Guest Post: A Promising "Project"

Todd Guill joins us today with a cross-post from the New River Valley Voice covering Asheville, NC band The Galen Kipar Project. You may remember Todd as the man-at-arms from A Profile in Courage: Stranded on the High Seas.

Since the halcyon days of first grade, I’d been told never to begin a story with “Once upon a time.” The universal tenet being that such a preface should be reserved for homilies and fairy tales. Not to mention that the appearance of these words typically portends banal storytelling: “Once upon a time this thing happened at this place around this time, and some stuff went down after that, and people learned lessons about the virtues of Cornhole tournaments (but not everyone because some people are just inherently evil), and that’s really all I have to say, so thanks for reading; enjoy the lobster bisque.” 

And yet for the tale of Galen Kipar and his Asheville, North Carolina-based band, The Galen Kipar Project, “Once upon a time” seems just as appropriate an introduction as any. Notwithstanding the fact that they’re about to put the finishing touches on album number four in nearly as many years, they may as well have just materialized out of thin air.

Of course, the burgeoning swell of die-hard followers, I’m certain, would take issue with such a promulgation, but c’mon. Apart from a Facebook page, a few CD review quotes, and a couple of YouTube videos, there seems to be precious little information on these guys circulating the excessively waterlogged World Wide Webfoot platypus. I mean they don’t even have their own Wikipedia entry! Who doesn’t have their own Wikipedia entry?  OK, I don’t.

But never mind. If you’re unfamiliar with these troubadours’ dynamic body of work, you probably won’t be for too much longer. Kipar and company have frequented the New River and Roanoke valleys often during their five-year lifespan, and if the Pied Piper-like migration of people to the stage during their FloydFest performance this past summer is any kind of barometer, the band is on an immutable trajectory of permeating Southwest Virginia with their versatile, yet immediately attainable sonority.

The Project’s Facebook page describes the band’s sound as “a fusion of folk, classical, jazz, and blues.” When I saw them recently play Blue 5 in Roanoke, my mind reflexively conjured up Dave Matthews Band comparisons, which I think will be inevitable for any first-time indulgers, if not slightly unfair. More so, however, I found they reminded me of the now defunct Blue Mountain, a band whose foundation was similarly fashioned through roots music, and the dissolution of which I still mourn. Yet while speaking with Kipar during a set break, I get the impression he’s not exactly high on genre labels or comparisons to his contemporaries anyway.

“Everything’s already been done before, right?” he says with an amiable shrug. But then, with just the slightest hint of mild sardonicism in his tone, he provides an example of a same-yet-different trend in Americana music to underscore his point: “I mean now they got guys playing punk music with banjos.”

Now, although he doesn’t actually list names, you get the sense that he could be referring to any number of artists comprising all the vastly ambiguous classifications of music that have “folk” somewhere in the title, including folk rock, folk punk, and—my personal favorite—freak folk. (I’m still waiting to hear the emerging artists from the folk accountant and folk serial killer movements.)

With the multitude of style amalgamations suffusing modern music, genre classifications have become essentially superfluous, if not all together inaccurate. Alternative music of any kind is no longer the exception, but the norm.  And who cares? Attempting to affix some kind of a half-assed, culturally resonant moniker to a style of music these days is merely a result of this inherent compulsion to “explain” what it is you’re hearing. Palpable, engaging music requires no explanation or deconstruction. And Kipar and friends deliver on that premise in spades.

While comparisons to the aforementioned Dave Matthews Band may be inextricable, DMB’s relentless touring schedule during the early ’90s—which slowly but surely transmogrified them from humble, bootleg tape-condoning road warriors to monolithic megastars—is not a path Kipar has any interest in emulating.

He gave that a go a few years back, and found it both physically and mentally exhausting. Plus, the reality is that, at the moment, the band’s coffer does not serve as the exclusive source of income for each of its constituents. Bassist, Ben Portwood has his own edible landscape architecture business, (yeah, I didn’t know what that was either until I looked it up; prior to that, I just had images of flavorful sawdust), and Kipar himself brings home the bacon as a fly fishing guide, a passion he explores in the ebullient song entitled, naturally, “Fishing.”

Now, with the Internet serving as the ultimate dissemination tool, the need to be on the road constantly is no longer a prerequisite for reaching a wide audience. Instead, Kipar can allocate more time to focus on songwriting and development, and the overall cultivation of his artistry.

So, five years into this gig, the story of the Galen Kipar Project is just beginning. Looking for a good intro? How about this: Once upon a time, a guy named Galen Kipar picked up a guitar, people listened, and good things followed.

Todd Guill is a columnist for the New River Voice, music fan, and an astute observer of pop culture.