Oberhausen’s Static Roots Festival is now well-established in the European Roots calendar and for a growing itinerant community of music fans it has joined High Wycombe’s Ramblin’ Roots, Kilkenny, and the London and Nashville Americana Fests as essential stopping-off places. The welcoming surrounds of the Zentrum Altenburg – an old Zinc factory – and the pleasant squares and leafy streets, belie the town’s nineteenth century origins as a railway junction serving the heavy industries of the Ruhr valley.
Beginning as a one-day affair in 2016, over its first four iterations it grew and learned. By 2019 the festival had found its form and delivered two days of exceptional performances that will live long in the memories of all who attended. Come the early days of the following year everything seemed set fair for a repetition before events conspired to close the whole world down. Wisely the festival organisers kept lines of communication open; eventually they were able to arrange smaller events under the Static Roots banner before coming back strongly in 2022.
People remembered and returned, and Static Roots recovered well after the lost two years. By keeping their nerve they proved their seriousness and that they were here to stay. The festival settled into a fixed structure with a winning formula so much so that artists now clamour to be invited. However there remains only ever space for twelve acts, and booker Dietmar Leibecke is solely swayed by quality, so this year’s line-up as before presents a mix of the fresh and the familiar while spanning the spectrum of contemporary roots music.
The most exciting prospect is perhaps the appearance of One Eleven Heavy. The cosmic chooglers, gathered around the core duo of James Toth and Nick Mitchell Maiato, were originally, albeit briefly, scheduled to play in 2019 but that European tour never happened, and it appeared they were doomed never to grace a stage this side of the pond. But here they are at last, off the back of a delightful grower of a record. Poolside has been described as a picaresque romp under the star of Richard Brautigan, and its mix of tall stories, snaking guitars, and shaky piano are just the right soundtrack for a stoned summer dream.
Of similar stock are The Cordovas who did make it here in 2019; they carry themselves with all the limber insouciance of The Band or the Dead but once the twin guitars of Toby Weaver and Lucca Soria, alongside the magnetic frontman Joe Firstman, crank up it makes for quite a ride. With two albums – Destiny Hotel and That Santa Fe Channel – chock full of cracking songs, allied to a tendency to dip into the canon for the likes of ‘Barstool Blues’, they’re invariably good value.
Malin Pettersen emerged from the Norwegian Nordicana scene to shake some trees with her Nashville-recorded Wildhorse; diverse instrumentation, sonic contrasts, and a pleasantly off-kilter personality well to the fore, all helped to make it a significant release. Her most recent single ‘Who I Am’ expanded the palette further with its smart harmonies and embrace of electronica.
A second representative of continental Europe is Woolf; the Dutch trio comprising Marieke Smit, Mylène Berghs, and Ellen Tackenkamp formed after meeting at the Conservatory Of Amsterdam. Their harmonies, inviting comparisons to Crosby, Stills, & Nash, have taken them to prestigious support slots (Delines, Frazey Ford). So far there’s only a five-track 10” EP to show off their wares but glorious songs like ‘Sink Or Swim’ along with audience reaction at recent shows bode well for their upcoming debut album.
Given the Kilkenny Roots Festival was a major spur to the founding of Static Roots it’s no surprise to find a pair of Irish acts on the bill, and that one’s an old friend. John Blek makes his fifth Oberhausen appearance, returning with the reformed Rats. The much-loved Cork-based folk roots band disbanded in 2017 but have come together again to mark the tenth anniversary of the classic Leave Your Love At The Door collection, and their appearance here will doubtless be emotional.
They’re joined by another Cork band in Rowan. This young trio of Dylan Howe on guitar and vocals, guitarist Kevin Herron, and drummer Fionn Hennessy-Hayes, blend elements of indie rock, alternative, and folk, calling to mind The Strokes and Arcade Fire among others. The twelve tracks of debut album Does It Make You Happy? were whittled down from over fifty, displaying both urgent energy and reflective introspection. There’s an attractive seriousness to them, and a touch of the Method given the vocals to album opener ‘Apollo’ were recorded inside a car to simulate the confined space of a lunar module.
Rowan play in honour of the late Willie Meighan of Rollercoaster Records in Kilkenny; a massive source of support and encouragement to Dietmar from the days when the festival was no more than an aspiration. Another great friend of the festival is Canadian DJ Jeff Robson who returns every year to serve as master of ceremonies bringing a few of his compatriots with him. This year sees a bumper crop.
Jim Bryson is simply an Americana legend; a singer-songwriter, producer, and sideman to Kathleen Edwards who wrote ‘I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory’ about him. His debut album The Occasionals regularly turns up on best of the century lists, and while he does concentrate a fair bit on production these days he continues to perform regularly.
Bryson produced the debut album of Evangeline Gentle, who makes an immediate return to Static Roots. That record unveiled a rich and lush vibrato, and a stylistic range taking in both roots and pop. A new album Where The Diamonds Are is on the way; again produced by Bryson; from which has already emerged ‘Gay Bar’. Gentle aims to conjure lush emotional landscapes within her listeners, seeking to unite audiences with a sense of ‘sameness’; “we are inextricably connected by our shared emotional, human experience. I love that songs remind us of this.”
The Hello Darlins are often considered the roots equivalent of Broken Social Scene. Based around the trio of vocalist Candace Lacina, her producer Mike Little, and guitarist and singer Murray Pulver, they’ve worked with an array of Canadian performers and session musicians creating an admirable hybrid of country, gospel and blues. Notably the stand-out song on their recent In The Sundust ‘Better Days’ featuring the soulful voice of Dave Fenley.
Ferris & Sylvester came to notice with 2022’s Superhuman which swept aside all in its path to take the UK Americana Association’s Album Of The Year award. Issy Ferris and Archie Sylvester initially attracted plaudits for a more folky sound but Superhuman saw them pivoting to country soul, at times taking a trajectory into heavy blues; songs like ‘Demons’ – “It’s time I shook hands with the devil/And walk straight down his street” – are simply coruscating.
Completing the line-up are a couple of acts from the American South; that sentence alone is a tribute to Static Roots’ cosmopolitanism! Beth//James are Mikaela and Jordan Burchill, a pair of singer-songwriters from Austin, Texas whose bright and poppy take on Americana is infused with an indie sensibility. James Petralli of White Denim produced their debut album Get Together, and an early song of theirs ‘Lion Eyes’ turned up on the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s BlackKKlansman.
Then there’s Dylan Earl, or Dearl as he’s affectionately known; Louisiana-born but now very much a son of Arkansas. He sounds old-school, almost Countrypolitan, with a baritone to die for, but he’s a very smart songwriter, and you need listen carefully or you’ll miss the nuances.
The festival starts on Friday 7th July and continues the following day. The venue’s courtyard is an ideal place to hang out before, during, and after; there’s invariably a reluctance to see the evenings end and the informal after-shows run late into the night. In a new departure this year the festival has invited local legend Fisch to entertain the stop-outs; given he’s played punk (Lokalmatadore), country covers (Freeway Cash), been an Elvis impersonator (El Fisch), and is half of the singer-songwriter duo Fisch & Oldrik, he’s going to have quite a repertoire to dig into. So it does look like nessun dorma.
Quite a few people will have arrived by the Thursday and they won’t be shy; there’s some excellent bars and restaurants in Oberhausen and they’re not hard to find. Unfortunately Friday morning’s Static Ruhr Tour is a victim of its own success and has already sold out, but there’s plenty of places an easy train ride away – you wouldn’t go far wrong taking a wander around Düsseldorf – or a short tram trip will take you to the Rhine-Herne Canal, the Gasometer, and the Ludwiggalerie Schloss Oberhausen, all of which are far more scenic than they might sound.
Static Roots Festival, Friday 7th and Saturday 8th July, ticket link here
Bucketfull Of Brains 