If you plug J.Tillman into the iTunes search query, the genre comes up as alternative country. So that’s what they are calling folk music now? I don’t quite understand all this sub-genre mumbo jumbo; I just call it folk—with a twist. No matter how you categorize his music, however, Josh Tillman has set out to cross paths while keeping his well-rounded scene just that.
On a rather late night to be holding a show on a Sunday, J.Tillman nevertheless filled the upstairs hall at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA. The atmosphere was light throughout the venue as we waited through the opening set by Pearly Gate Music (AKA Zach Tillman, Josh's younger brother), until 11:15pm when Josh hit the stage.
All the while beforehand—to my surprise—Tillman could be seen walking about the venue, checking in with the band and making small talk with a few people. And yet, the majority of those in the room didn’t even recognize him; he was just another awkwardly attractive man with a face covered in fur and a head full of country hair. The sight fit the scene, so really why would have anyone noticed him?
“There is nothing sexy about a guy who’s put out seven albums and nobody's heard any of them,” he told me later that night. And while his statement may ring true now, I am under the impression that with the dawning release of his second LP, Year In The Kingdom, along with his incessant touring (either solo or as the drummer in Fleet Foxes), his unrecognized grandeur is soon to be swooned over.
Tillman is no stranger to folk music, in fact, having nurtured his skills long before his recent stint with Fleet Foxes. His spanning albums—of which there are no shortage—can be compared to the likes of Bon Iver with their crashing, melodic swirl of instrumentals—light and airy, though certainly not lacking in organic emotion.
In a not-so-typical fashion for a folk show, he started off on an acoustic Guild guitar that could have been taken from Grandpa’s attic. Yet as soon as he got underway with dreamy tunes like “Masters House,” off of Vacilando Territory Blues, there was no doubt this man accompanied much the same distinctiveness and vocal clarity as do Fleet Foxes. In fact, his voice could have carried throughout the room without a microphone or an amplifier and they would have been just as pronounced.
Article comments
1 - Eagle_flh
Great review you make him sound like a bottle of fine wine.