Devin Hoff on the Magic of Anne Briggs
Last week, Devin Hoff released Voices From the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs) on Kill Rock Stars. Devin is a storied solo bassist as well as a collaborator with a range of artists as far-reaching as Yoko Ono, Nels Cline, Cibo Matto and Mike Watt. After decades of intense fascination with Anne Briggs, Devin tapped talented friends like Julia Holter, Shannon Lay and Sharon Van Etten to release 9 loving tributes to the British folk musician who’s continued to touch audiences far and wide since the 1960s. As a lover of British folk and the current folk-revival-revival we’re currently experiencing, I had some questions for the musician about where credit is due, why these traditional songs are so timeless, and what it is about Anne’s voice that is especially souls-stirring.
I think there’s something a lot of us crave about hearing musical and lyrical truth delivered artfully. As a society we are definitely wrestling with questions of authenticity and honesty.
Devin Hoff
Lara: How did you first fall in love with British folk music?
Devin Hoff: I discovered Anne Briggs’ music by accident on a compilation I randomly checked out from the South Pasadena Public Library years ago. I definitely became, and remain, fascinated by those recordings, which led me to check out some related music as well. But I am much more familiar with ‘American’ blues and folk forms, and have spent a lot more time playing and studying some of that music.
What about Anne Briggs particularly moved you?
It’s really just the music itself, those recorded performances. There’s an almost nonchalant brilliance in the phrasing and melodic invention of the a cappella pieces that is captivating for me. And the way the harmonic and modal song structures are played with yet honored—with no accompaniment. There’s often no one playing ‘chords’ but you can almost hear them, they’re clearly defined, and the integrity of the melodies is kept intact even though most phrases are never sung the same way twice. Also the forthrightness of tone and delivery is so direct, it’s bracing, and makes the lyrical content feel immediate and timeless, even for centuries’ old songs. But most importantly those early recordings hit me on an emotional level every time I hear them.
Why credit some of these traditional songs to Anne if they’re re-arranged?
I think I heard every one of the songs on this record first on those early Anne Briggs recordings. And those are the versions that I have spent so much time listening to, enjoying, studying, etc., and that I built these arrangements from (even the ones that stray far afield). So for me they are Anne Briggs songs, in the way that for a lot of people My Funny Valentine is a Miles Davis song, or All Of Me is a Billie Holiday song. This is not a folk music record, as much as it is a record inspired by the documented work of a very remarkable and singular musician.
There seems to be something of a folk-revival-revival happening now. What is it about the times we’re in that have brought this movement about yet again?
Honestly I’m not very aware of that scene. As a working musician I spend my time with mostly women/femme songwriters and sometimes in jazz-related circles, but I’m pretty clueless about the current folk music scene. Unless you count people like Adrianne Lenker, who I’m a big fan of, or Shannon Lay, or Sharon Van Etten, but that’s maybe a different school of folk-inspired songwriting than a revivalist moment. I think there’s something a lot of us crave about hearing musical and lyrical truth delivered artfully. As a society we are definitely wrestling with questions of authenticity and honesty.
Why do you think trad music from centuries ago continues to stir us?
For myself, I’m more concerned with trying to find some universality and timelessness in music, no matter when or where it’s from. But yeah for some reason some songs survive and get new life breathed into them from time to time, in all cultures. I think in part it is that strange magic of a ‘good song’ whatever that means. But also a lot of it is in what’s allowed to survive and given space to thrive. There are messages in some traditional music that I think we could stand to leave in the past–such as casual endorsement of racist and patriarchal hierarchies–or at least write new lyrics to, as people like Billy Bragg do. On the other hand some songs reach across generations because they contain coded liberatory information, such as those used by the Underground Railroad in the southern states or that hint at herbal lore regarding women’s reproductive health.
All old songs were new songs once, and reflect the time and place they come from.
If there are still people in 300 years, they will probably be singing All the Good Girls Go to Hell at folk festivals.
Get Voices from the Empty Moor on Bandcamp.
