Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves – ‘I Would Not Live Always”

On Hurricane Clarice, stringband revolutionaries Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves infuse centuries of matrilineal folk wisdom into a soundtrack to environmental disaster. Produced by indie folk visionary Phil Cook and recorded during an apocalyptic heat wave in Portland, Oregon, the album is a testimony to the relation of community and climate in a dying world. We turn inward in times of global or personal crisis, seeking the wisdom of those before us — a human instinct manifested literally on this record through the recorded voices of the duo’s grandmothers. Any artist unearthing old sounds takes traditional elements and exaggerates here or there to fit a personal aesthetic or style — there is no authentic rendition. With Hurricane Clarice, Allison and Tatiana propose a third way beyond tradition and progress. Community might just save us all.