Americana Eternal

Frank Fairfield at Pickathon in August 2010

By adhering to tradition, musician Frank Fairfield raises important questions about modern life. Americana aficionado Greg Vandy—whose mini-biopic Frank Fairfield debuted at this year’s SXSW Film Festival—spoke with City Arts about Fairfield’s fascinating anachronism.

Frank Fairfield doesn’t talk about his past much—his father was involved in missionary work in Central America, and Frank grew up in Guatemala, and he went back to LA at some point. He’s only 25, but when he was younger he hit the bottle hard, and I think he was frustrated about life. He played banjo and fiddle to feel better about things. Music was therapeutic for him.

A few years ago, Frank was busking at the farmers market in Hollywood. A musician named Matt Popieluch (from the bands Fool’s Gold and Foreign Born) discovered him there, became his confidant and manager, and helped him get gigs. Matt helped land Frank a spot opening for the Fleet Foxes in LA During sound check, the Fleet Foxes guys saw him play—and they booked him to open their entire tour. 

Around then, Matt told me about Frank and I thought, damn, I gotta meet this guy. He played my show on KEXP in 2009 and we hit it off. I thought, here’s a character that not only needs to be heard, but seen. 

Frank Fairfield, the mini-documentary I made about him, played at SIFF, SXSW and a few other festivals; in mid-June it ran for a week on the front page of IFC.com. Frank went from busking to paid gigs and festivals to recording two albums to having a short film made about him, but he has no clear career path. He thinks of himself as a regular guy who plays traditional music the way it’s supposed to be played, and all this show business stuff is for fools.

As you can tell from the film, Frank is all-in. He’s immersed himself into  traditional, turn of the century music from around the world. He’s a huge collector of ethnic records as well as American recordings. His vocal is very authentic. He sounds like an old record. Out on the Open West, his second album, came out in May, and even his original songs sound like they were recorded 80 years ago onto a wax cylinder. 

He’ll tell you the reason he’s attracted to that old-time sound is because it’s unfiltered. In the 1920s, you’d hook up your recording machine and cut straight to disc. Frank’s idea is that there’s no interference. The music is pure.

If you don’t mind me saying, thanks to No Depression magazine, my radio show (and others like Swingin’ Doors) and the Pickathon festival in Portland, people have latched on the Northwest roots scene. I’ve been playing this music a long time, and now I see more bands embracing traditional American styles—particularly late ‘60s folk—though I also see the word “folk” tossed around until it’s meaningless. Not that anyone should care. American music has always been here and always will be. 

Those who want to get off the bandwagon because they see too many bearded guys playing acoustic guitars, please leave. There’s nothing new about people singing folk songs; it’s only trendy to the shortsighted. That’s what Frank is saying: These songs have existed forever, they’ve been sung a million times by a million people. There is no beginning, no end.

Greg Vandy hosts KEXP’s long-running American Roots show The Roadhouse every Wednesday from 6–9 p.m. and publishes the blog American Standard Time. Frank Fairfield performs at the Doe Bay Music Festival on Aug. 12 and 13. Stay tuned to Vandy’s blog, americanstandardtime.com for information about upcoming screenings of Frank Fairfield.