We can’t let go of Daniel Bachman, even though the young guitarist moved away from Philly half a year ago. Luckily he’s always got something new for us to dig into in his absence, like this week’s cassette / download collaboration with Colorado’s Matthew Sage, improvised and recorded live for Patient Sounds. The cassette is sold out but you can listen to excerpts of the session below and download it here.
Daniel Bachman
RECENT POSTS
Download Low In the High Desert, a collaborative cassette EP from Daniel Bachman and Matthew Sage
He only lived locally for a year, but folk-influenced acoustic guitarist Daniel Bachman made quite an impression while he was in town. Since he moved back to his native Fredericksburg, VA, we’ve kept tabs on Bachman’s nervous, nimble acoustic guitar playing through his Folkadelphia session, catching appearances at Little Berlin and Brickbat Books, seeing him at the Tompkins Square showcase at South by Southwest last week and hearing this collaborative EP, recorded with experimental Colorado musician Matthew Sage for the Patient Sounds label. The two track cassette, Low in the HIgh Desert, was an improvisational effort, per the label:
Daniel Bachman rolled into Fort Collins to play his first Colorado show ever at the Bizarre Bazaar. He was laid out by the altitude, and played a crazy, heavy set of songs while his guitar wailed in and out of tune adjusting to our rather inhospitable climate here in Colorado in March.
The next morning Daniel & Matthew sat in the studio and cut a few tracks before Daniel split south…they improvised these two pieces. They were a little thing unto themselves. A powerful hazy force in a compact dose. Working out working with less air in yr blood.
This release is supposed to feel as improvised, in the moment, as the session was. We worked out the details while Daniel’s laundry dried. That is why this is PSltd001 – because it is something extra special to us – something extra short run.
The limited-edition cassette is already sold out, but you can download it here. Listen to excerpts from the session below.
Folkadelphia Session: Daniel Bachman
Welcome to the Folkadelphia Sessions, a weekly feature focusing on the in-studio performances recorded by the Folkadelphia crew. Here, folk musicians and singer-songwriters are given the opportunity to share songs that we have recorded in a live, intimate, and often stripped-down fashion at the WXPN studios. There is a real truth and beauty in the rawness of the whole set-up that we hope you’ll hear and enjoy!
Maybe it’s due to his young age or just his personality, but Daniel Bachman was one of the most easygoing people to step foot inside of the WXPN Studio to record a Folkadelphia Session. Whenever I think of the giants of instrumental guitar music – the John Fahey / Robbie Basho / Jack Rose-types – I always imagine a larger-than-life figure. I imagine a person mystically compelled to relay a deeper insight into what it means to be human or how we fit into this universe all through the playing of a guitar. Now, it is extremely possible that Bachman already possesses these qualities, or perhaps they lay latent within all who choose this musical path, or perhaps he will acquire them one day in a frenzied atavistic spirit quest, returning a changed man. As it stands currently, Bachman is a regular and excitable guy that can write some of the most thrilling acoustic music I’ve heard in a number of years.
On October 24th, 2012, Bachman stopped by the studio before his show at the Little Berlin exhibition space. The songs included in the set, a good mix from this year’s Seven Pines (released on Tompkins Square) and other material, resonate and buzz with the same type of exuberance, graciousness, and excitability displayed by the man with the guitar in his hands. Let the melodies take you where they will.
Stream Tompkins Square’s new compilation Imaginational Anthem Vol. 5, featuring Steve Gunn, Daniel Bachman and more
Curated by New Englander Sam Moss, the fifth installment in Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem anthology brings together twelve of the most talented contemporary musicians to celebrate the age-old tradition of acoustic guitar playing. Though volumes 1-4 of the series were compiled by Tompkins Square’s Josh Rosenthal, he brought in Moss for this edition to get a fresh perspective on the current generation. Rosenthal explains, “I felt I’d exhausted most of the older guys I wanted to dig up, and I wasn’t hearing that much new guitar that I really liked. I sensed that Sam knew what was going on.” The result is a record that has its foundation set in the American Primitive tradition of John Fahey and his ilk, but each contribution takes those roots down a dozen unique paths meandering from avant-garde meditations to raga-infused .
Following in the footsteps of the previous volumes, which included compositions by Jack Rose, Chris Forsyth and Jesse Sparhawk, Moss called on a few musicians with ties to Philadelphia to contribute their songs including Eric Carbonara, Steve Gunn and Daniel Bachman.
Imaginational Anthem vol. 5 will be released on Tuesday, November 13th, but it is available for streaming via Tompkins Square’s Soundcloud. Vol. 5 will also be included in a 6-CD box set, out on Black Friday, packaged with the previous volumes and an exclusive live album from William Tyler. View the tracklist and stream the full compilation below.
Cheers Elephant, Daniel Bachman among bands playing SXSW 2013
The initial lineup for the 2013 South by Southwest music festival was announced today, and it ranges from buzzing UK experimental pop four-piece Alt-J to Memphis’ Star and Micey, guitar shredder Marnie Stern and reunited 60s pop purveyors The Zombies. The only band from Philadelphia proper on the lineup so far is Cheers Elephant, though Fredericksburg, VA acoustic guitar wizard Daniel Bachman is slated to perform, and he spent much of the past year living in Fishtown. Take a look at the entire lineup here.
Tonight’s Concert Picks: Ingrid Michaelson at World Cafe Live at the Queen, Daniel Bachman at Little Berlin, Arrah and the Ferns as Black Sabbath at The Fire, Jess Klein at Burlap and Bean
XPN welcomes Ingrid Michaelson’s continuing tour in support of Human Again, released back in January, to World Cafe Live at The Queen. The New York singer-songwriter will be performing acoustic on this leg of the tour, tickets to the all-ages show range from $31 to $41 and are available here. Below, watch a live video of the song “Ghosts” from Human Again, recorded in Laurel Canyon earlier this year.
Folk guitarist Daniel Bachman on returning to Fredericksburg and finding his voice
Just a few days after 22-year-old guitarist Daniel Bachman returned to the U.S. from a month-long European tour, he’s sitting across from me on a sunny Saturday afternoon at West Philadelphia’s Local 44. Still suffering from jet lag, and nursing a hangover from a wedding in New Jersey he attended the previous night, he’s wearing the same pair of jeans, the only pair of pants, he took with him on tour. He proudly points out that he has since washed them, but there was no time for laundry during his first trip to Europe. Nasty slacks and road dirt, though, aren’t the worst thing that happened to Bachman overseas.
Nothing too terrible went down, but something strange happened in Barcelona. He played a venue below an apartment complex where the residents are notorious for throwing various things down at showgoers, hoping to shut them up. “Someone told me they sometimes throw pieces of metal down,” says Bachman, laughing at the absurd prospect. “The night I played, they were throwing water balloons, and one of them hit me. This dude said sometimes they pee in them, and sometimes they put bleach in the balloons. Whatever was in it, when I woke up the next morning the whole right side of my face was red, swollen and on fire. My eye was throbbing for 10 hours. That really sucked.”
Bachman’s fine now. He’s home. But home’s no longer Philadelphia, where he lived and worked for the past year. Continue reading