Fellow Pynins bring old-world folk to The Belfry

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Contemporary folk duo Fellow Pynins visit The Belfry in Sisters on Monday.

When it came time to make their second album, Ian George and Dani Aubert of the Oregon folk duo Fellow Pynins turned to songs that came to them the old-fashioned way: They learned them.

George and Aubert are both songwriters, as evidenced by the originals on their 2016 debut “Hunter & The Hunted.”

But the eight tracks on their 2022 release, “Lady Mondegreen,” are all traditional tunes the couple picked up from people as they traveled through the United Kingdom and Ireland in recent years, touring through small towns in rural areas, jamming with musicians on porches and in pubs and generally soaking in whatever comes their way.

“This was our third time (going there) this summer and we’ve met all these beautiful people. Some are musicians but some are just folks who grew up singing with their family and learning songs from their parents and grandparents,” Aubert said. “We stay off the internet as much as possible and find that people have all the time in the day to hang out with us and connect and share their songs and stories.

“Every time we go back, it just feels more and more like home,” she said. “We have a community there.”

Actually, Fellow Pynins’ permanent home is an off-the-grid tiny house in the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument outside of Ashland. That’s where Aubert and George raise two children, and it’s also where they recorded “Lady Mondegreen,” which features traditional songs but also feels vibrant and modern — a testament to the couple’s fresh voices, reassuring harmonies and unfussy arrangements of banjo, bouzouki, guitar, mandolin and piano. It’s a sound that is earning the band attention far and wide: NPR music guru Bob Boilen described Fellow Pynins as “folk music with a hefty touch of whimsy.”

All that attention is certainly nice, but it’s not a shock to the couple’s system, Aubert said. In fact, it feels like a natural progression for Fellow Pynins, she said.

“We’ve been working at music for like 10 years, and we work hard for it. It’s been kind of a slow and steady process, but I want to be able to have a sustainable career in music,” Aubert said. “I don’t want to burn out. It’s very easy to go hard and burn out, because it’s hard out there. It’s not glamorous and it’s not easy to make a living doing this, so we’ve really just been chipping away at it and maintaining a grounded home life and focusing on making music that we love and that feels right for us.”

What: Fellow Pynins, with Brent Alan

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: The Belfry, 302 E. Main Ave., Sisters

Cost: $15

Contact: belfryevents.com

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