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Thread

by Sally Anne Morgan

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1.
2.
Garden Song 04:58
Won't you come and join me in my garden We’ll sing quietly inside my garden The sparrow sings to me inside my garden My dogs are company inside my garden Everything is green inside my garden Everything is free inside inside my garden Nothing is a weed inside my garden Sepal, stamen, style and stem Brutal beauty, Brutal fruit May it stay June forever May it stay forever June Won't you come and join me in my garden We’ll sit quietly inside my garden The robins sing to me inside my garden And also the chickadee  inside my garden Everything is green Everything is free Nothing is a weed Everything is green Everything is free I savor solitude Watching the tendrils Twining towards the moon Twining ever twining May it stay June forever May it stay forever June
3.
Sheep Shaped 02:36
4.
Wintersong 03:47
January birds fly over Twisting Shadows through the laurel Starlings chatter outside my window Clouds and cold, I gather wood Something blue and grey and golden Only holding to let go Sky blue sky outside my window It’s ok that we don’t know Saw a night creature in the morning She saw me and kept on walking Pleasure gazing eye to eye After all we live side by side There’s soup on the stovetop Water in your cup We’re sitting down together now Only sitting down to get up
5.
6.
Thread Song 05:46
I found a piece of silver thread I followed it to where it led I found a piece of golden floss I followed it and I was lost Stitch it once, stitch it true Sewing up the sides of you Fill the warp and pick the weft Gathering up all that is left I found a piece of bakers twine I tied it up till you were mine I tied a knot, I tied a bow I answered yes I answered no Pin the center, bind the sides Twine together  yours and mine Find the needle find the eye Thread it through to the other side I found a door and went on through the room was full of the thought you I found a spindle I found a staf I spun the yarn into a mask Blue and green, green and blue Measure out the weight of you Green and blue, blue and green Prettiest think I ever seen
7.
8.
Oh, hard is the fortune of all woman kind She's always controlled, she's always confined Controlled by her parents until she's a wife A slave to her husband the rest of her life Oh, I'm just a poor girl my fortune is sad I've always been courted by the wagoner's lad He's courted me daily, by night and by day But now he is leaving to go on his way My parents don't like him because he is poor They say he's not worthy of entering my door He works for a living, his money's his own And if they don't like it they can leave him alone Your horses are hungry, go feed them some hay Then sit down beside me as long as you may My horses ain't hungry, they won't eat your hay Then fare thee well darlin I'll be on my way Your wagon needs greasing your whip is to mend Then sit down beside me as long as you can My wagon is greasy, my whip's in my hand Then fare thee well darlin, no longer to stand
9.
Buchan, it's bonny, oh and there lives my love My heart it lies on him, it will not remove It will not remove for all that I have done Oh never will I forget my love Annachie For Annachie Gordon, oh he's bonny and he's braw He'd entice any woman that ever him saw He'd entice any woman and so he has done me Oh never will I forget my love Annachie Down came her father, standing on the floor Saying Jeanie you're trying the tricks of a whore You care nothing for a man who cares so very much for thee You must marry with Lord Salton and leave Young Annachie For Annachie Gordon he's only but a man Although he may be pretty but where are all his lands Salton's lands are broad and his towers they stand high You must marry with Lord Salton and forget Young Annachie With Annachie Gordon oh I'd beg for my bread Before that I'd marry Salton with gold to my head With gold to my head and with gowns fringed to the knee Oh I'll die if I don't get my love Annachie And you that are my parents oh to church you may me bring Ah but unto Lord Salton Oh I'll never bear a son A son or a daughter oh I'll never bow my knee Oh, I'll die if I don't get my love Annachie When Jeanie was married and from church she was brought home And she and her maidens so merry should have been When she and her maidens so merry should have been Oh she's gone to a chamber and she's crying all alone Come to bed now Jeanie, oh my honey and my sweet For to style you my mistress it would not be meet Oh it's mistress or Jeanie it's all the same to me For it's in your bed Lord Salton I never shall be And up and spoke her father and he's spoken with renown All you who are her maidens won't you loosen off her gown But she fell down in a swoon, so low down by their knees Saying Look on for I'm dying for my love Annachie The day that Jeanie married was the day that Jeanie died That's the day that young Annachie come rolling from the tide And Down came her maidens and they're wringing of their hands Saying woe to you Annachie for staying from the sands So long from the land and so long upon the flood Oh they've married your Jeanie and now she is dead All you that are her maidens won't you take me by the hand Won't you lead me to the chamber that my love lies in And he's kissed her cold lips until his heart turned to stone And he's died in the chamber where his true love lay in

about

Sally Anne Morgan is an artist and multi-instrumentalist whose mastery of traditional folk forms is matched only by her ability to push the bounds of those forms into fresh, imaginative pastures. Known for her fiddle playing with the traditional Black Twig Pickers and the duo House and Land, Sally Anne’s debut solo album Thread establishes her as an unparalleled voice in contemporary folk. With a penchant for tuneful melodies, combined with hypnotic rhythms, the result verges on pop. The candor and austerity of Appalachian music serve as the warp to Morgan’s musical tapestries, where strands of psychedelia, rock, and experimentalism are the weft, deftly woven in intricate and beguiling patterns. Sally Anne Morgan’s Thread is centered on interconnectivity and exploration, stringing together practices both ancient and modern and brimming with simple beauties.

Morgan’s artistic practices emphasize connections to the natural world and a modern reframing of rural traditions. Both in her music, in her work as a letterpress artist, and in her rural homestead, Morgan implements conventions from bygone eras to craft work that honors and expands on those traditions. Thread traces Morgan’s myriad of influences and their deep connections, from the psychedelic leanings of Trees and the Third Ear Band, to folk singers like Jean Ritchie and Nic Jones, to Kentucky fiddler Clyde Davenport, to Pauline Oliveros and Johanna Brouk, to their roots and circling back again. The process of composing and arranging the songs across Thread found Morgan exploring the depths of her own voice, inspired as always by traditional Appalachian music, but free to explore and abandon any false notions of authenticity. Morgan spins these connections into works all her own, her original fiddle tunes, ethereal meditations, and sweeping ballads standing as timeless as their traditional counterparts.

The organic energy of Thread grows lushest with its ensemble pieces, featuring Morgan’s partner Andrew Zinn on guitar, and drummer Nathan Bowles. Bowles’ percussive flares across the record lend the folk rock edge to songs like opener “Polly on the Shore” and the neolithic stomp to the jubilant “Sheep Shaped.” Morgan retains that energy on solo pieces while allowing for space to add sparse but potent embellishments. “Garden Song” celebrates the simple pleasures of watching a garden grow, imbued with the summer warmth and paradisiacal June birdsong, through fingerstyle parlor guitar and violin countermelodies. “Wintersong,” in contrast explores the ineffable feelings and mysteries of winter. With “Sugar in the Gourd,” Morgan amplifies a traditional fiddle tune’s hypnotic, repetitive nature as well as layers in her own melodic twists that reframe the music into a piece entirely her own.

Through her elegant singing, dexterous fiddle, banjo, and guitar playing, and commanding skills as a composer, Sally Anne Morgan has established herself as an artist of singular power and grace. Those powers radiate across odes to those who have come before her, her newfound pasture, and fearless self-exploration. With Thread, Morgan has crafted a work of bountiful splendor.

credits

released September 11, 2020

Polly on the Shore - traditional
Sally: banjo, vocals
Andrew Zinn: electric guitar
Nathan Bowles: drums

Garden Song
Sally: guitar, vocals, fiddle

Sheep Shaped
Sally: fiddle
Nathan Bowles: drums

Wintersong
Sally: guitar, vocals, fiddle

Ellemwood Meditation
Sally: fiddle, piano

Thread Song
Sally: electric guitar, vocals, fiddle
Andrew Zinn: acoustic guitar
Nathan Bowles: percussion
Joseph Dejarnette: bass

Sugar in the Gourd - traditional
Sally: fiddle

Wagoner’s Lad - traditional
Sally: electric guitar, vocals

Annachie Gordon - traditional
Sally: electric guitar, vocals, banjo

All songs by Sally Anne Morgan unless otherwise noted
Traditional songs arranged by Sally Anne Morgan
Artwork by Allie Dudley
Photographs by Katrina Ohstrom
Layout by Sally Anne Morgan

Recorded by Joseph Dejarnette at Studio 808A, Floyd Virginia, except for the fiddle on Garden Song, Thread song, and Wintersong; the banjo on Annachie Gordon, and all of Sugar in the Gourd and Ellemwood Meditation - which were recorded at home or at the Hambidge Center by Sally Anne Morgan

Mixed by Jason Meagher at Black Dirt Studios

Polly on the Shore comes from a combination of the ever-inspiring Shirly Collins and Trees. This version of Sugar in the Gourd comes from Clyde Davenport. I can’t recall the source of Wagoner’s Lad. Annachie Gordon comes from Nic Jones’s version on Noah’s Ark Trap.

Thank you to Nathan Bowles, Joseph Dejarnette, Jason Meagher, Allie Dudley, Katrina ohstrom, the Hambidge Center, Charlie Hearon, Bettina Richards, Agnes, Barney, Loretta, and most of all, to Andrew.

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Sally Anne Morgan Asheville, North Carolina

Sally Anne Morgan plays haunting psychedelic Appalachian folk drone that invokes the rhododendron thickets, creeks and mountains of her local landscape in Western North Carolina. Sally plays with the Black Twig Pickers and House and Land, dedicated practitioners of traditional music re-cast by appreciation of modern improvisation, minimalism, microtonality and drone from across the globe. ... more

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