VT is ecstatic to be helping distribute the new album by Nashville's finest in advance of our very own (slowly grinding into production) Hank Tapes LP release. One of America's secret gems of the Underground, John Allingham, Peggy Snow, and company have been sharing their singular vision in Nashville, TN and beyond for nearly 20 years. This fine new album on Hairy Spider Legs is further proof and we're ecstatic to help distribute copies far and wide. Great stuff, kinda like if the Shaggs grew up to make an LSD Jesus LP on ESP-Disk while in Amsterdam, like a funhouse mirror version of a Folkways surf group. One of the NYC shops we frequent asked if we were getting copies and i suppose that's good enough for us when it comes to sharing the music, art, wisdom and wit of John, Peggy and company from down Nashville, Tennessee way. We're in. You may recall our great pleasure when Peggy agreed to be part of our Foggy Notion art exhibition awhile back. We also have a limited number of additional copies to mailorder as well if anyone out there wants/needs direct from us in lieu of ordering direct from our new pals at Hairy Spider Legs, who released this fine piece of American music. Either way, or even elsewhere, ears should hear.
Hairy Spider Legs sez:
"The Cherry Blossoms are to folk music what the Velvet Underground was to rock n’ roll: anti-commercial, rebellious, pure, and unlike anything else. They deconstruct folk into a a very special experimental music, but they insist they’re a front porch band. Specializing in kazoo, 6-gallon bucket, poetry, carefully awry drum rhythms, guitar, and vocals that span octaves, melodies, and time, the Cherry Blossoms are unforgettable.
Lead singer Peggy Snow has said that “No one tries to control what anyone else is doing when we play.” The result is a sound that is ecstatically free, layered, and ranging. While songs like “Amazing Stars” follow a chorus sung together in sweeping, traditional hymn with a few quirks, other songs skip and spaz into a trance awash with unorthodox folkloristic layers. Their sound is at once elusive and timeless (Have I heard this song before?). It’s a sound they’ve been honing for twenty years. The Cherry Blossoms are sure to go down in history as one of the great folk bands of the 21st century.
With a rotating cast of 3-8 performers, their line-up has changed over the years, but most recently consists of: Peggy Snow, John Allingham, Chuck Hatcher, Taylor Martin, Chris Davis, and Allen Lowry. Ever eclectic, members of the band are talented in their own rights. Peggy Snow is a prolific painter, John Allingham is finishing a rock-opera 10 years in the making, Allen Lowry writes amazing unconventional poetry and played drums in Lambchop, Chris Davis is an incredible music curator/contributor to the Nashville music community, Chuck Hatcher can rock any Zepplin song in existence… the list goes on and on and on. They are local legends in Nashville and sure to make music history." - Hairy Spider Legs
