Farm Aid cultivates the best of music and farming, so as a person with a love of both, sometimes I get the pleasure of finding the other gems out there that integrate the two entities.
I recently had the opportunity to see a concert by The Lumineers, which featured a local opening band that demonstrated the power farming can have on music itself. That indie-folk group calls themselves The Parlor.
The Parlor (formerly We Are Jeneric) hails from Altamont, New York, and derives its name from a room in the 19th century farmhouse on The Kirk Estate where Jen O’Connor and Eric Krans write and record their music. The farmland has been in O’Connor’s family for five generations and is now solely inhabited by her and Krans, her husband. The group, in summation, is essentially musical creation inspired by sustainable farm life.
The group’s name is not the only place where farming is seen in their work, with songs ranging from “Woodchuck Charles the II,” all about the woodchuck that inhabits their garden, to “The March of the Coyote,” which comments on the fruit trees on the estate. Both songs can be found on the couple’s Animals are People Too album.
During the writing and recording of their four albums, O’Connor and Krans have expanded the farm with an additional 3,000 square-feet of organic vegetables, fruit trees, grapes, hops, herbs and flowers. On her website, The Little Ragamuffin, O’Connor explains, “I am committed to creating a healthy, sustainable, and biologically diverse ecosystem here at The Kirk Estate.”
Enjoy The Parlor’s newest music video below:
To good music and good health!
