For Immediate Release (CDs available on request. Interviews can be arranged.)
Contact: Michael Kornfeld 631-418-8548 michael@michaelkornfeld.com
Songswarm Vol. 1 Captures Classic One-of-a-Kind Musical Moments in Time
A Songswarm (sawng-swarm, www.songswarm.us) is when two or three songwriters practice the art of improvisational accompaniment on each other’s original songs in front of an audience. Songswarm Vol. 1 is a recently released multi-artist album on PuffBunny Records, an independent label based in Fredericksburg, Texas. The brainchild of Taylor Pie (aka Susan Taylor of Pozo Seco Singers), the CD, which has been garnering airplay on international folk radio, features live in-concert recordings of original songs by six performing songwriters who hail from the Lone Star State: George Ensle, Greg Whitfield, Jack Saunders, Michael O’Connor, Jeff Plankenhorn, and Taylor Pie.
“I’m excited to be part of this project to spread the idea and principles of songswarming that touches the ‘folk’ core of all singer-songwriters,” said Taylor Pie. “When I’m performing solo, I miss having other folks on the stage with me. I love being a songswarmer. It’s original, spontaneous, improvisational and unrehearsed performance art brought to life by performing songwriters and musicians.” She noted that, as its name suggests, Songswarm Vol. 1 is just the first of several planned songswarm releases on PuffBunny Records. The label was launched in 2007 with Kathryn Harrison (a friend since high school days) to share her music and that of other artists who Pie admires.
As she states in the album’s descriptive liner notes: “What makes a songswarm different from a jam is participants are performing songwriters who have agreed to play only their own original songs and also accompany others’ songs when it’s their turn. A go
od songswarmer remembers to give the key… There are no rehearsals, no charts, and often players are hearing the song for the first time.” She also cited “the bonding between these artists that springs from mutual respect, acceptance, trust, willingness and, often, just pure ol’ love for each other and each other’s songs,” adding: “In my personal experience, ease and enthusiasm are two elements that help make a songswarm truly magical.”
A traveling folk minstrel and Americana artist for more than 50 years, Taylor Pie was born Susan Taylor in East Texas and spent most of her summers with her grandparents in Longview, listening to her mom and her sisters sing harmony on church hymns. Singing came naturally to her, and after the family moved to Corpus Christi in the early 1960s, she helped form a folk-pop group called the Pozo Seco Singers while still in high school. The trio’s hit single, “Time,” by Michael Merchant, remained on the Billboard charts for more than a year, and Columbia Records released three of the group’s albums. After leaving Columbia, Taylor and bandmate Don Williams (a Country Music Hall of Famer) became Pozo Seco and recorded an album for an independent label. She also co-produced some of Williams’ first hit country singles. After the Pozos disbanded around 1970, Taylor went on to pursue a solo career as a singer-songwriter and musician, releasing a number of albums independently. Her songs also have been covered by a bevy of notable recording artists. Taylor Pie, who lives in Tennessee and spent most of her professional years in Nashville, was inducted into the National Traditional Country Music Association’s Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015.
“I’ve performed music in so many settings and situations over the years – from singing in a national folk-pop trio back in the ‘60s to fronting a country band in New York City in the ‘70s, traveling solo in the ‘80s, and settling into writing and performing only original material in the ‘90s,” Taylor Pie acknowledged. “It’s all been wonderful, but this Songswarm movement has become my favorite way to walk on a stage.”
What most draws her to songswarming is the spontaneity of it. “I’ve been in songswarms where I’ve never even met one of the performers before, and yet after a couple of tunes we’re smilin’ and swarmin,’ ” she said. “Audiences seem to take to the idea well too. Supportive encouragement drifts in the air, and the whole room feels connected. No songwarm is ever the same as the last. I like that.”
Songswarm Vol. 1 was released after more than four years of collecting live, multi-tracked recordings of songswarms at such notable Texas venues as the Bugle Boy in La Grange, McGonigel’s Mucky Duck in Houston, and at Austin City Jams. Ren Renfree, engineer-producer and head of AREN Creative, was brought in as production engineer in the mixing, selection and sequencing of this first songswarm production. With Songswarm Vol. 1, Taylor Pie and PuffBunny Records seek to capture those classic one-of-a-kind musical moments in time
“Songswarm Vol. 1 is a remarkably cohesive collection of great new songs,” writes Charly Mann, former editor and publisher of The Maverick Report, an Americana tip sheet, and retired producer and director of the weekly Austin Music Showcase TV show. “While songwriters’ collections like this are usually an uneven and eclectic assortment of few memorable tunes, this album is the exact opposite. Almost all the songs stand out on first listen and demand to be heard again and again. Most of the songs share a common theme of wisdom with age — either by accessing the past or making for a hopeful future.”