Artist: Harrow Fair
Album: Call to Arms
Label: Roaring Girl Records/Fontana North
Release Date: 10/21/2016
When Miranda Mulholland (Great Lake Swimmers, Belle Starr) and Andrew Penner (Sunparlour Players) create music together, something delightful happens. Their combined experiences allow Mulholland and Penner to show off fantastically executed string work with both the fiddle and guitar. Call to Arms, the Canadian duo’s record debut, spoons out doses of rock, roots, Southern charm and just about everything else along the way.
“Hangnail” starts off the album, channeling Penner’s alternative-country roots. It’s a rock and roll anthem vibe that helps to create the duo’s own sound. This is the listener’s warm up for what’s to come. They make noise and proclamations during the stripped down “I Will Be Your Man”. They tingle your spine and chill the room with “How Cold” and their take on Hank Williams’ “Told a Lie to My Heart”. They encourage you to dance around the kitchen by candlelight with your lover during “Held Tight”. Once you hit “Bite the Way”, Southern rock raises you high and consumes you…only to be brought down to the ground with the album’s beautiful finale, “Been There Ways”. Everything in between is filled with just as much perfection.
Much like that “feel good movie of the year” makes you laugh and makes you cry, Call to Arms does the same for your soul. With alternating and blending vocals, and strong highlights of the guitar and fiddle, Harrow Fair is a sweet and perfectly paired duo. Winter will be warmer with Call to Arms.
Catch Harrow Fair on tour this winter.
-Brenda Hillegas
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