PREMIERE: Thao & Mirah - Folks
“Folks” by Thao & Mirah, the duo of Thao Nguyen and Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn (with a little help from tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus, opens with the kind of bluesy guitar figure the two have often hinted at in their typically more grandiose explorations and revisions of American traditional music. That’s a long way of saying that the song’s initial minimalism is among the most immediately pleasing moments of either of their long careers. From there, they bury that brief straightforwardness beneath gorgeous, complex vocal harmonies, pitch-perfect percussion and a left-turn minor key bridge that all fits in perfectly with the song’s folk-blues framework. The song is off the excellent Thao & Mirah, out now from Kill Rock Stars.
