Kacy & Clayton

By Kerry Doole


8/10



The Clayton of this Saskatchewan-based duo is Clayton Linthicum, now making a name for himself as the new guitarist in Deep Dark Woods; Kacy is vocalist (and songwriter) Kacy Anderson. The cousins began performing together at folk festivals in 2010, released a self-titled debut a year later, and have now delivered one gem of a second album.

Most of the material here features the pair's adaptations of traditional tunes, beginning with the opening tune "The Cherry Tree Carol," one of the oldest songs in the English language, while the three originals fit seamlessly. Kacy has the kind of pure voice reminiscent of English folk greats like Sandy Denny, Shirley Collins and Maddy Prior. Devoid of any affected twang, it flies straight and true into the listener's heart. Clayton contributes tastefully on guitar, autoharp, fiddle, pump organ, and harmony vocals, resulting in songs that generally sound as if they originated in rural England rather than south of the Mason-Dixon Line. We're guessing The Child Ballads are their musical Bible, and they do indeed evoke days that are past and gone.

The only guest turns are taken by Ryan Boldt and Jody Weger, who contribute on a song apiece (Deep Dark Woods main man Boldt co-produced with the duo). Just when the sedate pace threatens to become a bit dull, they pick things up on the final cut, "I'll Be So Glad." With Boldt chiming in on pump organ and vocals, it has a fuller and more gospel-tinged sound that rounds the album out in uplifting fashion.

We can indeed be very glad for this disc. It's remarkable to think that Kacy is just 16 and Clayton 19. Let's hope they get to take this on the road.
(Independent) - Exclaim!

I first ran into this duo at the small but wonderful music event on Grand Manan Island, NB, Summer's End Folk Festival. It takes quite a trip to get there, including a two-hour ferry ride, but when you do, you're entertained by the likes of Catherine MacLellan, Old Man Luedecke and Daniel Romano. This past August, I had no idea who Kacy & Clayton were, but I was immediately surprised, pleased and a bit shocked. The pair are young cousins from rural Saskatchewan, Kacy Anderson still a teen, but close your eyes and they immediately transport you back a century or more. This is the real stuff, folk songs performed with a bare minimum of accompaniment, from sad sea tales to brokenhearted lovers. Some are well-known, ancient numbers (Pretty Saro), but others are in fact their own compositions, yet placed side-by-side you'd never know they weren't straight from the Child Ballads folk book.

Lots of younger artists are trying to play old folk music, and doing pretty well. But I'll put K & C on top of that group. Kacy has an amazing voice, truly haunting, always stirring. She sings to your soul, immediately making the emotion rise in your heart. Clayton Linthicum is a fabulous guitar player, his notes ringing out, whether it's gentle picking or country gospel with a happy skip (Let It Shine On Me). There's not much else here, just occasional fiddle, organ, or autoharp added for emphasis. Clayton can throw in a harmony part on the odd chorus too. But mostly the two tell the rich stories with vocal and guitar, and a touch of echo.

The song selections are surprising, too. I've heard a lot of young interpreters playing the same old standards, not realizing they are well-known if you're over forty. But some of these I've never heard in my decades of listening, and I've heard a lot of folk, friends. They obviously know their stuff, and want to push past the normal. And their own trio of originals, well, let's just say I was stunned to find out they weren't written by the poets of the past. Wood View, with its Carter Family autoharp and close harmonies, is about a family plot that has seen too many young people join its ranks: "My sister she died as a baby, I guess it's all part of His plan." Feels old, is new, and cuts through all the clatter of current pop music to deliver a most gorgeous and glorious sound - CBC Radio 1

Some days, you'd almost think it's worth getting out of bed. Lately, I've found, those days include those during which the prospect of hearing the music of Kacy & Clayton and the Locust Honey String Band looms. Together, these discs attest to the continuing vitality of traditional music -- meaning, for one thing, that "folk music" may be returning to its original meaning, which is not rootless singing-songwriting.

The current British revival, launched in the 1990s (thanks in good part to Eliza Carthy's extraordinary efforts and talents), continues apace. A body of evidence hints that something of the same may be happening in North America, not -- of course -- in the pop-music mainstream but at least on edges no longer ignorable. The present CDs are by young people, but the music they make doesn't betray that. The depth and maturity on display are impressive.

This seems especially so on The Day is Past & Gone, its title evoking the autumnal mood of most of the 10 songs, the work of cousins Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum, residents of rural Saskatchewan. Kacy, the singer, lays claim to a dark alto, which she uses so effectively that I defy any listener to figure out, from its sound alone, that she is barely in her mid-teens. Yet she sings, shockingly, convincingly and unreasonably, lines such as "now my hair has turned to silver, my aged bones are weary and worn" (from their self-composed hymn "The Downward Road"). Kacy's handling of the much-traveled lyric "I am a poor soldier and far from my home" borders on a kind of emotional perfection; for one moment, you think you don't need to know anything else, ever. Then, again, a can't-miss line, it packs a wallop wherever it appears, here at the end of a lovely reading of the 19th-century "Pretty Saro." Substitute anything you like for "poor soldier"; one notably heart-ripping variant (recorded by Eliza Carthy among others) puts "blind fiddler" in that space.

Day features six traditional songs, two of them Child ballads, as well as one semi-traditional ("The Dalesman's Litany," a poem by a known author set to a folk melody; I suspect Kacy & Clayton took their inspiration from the Tim Hart version), and three originals in styles indistinguishable from the others. Of these last, the above-cited "Downward Road" is my favorite, but there is nothing whatever lacking in "Wood View," reminiscent of the Carter Family, and "Rocks & Gravel," not to be confused with the traditional song. The cut that appears -- deservedly -- to have caught general attention is their shattering inhabitation of "Green Grows the Laurel." All movement ceases around it.

Clayton has a whole lot to do with the success of this album, contributing harmonies (subtle ones; you have to listen closely) along with deceptively intricate, not-so-simple guitar arrangements; he also brings autoharp, fiddle and pump organ to the show. The results repay no end of listenings, always the test of the strongest and most enduring music. The Day is Past & Gone surely answers to that characterization. If an encore is even possible, I don't know whether to look forward to it or fear it.


-Jerome Clark - Rambles.net

KACY & CLAYTON

Kacy & Clayton feature two distinct voices accompanied by fingerstyle guitar, creating a traditional-leaning, stripped-down folk sound. Clayton Linthicum and Kacy Anderson are second cousins that live on ranches in the Glentworth/Fir Mountain area of southern Saskatchewan, and though we usually stick to the city limits for up-and-coming Saskatoon bands, the duo is active enough on the scene that they might as well be from here. (Ryan Boldt from Saskatoon’s The Deep Dark Woods even produces their albums.) Their sound eschews modern digital iciness for warm, ‘70s-style analog production.

They grew up together, learning about music at the knee of Kacy’s grandpa Carl (Clayton’s great uncle). As they grew up, they jammed Bob Dylan and Neil Young songs and delved into more traditional forms of folk music — early country bands like The Stanley Brothers and The Monroe Brothers, as well as black guitar evangelists and British balladeers.

“So now we play versions of old songs that we find interesting,” says Clayton, “in addition to the songs we compose.”

The duo has recently been asked to play the 2014 Winnipeg Jazz Festival, another feather in their cap. They’ve already toured around western Canada and played stages at The Regina Folk Festival, Ness Creek, The Saskatoon Jazz Festival, and The Forget Deep Winter Blues Revival.

“I hope that we’re giving people in Saskatoon a newfound excitement toward traditional music,” says Clayton. “It's our goal to gain fans from other music scenes [and] genres and show them that folk music is cool.” /CS - Planet S Magazine

You have to understand that today
when you look at the music of
one traditional artist, you're
looking at one ripple in the
blossom of impact caused by a much
earlier pebble dropped into water. So
when you want to know where
someone's music comes from, you have to
look back ripple to ripple, reaching to the
point of impact. These days the waves
move across the world, not just over a
small region. So when you hear
something you've never heard before,
like a seventeen-year-old girl from rural
Saskatchewan rebuilding an archaic song
like The Cherry Tree Carol with a voice
that ties heaven to earth, what you're
really hearing is one of the furthest
ripples from the source. And that source
is the British folk revival.

"A big influence for us was hearing
people like Shirley Collins. She would take
American songs and change them up a lit-
tle bit, change the tune a little or change
the words. Lots of folk musicians do that;
it's part of the genre: trying your best to
change what you can and keep the good
parts." So says guitarist and multi-
instrumentalist (and nineteen-year-old)
Clayton Linthicum, one half of the duo
Kacy & Clayton. The other half is seventeen-
year-old Kacy Anderson, Clayton's second
cousin, childhood friend / musical partner,
and lead vocalist in their duo.

Kacy and Clayton both live in the tiny
town of Glentworth, a mere twelve miles
from Saskatchewan's border with Mon-
tana. It's a town so small that its
Wikipedia entry is just one sentence:
"Glentworth is a community in
Saskatchewan." Clayton's talking on the
phone from his home on the ranch that
his parents own. When asked how large
this ranch is, he replies "We have about
400 cows." He's just back from tour with
his other band The Deep Dark Woods, and
isn't home long before he'll head out
again with them. Clayton joined this pop-
ular Canadian indie roots band a few
ears ago as their guitarist, and has been
touring internationally with the group.

He's dedicated to pushing forward his
duo with Kacy Anderson, however, even
thouqh her young age makes touring difficult
.He knows, as well as anyone who lis-
tens to them, that there's something very
special happening in their music. Much of
it comes from his inventive and beautiful
guitar and instrumental work, but the
standout feature is certainly Kacy's voice,
rich far beyond its years, seemingly tem-
pered from hard iron. Together, there's a
kind of synergy to their music that clearly
comes from growing up together.

Kacy & Clayton started playing music
together when Kacy was a mere five, and
Clayton seven years old. They had a band
with Kacy's older sisters that mainly cov-
ered classics from Creedence Clearwater
Revival, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and
Bob Dylan. Dylan, in fact, is another point
of inspiration for them. "We're both big
Bob Dylan fans," says Clayton, "and being
a Bob Dylan fan, you find out about a lot
of early recordings, like Mississippi John
Hurt. You start looking for people that
influenced the people you like, and then
that just leads to lots of discoveries."

The early band with Kacy and her sis-
ters was organised by Clayton's grandfa-
ther, who was also a primary inspiration
for them. "He was a real good musician,"
Clayton says, "a country dance band musi-
cian. He played in a lot of the old 'orches-
tras' (they called them) when they would
go around and play at school dances and
rural events. He had a lot of musical
knowledge and he taught us everything
he could. He was the driving force."

When pushed, Clayton struggles to
define what a Saskatchewan orchestra was
(polkas were a main staple). "Not country
music, it was old time. It's hard to explain
because I don't know of any popular band
that played in that style. Just bands that
I've heard of from my grandpa, who has
them on cassette tapes. I don't know of
any popular recordings." There are no
polkas in Kacy & Clayton's music, but
there's a reverence for open space and a
deep love for old traditions, two things
that must have been influenced by ranch-
ing life in Glentworth, Saskatchewan.

Listening to Kacy & Clayton's album
The Day Is Past And Gone, it can be
hard to distinguish the traditional
covers - which include glorious
reworkings of Green Grows The Laurel
(heard on last issue's fRoots 49
compilation), Pretty Sara and Blind Willie
Johnson's Let It Shine On Me - from the
originals, which have the weighty heft of
old ballads. "We want them to sound
old," says Clayton. "The lyrics are written
in that old language and the melody is
similar to other melodies. It's part of the
folk process, I think, trying to not copy
but borrow from."

That folk process is at the heart of
Kacy & Clayton's music. As the ripples of
Collins and Dylan and Hurt spread over
this small corner of rural Canada, music of
great depth and beauty has sprung up in
the hands of two kids. Under their care,
the water of these great sources is now
feeding a new garden, a new generation,
a new sound for these old songs. - fRoots Magazine

KACY & CLAYTON

The Day Is Past & Gone Sask Music


"In recent decades, too many folk songs have been burdened by over-sung vocals and cluttered arrangements." That's quite an opening statement to the PR blurb that accompanies this CD, but Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum - second cousins who grew up a short distance from each other in a ranching community in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, deliver where it counts.

Like their UK counterparts, Stephanie Hladowski & C Joynes, this duo exudes a level of deep, emotional connection which enables them to inhabit old, familiar songs like The Cherry Tree Carol, Green Grows The Laurel (heard on last issue's fRoots 49 compilation) and The Dalesman's Litany and render them fresh and distinctive, while seamlessly inte- grating their own, newly-built songs - Rocks And Gravel, The Downward Road and Wood View into this evocative musical landscape. Anderson's voice - plaintive, yearning and strong - summon to mind monochrome images of Jean Ritchie in some half-remembered Alan Lomax movie to mind, whileLinthicum's guitar triggers flashes of both Davy Graham and Doc Watson.

Supplementary instrumentation is deployed sparingly and effectively, like the sonorous pump organ that opens Pretty Saro. Linthicum adds aplashes of fiddle and autoharp here and there, while the double bass of Jody Weger underpins the dancing vocal on an engrossing Henry Martin.

Anyone who fell hopelessly for Meg Baird's Dear Companion in 2007 will find much to love about this album. Credit is also due to producer Ryan Boldt (lead singer of Deep Dark Woods, for whom Linthicum plays guitar) for his role in crafting this fine folk record, timeless and true.

Read about them on page 19.
www.kacyandclayton.com

Steve Hunt - fRoots Magazine

The night kicked out with Joey Ryan’s introduction of Kacy & Clayton. A Milk Carton Kids show is equal parts beautiful harmonies and riotous banter as Ryan and Pattengale take small jabs at one another and exchange witty remarks, the intro was no different as Joey exclaimed the group was from Saskatchewan, to which a voice offstage disagreed and Joey claimed his research methods must be flawed as that’s what their MySpace page confirmed.

Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum kicked into their set and what unfolded over the next 40 or so minutes was really something special. Anderson’s vocals has a timeless quality to them, it harkens back to an intertwining of British Folk meets Laurel Canyon. Simple, haunting, and beautiful. She effortlessy sang over Clayton’s incredible and unique fingerstyle guitar. The boy can play that thing like not many folks. One of the most interesting and engaging styles of guitar I have seen in a long, long time. Fingers flying across the frets and playing all sorts of modulated chords that I couldn’t even quite wrap my head around…but it was perfect. The banter between the two rivaled hat of Ryan and Pattengale. Dry humor, stories, and the harmonies were divine. They ended the set with a broken string (D I believe), to which Kacy cried out “why does this always happen” and despite Linthicum’s efforts to play on two strings, the result was “too power chord-like” and they concluded the tune acapella…I don’t think anyone complained about that. Again, those harmonies. The only wish I have from their set that I didn’t get was for Clayton to lead a tune or two, I would have love to hear his voice out in the open. I will be digging deep into the music of these two heavily in the immediate future, a definite recommendation for you all to do the same. - Redline Roots