Lady Mondegreen

Once upon a time, Dani Aubert and Ian George spent ten months driving around Europe, the UK and Ireland with their two children in a converted camper van named ‘Big Blue.’ The Portland, Oregon-based couple who perform together under the moniker Fellow Pynins were on a quest to learn traditional songs performed by individuals in their natural environs. The resulting album, Lady Mondegreen, is a delightfully illuminating reacquaintance with familiar and lesser known works drawn from the Anglo-American folk repertoire.

For ‘Pretty Polly’, a spare arrangement featuring Aubert on banjo, George on guitar and Adelyn Strei on bass supports a retelling of the traditional murder ballad, imparting beauty and dignity on the protagonist’s fate. An exquisitely harmonised dark melodic line distinguishes ‘Bonny at Morn’, which Fellow Pynins (who also play bouzouki, mandolin and piano) learned orally from a woman they encountered on Egilsay Island in Scotland. ‘She’s Like the Swallow’ was originally collected, according to Aubert, by folklorist Maud Karpeles in Newfoundland in 1930. A flowing ambient undercurrent courtesy of John Cushing (trombone), Tree Palmedo (trumpet) and Eladio Rojas (drums/percussion) imbues the song with a deeply meditative resonance. Lady Mondegreen is a treasure trove of imaginatively reinterpreted, historically significant acoustic music.