Nathaniel Talbot returns to Sisters
Published 4:00 am Friday, March 1, 2013
- The Nathaniel Talbot Quartet sit in a field as they prepare to celebrate the release of their new CD, “Here in the Fields,” on Thursday evening at The Belfry in Sisters.
Two years ago, indie-folk artist Nathaniel Talbot left the wet urban climes of Portland — and life as a nonprofit journeyman — to begin an organic farming apprenticeship on Whidbey Island, located in Puget Sound 30 miles north of Seattle.
Digging in soil, building fences and other farm labor, he said, helped inspire the songs on the singer-songwriter’s aptly titled new CD, “Here in the Fields.”
On Thursday, he and his bandmates in the Nathaniel Talbot Quartet will perform at The Belfry in Sisters as part of their CD-release tour (see “If you go”).
Starting a new life as a farmer has had a fertilizer-like effect on his songwriting, the 29-year-old Talbot said.
All of the album’s 10 songs were written over the past two years: “Essentially, since I moved here,” he said. “The more recent ones are definitely deeply steeped kind of in my environment and daily activities and thought patterns as a farmer living in this rural community.”
His songs have always reflected where he’s at in life, he said, “whether it’s urban or wild, and so … it’s exciting to now see my thoughts and views as a farmer and the stories I’m (hearing) from my fellow farmers on Whidbey Island and the landscape they work being integrated into the songwriting.”
Take for instance, the elegant tune “The Great Levee.”
“I just tried to retell a common story about soil erosion and river levels rising and floods along river banks through this playful, parable-type story in the song,” he said.
“Soil erosion doesn’t seem like the most compelling or poignant topic for a song,” he said, laughing, “but it’s also incredibly important … (for) an organic farmer. It’s paramount to maintain healthy soil; that’s what organic farming is all about. It becomes more and more obvious.”
In another of the new songs, “Edison,” Talbot looks at the post-logging industry of places like Edison, a little town north of Whidbey in Washington’s Skagit Valley. The town’s fortunes “went down after the big logging wave of the mid-1900s,” he said.
“It’s kind of a similar story in any rural landscape you go to, when there’s an economy based off a resource or extractive industry, or something based on the land. It goes through boom and bust cycles. At some point, it kind of has to move on and reevaluate.”
Thursday’s show marks the band’s return to Sisters after performing at the 2011 Sisters Folk Festival. “That was when we were six months old as a band,” he said. “That was great. We loved it. We’d love to come back, if they would have us.”
Talbot said that he gets together every few months to play with his bandmates — Sam Howard (upright bass), Russ Kleiner (drums) and Anna Tivel (violin) — and told GO! Magazine that before he moved to Washington, the three had likely seen the signs, such as his quitting two other Portland acts in which he played.
“It wasn’t totally shocking, or tragic,” he said. The long-distance musical relationship might be tougher “if it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of these particular band members.”
Otherwise, the geographic separation seems healthy, just like the effect farming’s had on his songwriting.
“I think this album is just the tip of the iceberg for that,” said Talbot. “It’s going to be much more present and obvious in my (future) songwriting. But this represents a transition toward trying to discern and detect … more meaningful stories.”
If you go
What: Nathaniel Talbot Quartet CD release
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: The Belfry, 302 E. Main Ave., Sisters
Cost: $10 at the door, $7 students
Contact: http://belfryevents.com or 541-815-9122