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Black Prairie's 'Up in the Branches' Field-Recording Fail -- Exclusive Video and Bonus Free MP3

Black Prairie Premiere New Music Video For Up in the BranchesJason Quigley

Black Prairie is less a side project and more an exercise in compartmentalization. Multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk got antsy in between tours with the Decemberists and figured it was high time he took up the dobro. (For the uninitiated, the dobro looks a like an acoustic guitar with a steel belly, and sounds more or less the same.)

Funk recruited two of his Decemberists bandmates, bassist Nate Query and accordion player Jenny Conlee, and two Portland musicians, violinist-vocalist Annalisa Tornfelt and guitarist Jon Neufeld. The resulting two albums of bluegrass-inspired genius -- 2010's Feast of the Hunter's Moon and their latest, A Tear in the Eyes Is a Wound in the Heart -- prove once and for all that how the rest of us laze away our downtime is downright disgraceful.

And now you can watch Black Prairie's take on field recording in this exclusive video for the totally real blog Up in the Branches. While several bands have created some musical magic out in the open air for some other blogs, things don't go quite as well for the quintet.

"This will be the last time we ever agree to do one of these stupid blogs," Funk tells Spinner about the process. Query, however, has a more upbeat take on the making of this video: "What is music if not a love of life and what better way to enjoy life than beer and bicycles?"

Check out the clip below, and visit the Up in the Branches site for some on the process of field recording. Conlee's view of it? "You know what, fuck you." And, as a bonus, download Black Prairie's "Nowhere, Massachusetts" for free!

Watch Black Prairie - "Up in the Branches"




Download Black Prairie Songs | Buy Black Prairie Albums

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