Trad music is such a welcoming space for a lot of different musicians. There’s an egolessness in playing these old songs. We can make this our own, but we’ll never own it.”
Bonny Light Horseman is out on January 24 via 37d03d Records
‘Why can’t ‘Blackwaterside’ be from both perspectives? The guy’s kind of a bastard in it, too” ERIC D JOHNSON