David Huckfelt | Live at Brickyard Pottery & Folk House

ABOUT THE MUSICIAN

In a career on the road less traveled that has found him sharing stages with a staggering diversity of artists: from Mavis Staples & Emmylou Harris, to Bon Iver & Arcade Fire, and more recently an impressive array of Native American musicians including John Trudell, Quiltman, Keith Secola, and Annie Humphrey, Huckfelt wanted to build a new musical community for this collection of songs. While his 2018 solo debut record “Stranger Angels” was written in complete isolation at Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior just a few miles from the Canadian border, “Room Enough, Time Enough” was created in the borderlands of southern Arizona, in the musical mecca of Tucson, the high Sonoran Desert and one of the richest, most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. “Tucson was the perfect place to dig back in time before border walls, reservations & even statehood. It’s the only city in America to have five flags flown above it: Spanish, Mexican, Confederate, United States and Arizona.” He asked Tucson producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Sullivan (XIXA) to open up Dust + Stone Studios to a host of friends, contemporaries, strangers, artists, outlaws, cowboys, and Native musicians: Ojibwe ambassador of Native Americana music Keith Secola, Tucson's own living songwriting legend Billy Sedlmayr, Giant Sand founder and head purveyor of the southwestern electric-fuzz border sound Howe Gelb; former Bob Dylan drummer Winston Watson, Arizona Blues Hall of Fame harmonica player Tom Walbank, and Calexico hired guns Connor Gallaher on pedal steel and Jon Villa on trumpet. Together with the unmatched vocal chants of John Trudell's constant collaborator & Warm Springs Nation Native singer Quiltman, these songs found their people and vice versa in a perfect storm of generosity, fierceness and compassion.

“After I got home, I knew the record wasn’t quite finished, but I hadn't decided yet how to proceed. Then, after the first couple weeks of the virus and quarantine, I realized that every musician I knew and loved was at home with studio gear, looking for anything to do. I definitely had some work for them.” Huckfelt tapped members of his Unarmed Forces band, and other Midwestern musical luminaries such as Iowa folk legend Greg Brown, Dave Simonett & Ryan Young (Trampled By Turtles), Pieta Brown, Jeremy Ylvisaker (Andrew Bird), J.T. Bates (Big Red Machine, Taylor Swift), Erik Koskinen, Michael Rossetto, and more to add the finishing touches to the record.

The music mirrors those timeless stories of that Southwestern geography: forgotten arroyos & empty washes, cliff dwellings and cave art, cowboys, Natives, outlaws & honest men telling the story of a place older than the concept of America. “This record focuses on what my friend Keith Secola likes to call "the marginal creatures", the extraordinary & strange beings at the fringe of our fields of vision, on the outskirts of the frame, off the internet and growing like wild, endangered flowers on the edge of the garden. Songs are like that too, and for this record I chose to lift up some songs and songwriters out on the fringes of the mainstream musical ecosystem.” writes Huckfelt. Secola's hidden gem / healing song "Book of Life" is covered here for the first time, as is Lakota / South Dakota unsung Native American music hero Buddy Red Bow's song "Journey To the Spirit World". Billy Sedlmayr, a man who knows more than most about outlaws and redemption, and Huckfelt rewrote a public domain ballad both old and post-modern called "Cole Younger". And a deep-cut track from Patti Smith's debut record Easter makes an appearance here as well, "Ghost Dance", infused with new perspective from an Indigenous point of view with vocals by Secola & Quiltman. A breathless version of the classic country standard “A Satisfied Mind” features a duet with Greg Brown, and reminds us that wherever we place our treasure, our hearts will be there too.

The new original songs are peopled with the kind of imagery and insight that gives Huckfelt a singular voice and perspective among songwriters of his generation. Unpinned to any particular genre, the former theology student offers lyrics that speak to hope from every human angle; “Better To See the Face” a Zen Buddhist koan, conjures the calming power of true intimacy, face to face and heart to heart, banished so forcefully by the Covid 19 pandemic. “Gambler’s Dharma” is a meditation on the skillfulness needed to navigate an oft-times capricious world of random chance, while “Land of Room Enough, Time Enough” speaks to how the human heart & imagination thrives best with enough space to roam. “Imaginesse” is a full-throated love song about beating the odds and not winding up a casualty on the gravel road of commitment. Says Huckfelt, “I feel that with this record I’m just getting started offering what I want to offer, giving what I want to give. The line from “Better To See the Face” might say it all for me - “you just spend your love like you’re going out of style”, because we all are. Every time I work with someone I love and admire, I’m humbled just to be taking part in the conversation about the strong medicine that can heal America. “Room Enough, Time Enough” is the next step in that ceremony.”

ABOUT THE VENUE

Nestled in the north woods of Wisconsin, Brickyard Pottery & Folk House is a pottery studio, art gallery with thirty+ local artists, a live music venue, and a home all under one roof in an old 1921 built former two-toom schoolhouse. With a focus on original music by seasoned musicians, this small, fifty seat capacity listening room offers an up-close and personal experience for music lovers.
*6:30pm - doors open
*7pm - showtime - $25.
*Camping is available at $15 per vehicle - a public restroom (no showers) will be available.
*Although we are not a campground, we have 2 acres of land to camp on. We have room for RVs or tent camping. You may have camping neighbors nearby and likely will be sharing a campfire. Meet other music fans! Have fun!