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Fleet Foxes For Frank Fairfield

September 11, 2008 10:37 AM

Photo: Kisby/Getty

We went to Seattle a couple weeks ago and spent an afternoon with one of our favorite new bands, the Fleet Foxes. We sat and drank some coffee with singer Robin Pecknold, and then met up with the rest of the band at Pecknold's parents house, which has a lovely view of Portage Bay. It was in the Pecknold family basement that the band recorded most of their stunning debut.

The Foxes hit the road in a few days, and Robin is very excited about their opening act, Frank Fairfield. "He's like 26 years old and he sounds like Mississippi John Hurt," says Robin.

Fairfield plays fiddle and banjo player and strums back-porch bluegrass, complete with shaky jug-band vocals reminiscent of The Foggy Mountain Boys from way back in the '40s (think O Brother, Where Art Thou?).

"He's kinda crazy," says Robin. "He has his own radio show where he just plays these old gramophones. He just puts a mic up and plays all these field recordings from the 1900s; it's insane. He dresses like it's the early 1900s. He's born out of time, and his voice is amazing."

Check out Fairfield here.