Hungrytown – self-titled

Listen Here! Records, Inc.

Hungrytown is a delicious artistic treat for a variety of reasons. There’s a lyric sheet inside, a rare treat these days. Better still, the lyric sheet is illustrated with cool, rustic-chic photographs. When I saw the stylish photographs, I suspected that the song lyrics were going to be as equally charming and stylish. Art feeds upon art. Guess what? I was right! And Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson enunciate their words so clearly that I didn’t need the lyric sheet.

Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson are to folk rock what Clark Kent and Lois Lane were to Superman. We’re talking prime time players here. Unlike many singers today, they don’t shout their lyrics or mumble them under their breath. They’re also talented songwriters with a knack for personification: “Lucille, Lucille, you teach the sun/To swim across the sky/You make the rivers all to run/And the autumn wind to sigh.”

Hungrytown is American folk music at its zenith. It’s all there: fine fiddling, mournful mandolins, brazen banjos, and a Joan Baez vibe that is as retro yet shiny and new, like a freshly minted copper penny. If you’ve been craving folk music of substance, head off to Hungrytown. You won’t be hungering anymore.

Review by Rachelle Nones