Song Premiere: “Barefoot Sailors” (Live), Session Americana

Tomorrow, Session Americana will release its latest album, Live at the Haybarn Theatre. The opening track on the album is one of our favorites, so it’s a special pleasure to premiere the song here on Red Line Roots. We got to chat with Ry Cavanaugh back in March during the crowdfunding campaign for the album. The band has been in Europe for the past month or so, but they are back with a string of shows at Lizard Lounge this week (5/17, 5/18, 5/19) and just announced a residency at City Winery in September and October. So, they’ve been busy.

“Barefoot Sailors” is one of those songs that gets under your skin and you just have to hear it again and again. It was on SA’s fantastic last studio record, Great Shakes (2016), and it features so many aspects that make this band one the best representations of what Boston roots music can be. Take a listen:

OK, you probably see what I mean. On this version, the song starts gradually, first with drums and some hints at guitar before we launch into that first iteration of the riff that will bring you home throughout the song. (You will be humming that riff the rest of the day, just to warn you.) The harmonies between Ry and Jefferson Hamer are pretty damn perfect and I love that the lyric melody is only a cousin of that riff.

Whereas the studio version of the song is a little over four minutes long, this version clocks in at seven, as the band stretches out and plays with the version that they’ve created live. The final chorus is just Ry singing over a spare little beat from Billy Beard and bass accompaniment from Kimon Kirk, before Jim Fitting comes back in on harmonica leading the song down a slightly different road and hands it to Jefferson on lead guitar. There is a dynamic sense of building the song up to a new height as the tempo speeds up and the instruments join together. And then, when it’s over, you want to hear it all again and listen for those little nuances that you missed the first (or seventh or twentieth) time. If you haven’t yet seen this band, well, change that. Tour dates are here and pick up Live at the Haybarn Theatre for a sampling of what you’ve been missing.

Photo Credit: Rich Gastwirt