​Quiet and mighty

“We got up out of the Midwest and went all the way down as far away as we could go and then sometimes like-minded people find each other. That’s just kind of how it went.” Says David Huckfelt of the indie folk band The Pines.

Huckfelt and fellow frontman and songwriter Benson Ramsey are both Iowa natives with strong roots in the Iowa folk scene--yet they happened to meet one fateful night while both living in Tucson Arizona. Though they had similar interests and ran in similar circles the two never met in their home state. “I think that if you get far enough away from home--you can still find pieces of home in the people that you run into. That’s something that happened to us.” he continued.

The Iowa natives soon uprooted again and found themselves in the heart of the Minneapolis music scene. We had a chance to talk to David Huckfelt about the Iowa folk scene, his musical beginnings, and their new album “Above the prairie.”

High Plains Reader: What is the Iowa folk scene like?

David Huckfelt: The Iowa folk scene is quiet and mighty--you know? There’s some world-class songwriters and musicians who really only play in and around Iowa. People like Dave Moore, Joe Price, Gabe Zollo… these are artists who inspired us individually for years before Ben and I even met.

I think it’s kind of a recipe of awareness, patience, tenderness, and expression in songs and songwriting. Incorporating different styles of American folk and blues music. Anywhere that happens it’s going to get mixed up into something unique--and in Iowa that’s the case.

HPR: Where did your musical beginnings stem from?

DH: I loved many different styles of music growing up but I was more into poetry and writing at first. I was doing a lot of writing and it kind of occurred to me that the songs I was listening to and was drawn toward like John Prine, Randy Newman, Tom Waits. Leonard Cohen--his songs are poems and his poems are songs.

It’s a back and forth--so for me, I gravitated toward early American blues and Appalachian music or any kind of song that could be 100 years old but they don’t feel like it.They’re vital and they’re alive and true to any generation. The kinds of songs you find in folk and blues--there’s that connection to the past that never grows stale.

HPR:, While working on your latest album “Above the prairie”--you took time to reflect upon your rural roots. What points of your rural upbringing did you find yourselves reflecting upon the most?

DH: It’s not a conscious kind of thing--we don’t just sit down and write a song about Iowa and the Midwest. You can’t remove it from who we are--it’s like water in the human body. It permeates everything. If you want to begin to stand up for the things you care about in this world you have to know who you are.Who you are is where you come from and the best place to start is right where you’re at.

HPR: You collaborated with Native American activist and poet John Trudell, what was that like?

DH: It was transformational, it was inspiring, it was a tremendous honor because if you know anything about John--he doesn’t have any reason to trust us, he didn’t know us, he didn’t have to open up to us but he did. We wanted to offer up our music and anything we could do to help spread his message. He’s a powerful speaker and thinker. He changed our lives.

When we first heard his work and when we got to meet him--it just felt really important and it felt very urgent. We didn’t know it at the time but he was very sick and died shortly after after we performed and recorded together.

HPR: How does your songwriting process work--do you start with lyrics or a melody?

DH: If you’re doing it right--then it works every which way possible. It doesn’t necessarily work the same way twice--it’s sometimes an unrepeatable experience. I think we’ve grown individually. You have your own toolbox when you start out--it’s what you’re used to.

I used to write a lot of the lyrics first but now I think that if you aspire to write the kind of songs that can last and you want to find out every way to sort of break into the city and get over the walls.

We do it all different ways--we’ll have musical pieces that are accumulating and lying around that will maybe fit a batch of lyrics. There will be songs that combine music and lyrics all at once. We’ll try every possible key we can find to open new doors.

IF YOU GO:

The Pines and Ryan Holweger

Thursday, January 12, 8-11pm

The Aquarium (above Dempsey’s) 226 Broadway N, Fargo