Faeries From Yon Philly Wood Revive Ye Olde Jousting Folke

Take a rich compost of everything from Brit-folk reissues to free-jazz improv to outsider heroes like Harry Smith, John Fahey, and Henry Darger to psychedelic freakers like Acid Mothers Temple. Sprinkle with wartime fantasy escapism—hello, LOTR!—then wait a few years. Watch jaded indie rockers and neo-hippies quiver in ecstasy. Like mushrooms in the dark . . . hark, they sporeth: There's clearly a fertile and diverse folk music revival afoot. "New Weird America," some have been calling it.

photo: Scott Slimm

The Renaissance on acid

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Espers
Locust Music

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More About

• John Fahey
• Henry Darger
• Harry Smith
• Acid Mothers Temple
• Vashti Bunyan

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One band scraping resin from both the medieval pipe and trance bong is Philly's majestic Espers. The mind-meld of acid-lullaby enchanter Greg Weeks and his maenads of baroquean beauty Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons, Espers at their core are a trio—acoustic and electric guitar, dulcimer, recorder, autoharp, vintage keyboards. Friends add violin, cello, and various percussion. With beautiful finger-style sonnets recalling Bert Janch and female (sometimes male) vocals haunting the same moonlight as Vashti Bunyan, Espers perfectly balances minimal composition with loose Amon Düül-like jams, seductively strangling Renaissance dirges and laments (think Pentangle/Incredible String Band) with droned "acid leads" that leave you wandering in unknown ancient/future landscapes you knew as a child but now are too frightened to return to.

Espers play Sin-é March 28, following an afternoon in-store at Mondo Kim's on St. Marks Place.