FRANK FAIRFIELD

Event information

After a a debut tour last September that left anyone who encountered him spellbound, Frank Fairfield returns this summer with a new album on Tompkins Square. Introduced to the UK as a touring partner to Charlie Parr, and playing anywhere from large festival stages to intimate gatherings across Europe, this is a man who lives and breathes it, rarely separated from his guitar and fiddle, and in possession of a seemingly limitless repertoire of songs. When he's not playing, he's digging for rare 78s in thrift stores and junk shops.

Frank sings soaring hillbilly stompers, arcane rambling songs and murder ballads, delivered in a reedy tenor backed by his dextrous and ragged fiddle, guitar and banjo arrangements. Still in his early twenties but steeped in the pre-War Americana of Mississippi John Hurt and Dock Boggs, he cut his teeth as a street performer in LA and has the raw intensity, passion and technique to make your hairs stand on end.

Fleet Foxes handpicked him to open for them on their 2008 US tour and he has found fans elsewhere in Ry Cooder, CW Stoneking and Grammy winning producer Chris King (Charley Patton, People Take Warning box set). His eponymous debut album came out last year on Tompkins Square and picked up rave reviews across the board.