Summer in Maine

Photos by Buck Curran

Much of August was spent at the ocean with our children...taking some time out for ourselves, no music except the wind and the sound of the waves. It was a perfect summer, and this was a perfect memory.

Arborea gets a great write up in the last issue of Performing Songwriter

Arborea was featured in the very last issue of Performing Songwriter magazine. In the 'Just Push Play' section, in the June 2009 issue (Odds and ends that the staff of 'Performing Songwriter' have been obsessing over) Beth Walker wrote:

Husband-and-wife duo Arborea are undoubtedly located on the folkier side of life. And their brand of folk is ethereal, bone-chilling and beautiful all at once. House of Sticks has a very organic feel, as one may imagine simply from perusing some of the song titles - "River and Rapids," "Look Down Fair Moon" and "In the Tall Grass"- and it has the uncanny ability to transport the listener into a vastly different, dreamier world.
~Beth Walker

Seadrift and Arms & Horses

Films by Craig Saddlemire

Arborea goes to Ireland & London- to play on the BBC

Here are a few photos from our recent trip across the pond. We were asked to play on the BBC radio 3 'World on 3' program to which we promptly said "Hell yeah!" We mixed in a visit with our good friends (more like our adopted family) in the mountains of Ireland (Wicklow County to be exact)Our trip lasted 8 days and we had a wonderful time. Some of the highlights of our trip included meeting and staying with Alan Pedder in London (editor of 'Wears the Trousers Magazine') Also, Alan took us to a phenomenal concert, Ane Brun- Have you heard of her? Check her out, you won't be sorry! Every single day of our stay with our family at the farmhouse was too short and way too fun. Ok, I guess there were no highlights, the whole trip was so fulfilling and inspiring.

In Dublin, sitting with with a likeness of Patrick Kavanagh


A hearty pint of Guinness after being caught in the rain is just the thing


Here we are at the BBC




The most enchanting place I know...

Ireland in May

Photos by Shanti and Buck

Leaves of Life

Artwork by Hanna Tuulikki


June 23rd was the official release date for 'Leaves of Life'.

Leaves of Life is the essential collection of songs by some of today’s most creative Indie Folk musicians. This record brings together unique and contemporary artistic voices to create an evocative and stunning collaboration; with all proceeds from the sales of this record going to benefit important relief programs in Africa, and other communities in great need around the world.

Curated and produced by Buck Curran of the Alt-folk duo Arborea, Leaves of Life features 19 exclusive songs by artists Alela Diane, Devendra Banhart, Marissa Nadler and Black Hole Infinity, Fern Knight, Shanti Curran (Arborea), Rio en Medio, Larkin Grimm, Mi and L’au, Starless and Bible Black, Silver Summit, Micah Blue Smaldone, David Garland, Citay, Big Blood, Mica Jones, Eric Carbonara, Ora Cogan, Cursillistas, and Magic Leaves…along with the beautiful art work of musician Hanna Tuulikki. This project hopes to further inspire people around the world to join in vital artistic and social efforts to make a better life for all of us.

In addition the digital release of the compilation will include special bonus tracks by Jozef van Wissem, Laurent Brondel, Denise Dill, and Plains.

To purchase the cd in the U.S. please visit Darla Records

http://darla.com/index.php?fuseaction=e4_ecom.ecom_superitem_detail&item_cat_id=36667

For purchasing in Europe visit here

http://bornerecordings.bigcartel.com/product/various-artists-leaves-of-life

All proceeds from the sale of this record go to the World Food Program!

if you would like more information about the world food program please visit: www.friendsofwfp.org

Please help us get the word out about this record compilation- every cd that sells will help!!!

Black Mountain Road music/film

Here is a film directed by Francesco Paulo Paladino inspired by our song 'Black Mountain Road'

Sandy Denny

Sandy Denny performs Crazy Lady Blues on the BBC 1971

Peter Green - I've got a mind to give up livin'

It just doesn't get any better!

Peter Green & Fleetwood Mac I've Got A Mind To Give Up Living / All Over Again Live at The Warehouse, New Orleans, LA 01/31/70



Peter Green during his tenure with the Bluesbreakers

New songs, New Cd, New Dirty Linen Magazine Feature...

Hello everyone,

Well these past few months have been really busy- so many great things are happening that we hardly have the time to write about it. Our new cd 'House of Sticks' has been out for a few weeks and is already picking up airplay throughout the U.S. and Europe, and is also among the top 50 Best Sellers list at Darla Records, Yay! (Darla is distributing our record in the U.S.) As well, a release date for the 'Leaves of Life' compilation will be announced soon. AND, we just recorded a song to be included on a tribute cd in honor of the legendary Odetta. The Cd is curated by Wears the Trousers Magazine, (http://wearsthetrousers.com/) and the song we recorded was an Arborea take on 'This Little Light of Mine' We are really excited to be a part of this compilation, as we have a deep respect for Odetta and the light she shone on the world. As yet we don't know the release date for that comp, but we'll keep you posted.
Also, Arborea was in Dirty Linen Magazine again, alongside Vetiver, Helena Espvall and Masaki Batoh, Fern Knight and Larkin Grimm in issue #140 (March/April 2009) as part of the Psych Folk Feature Article written by Veteran writer Lahri Bond. Dirty Linen Magazine can be found in every major bookseller throughout the the world....pick up a copy while you can! There are several more project in the works, as well as our non musical interests (local community activism, organic gardening and teaching) we'll write more on all this soon (i hope)
~Shanti and Buck~

(photo by Shanti Curran)

Art from House of Sticks...and album description

Here are some photos from the new House of Sticks record, (out soon!) which has gotten me thinking...
Starting today, no, well, tomorrow- it's too cold today- I'm going to start roving the wild outside and photographing again, but it will be a series designed to be a companion to the next album, which we are recording now.















we build shelters to keep us from the sweltering noontime sun...







House of Sticks is the third release by the Indie folk duo Arborea. Following closely on the heels of their 2008 critically acclaimed self-titled record, it is a verdant, personal collection of singles, drawing the best tracks from their highly praised debut cd Wayfaring Summer and several new songs recorded between 2007 and 2008. Arborea also offers up new versions of their songs Dance, Sing, Fight and Beirut.



House of sticks is a continuation of the musical journey of Shanti and Buck Curran, as they conjure scenes of the wilderness and dwelling, and the vibrant people who exist within them. Partly recorded in a Depression Era hunting cabin nestled in the olden hills of western Maine, one can nearly hear the creaking floorboards and smell the wood smoke in the cold night air in the song Look down Fair Moon and sense the flash of wind and water in River and Rapids and On to the Shore. Their song In the Tall Grass is a riveting, intoxicating hum, suggesting a meadow at twilight, the whirl of sound broken only by the intimate promises of Shanti's voice. Other songs were recorded in the parlor of a 160-year-old cottage, resurrecting the bittersweet melancholy of those who have lived and loved within the room in which the songs were made. The title track House of Sticks is an acknowledgment of the transitory conditions that join a family or home and the wild forces of nature and time that can so easily tear it down. Within each song of this collection, Shanti and Buck seem to stop time and exist forever in that perfect, solitary moment.


Musically, Arborea continues to carry on the experimental folk and progressive folk rock tradition that began in the 60's and 70's by artists such as the Pentangle, John Fahey and Sandy Denny. NPR's 'All Songs Considered' producer Robin Hilton describes Shanti's voice as 'hypnotically beautiful' and their songs as 'memorable', and 'incredibly spare and beautiful'. With Shanti's unique rhythmic and melodic banjo style, and the introduction of her harmonium, along with Buck's haunting slide guitar, the duo creates an atmosphere of primitive 'Paris, Texas' Americana meets 'modal visions of the Far East', a sound that continues to captivate audiences worldwide. Arborea have excelled again with this release, yet another recording that establishes them as masters of their craft. This is a group that we will undoubtedly be hearing for decades to come.

Some of my favorite black and white photos

Tonight we will walk in the freshly fallen snow

And talk of ocean kingdoms and bridges built by forgotten armies

and the far-off spring that sings promises of a return...

(all photos taken by me except the live one of us playing at the time of rivers)

Alissa Anderson and Arborea

Photos by Alissa Anderson except for the two taken by Buck Curran

a salutation to the new year

So here we are compressed and expanded light and darkness flowing from our fingers and heads…

Our hands pull out the spirit

A release of sorrow

An acknowledgement of loss

Our hands weep

The secret infinite

We mourn his early departure

But Grace will call on

Those who suffer

A kiss, all of your warmth

Passed to me in my ennui

Oh how you nourish me

And this time we will keep to ourselves

Lovers like none other

Now.

For we have chanced the entire

Roamed as strangers

In the lands

Of this world

And we have loved

Shameless and feral

In rooms foreign and majestic.

Our restless return bears us here

Back to the frigid land that waited

In a certain kind of slumber

Here beneath the wasted trees

In the wild we recoil

Withdraw into our fragile caves cradled

By the earliest hills and pass the time…

Until the sunrise.
- Buck Curran January 2009

Arborea in Italy and Spain, December 2008