(2021) David Huckfelt - Room Enough, Time Enough    


Review:
Room Enough, Time Enough is Iowa- native and Minneapolis-based singer-lyricist & folk activist David Huckfelt (formerly of The Pines) second solo album. The theme of this record, like 2018’s Stranger Angels is environmentally oriented but also about redeeming the marginalized, and remembering the forgotten, especially indigenous peoples. Fans of The Pines are certainly familiar with Huckfelt’s ethereal, warm, soothing approach and this time out he is even more focused on restoring balance: space and attention as well as peace and equality. A few major events coincided to inspire the effort. In March of this year, just as this album neared completion, David Huckfelt and his partner welcomed their first child into the world. While the songs and record were written with the newborn in mind, they had no idea how difficult and dangerous their new world was about to become. “Having our son arrive just as the country entering the throes of the Covid pandemic was a crushing exercise in vulnerability; even now in early fall, no one in our family has been able to meet Billy yet and the risks around every turn are just menacing. Then, just as we were getting the hang of quarantine and isolation, George Floyd was murdered less than a mile away from where we live.” Having assembled a host of friends, contemporaries, strangers, artists, outlaws, and cowboys he for these once-in-a-lifetime sessions at Dust + Stone studio in Tucson, AZ., the list includes Ojibwe ambassador of Native Americana music Keith Secola, Tucson’s own living songwriting legend Billy Sedlmayr, Giant Sand founder and head purveyor of the southwestern electric-fuzz border sound Howe Gelb; former Bob Dylan drummer Winston Watson, award winning South Dakota Indigenous singer Jackie Bird, Arizona Blues Hall of Fame harmonica player Tom Walbank, and Calexico contributors Connor Gallaher on pedal steel and Jon Villa on trumpet. Other Midwestern musical luminaries appear such as Iowa folk legend Greg Brown, Dave Simonett & Ryan Young (Trampled by Turtles), Pieta Brown, Jeremy Ylvisaker (Andrew Bird), J.T. Bates (Big Red Machine, Taylor Swift), Erik Koskinen, Michael Rossetto and more, adding the finishing touches to this inspired mix of original, Indigenous & public domain songs. Together with the unmatched vocal chants of John Trudell’s constant collaborator & Warm Springs Nation Native singer Quiltman, Huckfelt embellished his stories. The first single and opening track “Better to See the Face” has an accompanying a video featuring Huckfelt and his newborn son, exploring the notion of intimacy in a world separated not only by quarantine but by screens. “Gambler’s Dharma” features Huckfelt’s signature finger picking reminiscent of those many great albums from The Pines as well as harmonies from Pieta Brown. That’s followed by the familiar public domain “Bury Me Not (The Dying Cowboy)” where Dave Simonett joins on vocals. Huckfelt, a long-time ally whose friendships and alliances with Native American artists and activists says, “‘Bury Me Not’ has survived for generations in the public domain by perpetuating the myth of the heroic cowboy on the lone prairie, but as with many songs from deep in the American soil, the poetry tells another story as well. The Earth, the land itself, gets the last word on our efforts to subdue and conquer it.” Keith Secola wrote the track “Book of Life,” which also has a video and is dedicated to Indigenous resisters and water and land protectors. Secola is also a featured vocalist on the Patti Smith cover of “Ghost Dance.” He is the underground hero of Native Americana music whose song “Indian Car” has become an anthemic hit on reservation radio stations across Indigenous land. Secola and Huckfelt have a friendship that goes back a decade. They have collaborated on recordings and performed at pow-wows, tribal government centers, islands in Lake Superior and more. Gallagher’s pedal steel colors Johnny Cash’s “Satisfied Mind’ with a southwest desert haze that also suits guest Greg Brown’s deep vocals. The melodic “Land of Room Enough, Time Enough” is buoyed by B3 organ and a chorus of voices. More cowboy fare appears with Tucson’s own living songwriting legend Billy Sedlmayr contributing vocals to Huckfelt’s version of “Cole Younger” while Jackie Bird contributes vocals to “Journey to the Spirit World,” as does Quiltman. Many Americana fans haven’t heard this extensive employ of Native American voices since Robbie Robertson’s two albums in the ‘90s. The Koskinen quarantine produced “Imaginesse” features lovely harmony vocals from Pieta Brown and Jeremy Ylvisaker on electric guitar and piano along with Koskinen (guitar, bass) and Richard Medek (drums). “Hidden Made Known” is another that could be mistaken as one from The Pines catalog were it not for Gallagher’s touch. Both Secola and Quiltman contribute vocals to Huckfelt’s startling cover of Patti Smith’s “Ghost Dance” along with Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb who also offers guitar on the closing chant-filled “Calling Thunderbird Blues.”


   


Track List:
01 - Better to See the Face
02 - Gamblers Dharma
03 - Bury Me Not (The Dying Cowboy) (feat. David Simonett)
04 - Book of Life (feat. Quiltman)
05 - Satisfied Mind (feat. Greg Brown)
06 - Land of Room Enough Time Enough
07 - Cole Younger (feat. Billy Sedlmayr)
08 - Journey to the Spirit World (feat. Jackie Bird)
09 - Imaginesse
10 - Hidden Made Known
11 - Ghost Dance (feat. Keith Secola & Quiltman)
12 - Calling Thunderbird Blues (feat. Keith Secola)


Media Report:
Genre: americana, folk
Country: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


Note: If you like the music, support the artist