MIKE OBERST

Six Feet of Earth coming October 12 2019

"The job of keeping songs and stories alive has gone by many names.  Bards, minstrels, griots, shanachies- depending on what part of the world you're in, there's a different word for these people.  The job takes intact memory and colorful imagination, but more importantly the skill of bringing fresh life to old things, rendering them timeless, and making people care.  In this work, even songs about death can wake up with vibrant pulse.

In Cincinnati, Mike Oberst has this job.  Mike has been a purveyor of traditional music for decades now, through his bands the Tillers, the Blue Rock Boys, and often by himself with a friend or two.  "Six Feet of Earth" is Mike's second solo installment, including some of his favorite ballads from rural America, Ireland, Scotland, England, elsewhere, and a few from his own pen.  The 11-song collection features Mike on a litany of traditional string instruments, along with guests playing hammer dulcimer, cello, uilleann pipes, sitar, and various surprises.  You will hear murder ballads, love stories, work songs, traditional instrumentals and two original works, all rendered in Mike's various tones: plaintive, haunting, crooning, playful, and sanguine.  Folk music as vivid as six feet of earth can sustain.  Listen and see."