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Girlyman have their roots in the North Eastern States, but, ten years or so into their career, are now based in Atlanta and have added drummer JJ Jones (ex Po’Girl) to their line-up. Rightly celebrated for their skilful three-part harmonies, they make music of shimmering beauty that has roots in bluegrass but also in classic pop – the Beatles certainly come to mind more than once. A more up to date reference point would be the Indigo Girls. Amy Ray has put a couple of Girlyman albums out on her own label, and Emily Saliers adds support vocals on one of the songs in this new collection. Even without Emily Saliers’ contribution, the harmonies can sound remarkably like the Indigos at times.
The three core members of the band are Ty Greenstein, Doris Muramatsu and Nate Borofsky; all of them write songs (together or separately) and contribute instrumentation as the song demands, everything from banjo to bouzouki, piano to pedal steel. It would be hard to say what their core sound is, certainly from the evidence on this album, but the interplay of their voices is to the fore throughout. If you checkout the song Supernova, for example, you can hear Doris’ guitar playing and the beautifully sonorous cello playing of guest musician Julia Biber, but this is all just background to the quite sublime, deeply emotional vocal parts that they’ve written for themselves.
This is the Girlyman album that might not have been. Doris Muramatsu is currently in remission after treatment for leukaemia and various aspects of what she and the band have faced in this period appear in song. Supernova is not an album entirely devoted to the impact of Doris’ illness, but the events of the last year are certainly woven in throughout this set of songs. All three writers produce songs that are clearly rooted in actual experience but that tend to skirt round the specifics of a tale. This can leave space to match each song to our lives or it can leave a sense of enigma, but being able to see where Doris’ particular experience appears gives some of these songs astonishing resonance. When she documents the way her body has become alien to her, or the deep loneliness that can strike at these times, she puts you right there with her in the hospital bed. Even in these bleak moments, however, Girlyman know how to make a beautiful sound and, let’s face it, desperate moments often produce the very best art.
These guys are coming over to Britain and Holland in May/June and the chances are that they’ll make avid converts in just the way that they have over ten busy years on the road in the States. There’s a really excellent article about life on the road with Girlyman at http://www.slate.com/articles/life/risk/2010/04/getting_naked_every..., which not only does a fine job of introducing you to Girlyman, it also serves as a template for understanding the life of the modern folk band - a useful corrective if you happened to believe it was all champagne and roses.
John Davy
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