Folkadelphia Session: Spuyten Duyvil

As a college radio station music director, I quickly learned to love the daily mail delivery. Whether it was physical snail mail or digital deliveries, I couldn’t help but get excited about the prospects of what those packages had to offer. I could be one envelope tear (or click of an email) away from finding my new favorite band. To this day, I try to maintain this enthusiasm for the unlistened album with each new one I receive. Click play, track one fires up, you never know what you’re going to hear and how it’s going to make you feel.

Recently, I received Spuyten Duyvil‘s The Social Music Hour Vol. 1 in the mail. While I’d seen the band’s name thrown around the roots and Americana side of the music world, I had yet to listen. With unknown expectations, but my passion for the unplayed keeping persistent, I changed unplayed to currently playing. I’m glad I dug in – I love what Spuyten Duyvil (by the way, that’s pronounced SPY-ten DYE-vil) has to offer. It’s raucous, it’s gritty, and you make crank it loud. You know when you hear it that it’s going to translate to a live setting wonderfully (note: it does). On The Social Music Hour, Vol. 1, the band arranges traditional ballads and folk standards to work with their strengths – tight playing, a boat load of enthusiasm and energy, and a fun sense of dynamics. The 12 song, 40 minute affair breezes by demanding repeat listens.

Around the release of the album, the band stopped by the WXPN Performance Studio to show off just how much chemistry they’ve got. Folks if you’re looking for a band that’s completely locked-in-the-groove, you’ve found them in Spuyten Duyvil.

Watch the band play their little hearts out this Saturday, June 13th as part of XFest in Telford, PA and at this year’s Philadelphia Folk Festival.