THE FOXFIRE SOUND
Foxfire Mountain House is excited to announce the second installment of our Foxfire Sound vinyl LP series, this time with the luminaries at Brooklyn’s Big Crown Records. Since 2016, Big Crown has been dropping essential releases that span the realms of fiery soul, sample-worthy instrumental funk, and delicate psychedelia that would fit perfectly on a late-60s film soundtrack. Like Foxfire, Big Crown combines classic sensibilities with a modern edge, featuring a roster of incredible artists who mine the past for inspiration, while maintaining a vision of the future that is inventive, expansive & perennially funky.
The Foxfire Sound Vol. 2 is filled with 10 outstanding tunes hand-picked from our favorite BCR artists, including two from label co-founder Leon Michels (aka El Michels Affair). Leon cut his teeth producing and playing with a murderers' row of incredible artists from Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, and Lee Fields, to Dan Aurbach and the Wu Tang Clan. He also co-produced Volume 2’s sizzling “Guilty”, a stand-out cut from contemporary soul sensation Lady Wray, and the heartbreaking album closer “Then We’ll Wave (So Long)” from Paul & The Tall Trees. In a perfect world, these songs would all be #1s - just listen to the bottomless pocket of Surprise Chef’s “A1 Bakery Pledge of Allegiance” or the smoked-out steel drums of the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s rendition of Dr. Dre’s “XXplosive.” The only true “oldie” in the bunch, “Should I Take You Home” by Mexican-American/Texan songwriting legend Sunny Ozuna, sits seamlessly next to the plaintive Beach-Boys inspired folk-funk of Holy Hive’s “This Is My Story.”
Add The Foxfire Sound Vol. 2 to your record collection today or as a gift for the discerning music lover on your holiday shopping list. It’s the ultimate fire-side, cocktail-in-hand compilation that is a must for any sonic adventurers crate-digging in the Catskills.
Foxfire Mountain House is excited to share the release of The Foxfire Sound Vol. 1, a limited-edition vinyl record produced in partnership with the legendary reissue label the Numero Group. This record is the perfect soundtrack to a weekend stay in the Catskills: one side of smoky funk and soul to get down with on Saturday night, and the other side a Sunday morning ramble through the cosmic end of country and folk.
The Foxfire Sound features 12 hand-picked songs from Numero’s extensive catalog of incredible artists often overlooked in their time - wild-eyed troubadours, and lovesick rebels – in a beautifully designed package inspired by our psychedelic Catskills roots. The album features unsung music heroes like Willie Wright, the mysterious soul poet whose unique talent (think Van Morrison meets Marvin Gaye) produced just one lone album, 1977’s Telling the Truth, lost to time until Numero’s seminal reissue. On the flipside, you’ll find tracks including The Spirit of the Golden Juice by F.J. McMahon, a Vietnam vet who, upon returning from duty, drove up and down California’s Pacific Coast with a few copies of his album in the back of his pickup truck, giving them out haphazardly to anyone who showed interest. Today, that album – the only one he ever made - is revered by many as one of the best collections of acoustic music from the 20th century. We love these artists and their stories, and we’re excited to be able to share their work with you in this way.
Since 2003, the Numero Group have been releasing deeply researched, expertly resuscitated and lavishly packaged box sets of historic music from the last century. This release was specially curated by Foxfire’s resident musicologist Matt Cully, a DJ and musician in his own right, and the creator of our monthly playlists that reflect the changing seasons through the prism of contemporary and vintage sounds.