L.A.’s Nu Folkies Get New York Boost

L.A.’s Nu Folk is picking up steam--and it’s some New York folks who are helping it go.

Two compilation albums are in the works featuring the rising crop of L.A.’s mostly acoustic song-oriented acts that have taken to using the Nu Folk moniker.

Twelve local acts have already recorded tracks for an album to be released in February by the New York-based nonprofit organization Fast Folk, a latter-day extension of the Greenwich Village folk scene that has issued 54 combination albums and magazines since 1982. Among those who have recorded for the L.A. album are Peter Case, Victoria Williams, Hirth Martinez, Milo Binder, Richard Ferriera, Kyle Johnson and the band Show of Hands. Marvin Etzioni is serving as the L.A. producer.

Fast Folk editor Richard Meyer, who tried his hand as a performer in L.A. in the late ‘70s before moving back to New York, said he was struck by the diversity and quality of the Nu Folk scene.

How do the two cities’ folk scenes differ? “The stuff in New York is more overtly political . . . has more of an urban edge,” Meyer said. “The stuff I heard in L.A. is more humanistic, with more humor.”

Meyer was hesitant to predict which, if any, L.A. performers might leap to national prominence, but he pointed out that Fast Folk has a good track record of discovering talent. Among those who got their first recorded release through the organization: Tracy Chapman, Suzanne Vega and Lyle Lovett. (Those interested in more information about Fast Folk can write to Box 938, Village Station, New York 10014.)

Some of the same artists are also slated to be featured on an album being put together in L.A. by producer Dan Fredman, who helped bring attention to L.A.’s country scene as co-producer of the two “Town South of Bakersfield” collections. Nu Folk supporters John Schillaci and Richard Goldstone are serving as executive producers. Ironically, that too will be released by a company associated with New York folk: Vanguard, the ‘60s home of such folk luminaries as Joan Baez.

NU NU FOLK: The above-mentioned Show of Hands has a debut album due out soon from I.R.S. Records. Produced by David Kershenbaum (Tracy Chapman, Joe Jackson), the album comes off as a cross between Peter, Paul & Mary and R.E.M.

Originally it was just group member Randell Kirsch, the co-writer of Jane Wiedlin’s 1986 song “Blue Kiss,” who was signed to I.R.S. But he decided that he’d rather record with his wife, Lu Ann Olson, and Chris Hickey, with whom he had ben performing casually since they met in Santa Barbara a few years ago. “I rounded up Chris and Lu Ann and went over and played for them,” he recalled. “We hauled (I.R.S. president) Jay Boberg and some other people to a stairwell that has good acoustics and they got a good enough impression from that to commit to the album.”

While the folk-harmonies-for-international-harmony style sometimes recalls ‘60s peace rallies, Kirsch hopes the group’s observations will “fit better into the pop of the 1990s.”

TOGETHER AGAIN: Victoria Williams, who is set to begin her upcoming Rough Trade album, will headline a concert benefiting the Minority Aids Project today in Pasadena’s Memorial Park. The concert is being held by Band Together, an organization that puts together concerts in public parks. Admission is free, with donations from concert sponsors going to the cause. Also on the bill for the show, which is scheduled to run from noon to 5 p.m., are Milo Binder, the Wrens, the Comstock Jug Band and Harvey & the Lifers.

SSTEASE: SST has two new CD-only releases. Local quartet Paper Bag--which always performs entirely improvisational pieces--offers about 70 minutes of music on its “Music to Trash” disc. Among the selections is “The Fat Lady Sings,” which has been adopted by KROQ deejay Swedish Eagle as his radio theme song. The group will be at the Music Machine on Wednesday.

The other CD is Bay Area guitarist Henry Kaiser’s “Those Who Know History Are Doomed to Repeat It,” which is actually an expanded version of an upcoming LP release of the same title. The disc consists entirely of outside material from a variety of sources. Among the highlights: Note-perfect versions of the Grateful Dead’s “Mason’s Children,” “Dark Star” and “The Other One” (the last two in a 30-minute-plus medley), “The Andy Griffith Show Theme (The Fishin’ Hole)” (with lyrics!) and five Captain Beefheart tunes.

Also coming soon from SST is “The Melting Plot,” an anthology of bizarro selections from numerous outfits. Included are ABBA’s “S.O.S.” done by local band Celebrity Skin, a Boss take-off titled “Shoot Me in the Dark” credited to Brews Springsteen and the obligatory “Stairway to Heaven” credited to Ledd Kross.

BUZZWORDS: Two new live music outlets started up last week. The Cage, located in Footsie’s club in Pasadena (24 N. Mentor Ave.) is the latest venture from Sierra Madre’s Birdcage Records. The club’s inaugural event featured a Birdcage band, the Prime Movers. Meanwhile, Ringling Sister and former Club Lingerie assistant booker Debbie Patino has brought live music back to the “delightfully crummy” Gaslight Bar in Hollywood (1608 N. Cosmo St.) on weekends. The bar, which hosted the likes of the Seeds and the Doors in the ‘60s, will offer a wide variety of acts drawn from L.A.’s underground. . . .

Divine Weeks, just back from a national tour that was slowed by a transmission that wouldn’t let them drive faster than 35 m.p.h., is looking for a new guitarist. Rajeesh Makwana left the band (on good terms) just before the tour. . . .

The synthesizer/spoken-word duo of Jill Fraser and Ivan E. Roth have a new CD titled “Alphabet Disorders” coming out from the New York-based Periodic Music company. . . .

“The Raging Winds of Time,” a book of poetry by Walking Wounded frontman Jerry Giddens, has been published by Illiterati Press (“builders of fine books since May”).