First he sang Mother Goose tales. Then he transformed Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses into song form. Now, Ned Oldham of Baltimore's The Anomoanon has set his eyes on that most forgotten figure of the American oral and literary tradition: Rip Van Winkle.
The Louisville, Kentucky-bred Oldham is both a major contributor and an individually unique side branch of the increasingly Baltimore-oriented Palace Records clan, whose collected works are often characterized by sounds steeped in Appalachian and other archaic American traditions, combined with sounds that are exceedingly modern and minimalist.
While brother Will Oldham tours in London and Reykjavik this week, Ned and his friends get ready to rock Johns Hopkins under the WHSR banner. Taking cues from the hidden words found on the packaging art of a rare brand of bourbon called Old Rip Van Winkle (you can find a bottle at the Hampden liquor shop Wine Source), Oldham plans to name his band's next album Sleep Many Years in the Wood. In the meantime, he joins Anomoanon drummer Jack Carneal for a mellow night with promises of some "Middle Earth psychedelic shit" at E-level this Saturday night.
Opening the show with droning, finger-picked electric guitar stylings is Ottobar Anti-Folk Night organizer and performer Dave Human. Human, who has also toured and performed with various Oldham-family projects, plays with Lungfish bassist Nathan Bell.
A News-Letter-sponsored photo exhibit featuring work by staff photographers will accompany the show.
The show starts promptly at 9 p.m. in E-Level. The photo exhibit will be held in the Great Hall. Call 410-889-1821 for more details.
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