By utilizing strong storytelling in the urban folk tradition along with an infusion of jam band instrumentation, Germantown’s Jefferson Berry, along with the Urban Acoustic Coalition (UAC), blends various sounds from foot-stomping jazz to shades of rock to straight-up bluegrass, bringing a unique musical sound, a danceable style and a contemporary point of view to Philadelphia’s local music scene.
Berry and the UAC will take center stage at 118 North in Wayne on Sunday, March 2, following the release of Berry’s new LP, ‘Born into a Blizzard’, his fourth album in five years.
Ahead of his upcoming show, Berry sat down with Metro, peeling back the curtain as it were behind his own musical roots and what modern folk music is all about.
When discussing his musical origins, Berry went back to the late ’60s and early ’70s, to his “hippie roots in Southern California,” as he called them.
“When I first picked up a guitar and started playing to the aim radio, learning how to play and tell stories — my music is really about telling stories about urban living and these strange times — one of my first partners in this was a guy named Bud Burroughs, who’s in my band. We met at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and he was playing mandolin at the Folk Festival, but later, I found out he’s basically a classically trained pianist as well—an amazing musician.”
“Another guy I met at the Philadelphia Folk Festival is Dave Brown, and he plays lap steel and banjo and is probably the best guitar player in our band, and with those two guys in particular, I’ve like focused on songs that bring their virtuosity out. The other thing that we’ve tapped into is [that] we’ve gone from kind of folk rock drummers to jazz-oriented drummers. People hear a lot of Steely Dan in my folk music.
The transition from rock to jazz-oriented drummers may seem stark to some. Obviously, the stylistic approach of the band’s drummers has an impact on the sounds, but according to Berry, that’s among modern folk’s greatest qualities, as is it’s ability to tell stories.
“This is really what I think modern folk music is about. You’re telling stories with acoustic instruments, mandolins, banjos and guitars, but the genre defiance of this kind of music is, I think [is] one of the best kind of things. It’s not all like Woody Guthrie, hummin’ and strummin,’ kind of folk music you could get into a variety of different things. When we’re writing folk music songs, when we’re telling these stories, it’s not much of a difference than people writing novels. You’re looking at character development. You’re looking at scenarios. You’re looking at building some something of a plot line in those stories.”
For those who are curious about Jefferson Berry and the UAC’s sound, their upcoming performance at 118 North provides the perfect opportunity to experience them firsthand, the best way to experience a band, as Travis frontman Fran Healy recently told Metro, “In order to completely get that band, you have to go and see them live.”
For more information about Jefferson Berry and the UAC or to purchase tickets to their upcoming show, visit jeffersonberry.com
