Oldseed

Winnipeg based musical maverick, Craig Bjerring, cast his Oldseed onto some rich soil a few years back. It was quick to germinate and now two albums up and out, Oldseed has flourished quietly but quite remarkably. Bjerring makes music to hush up and listen to while you drive or putter around the house. The title of his latest release is a mouthful, but there’s nothing longwinded in his message or in his music. It is human experience laid out nearly bare, without much production or pretension — one man, his guitar, and truth rooted in a rich tradition of folk music. The album echoes the likes of Neil Young, Steve Earle and James Taylor, but the songs are all Bjerring’s — he’s allowed their voices and sentiments to grow over and into his own like an ivy. This influence resonates throughout the album so that it’s like listening to an entire tradition of musical expression and not just one individual’s interpretation. Bjerring’s work constitutes a musical alchemy and Oldseed is his philosopher’s stone. He’s captured whatever it is that makes great folk music so compelling.