photos by Ericka Poore
The second season of Anti-Corporate Records’ beloved The Magnolia Sessions continues this month, with the release of a new recording from JOE WUNDERLE, out today. The album’s “Farewell Yodel no3” is now playing at The Sleeping Shaman.
The first season of The Magnolia Sessions delivered a new record the first week of every month from its launch in September 2020 through May of 2021. The series showcases bluegrass, dark country, and folk singer/songwriter acts, recorded in an intimate outdoor setting by a large magnolia tree at the Anti-Corporate Music/Black Matter Mastering headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, by owner Dan Emery. The first season yielded heartfelt releases from Matt Heckler, Jason Dea West, Johno Leeroy, Cristina Vane, Nick Hans, Casper Allen, Jeff Loops, Angela Autumn, and Austin Stambaugh, many of which debuted on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts. Following a break over the Summer, the new season of The Magnolia Sessions relaunched in September, yielding albums from The Lost Dog Street Band and The Hill Country Devil.
JOE WUNDERLE reveals about the night of the recording, “It was a hot and muggy night, on the 7th of August 2021, in Nashville, when we came down to record our Magnolia Session. I brought Jane Frazier, Tebb’s Karney, and Joe Macheret to record with me. They are some of my closest friends and favorite musicians to play with.
“I had slept outside and was traveling most of the summer and had pretty bad poison ivy from scraping and painting a barn that was covered in the stuff. I had also unwillingly taken up feeding mosquitoes as a passive nightly activity. The insects were out in full force that night, so when we got to Tennessee and started playing, I felt pretty damn well at home.
“I tried to select songs from across the catalog. One song I had written almost ten years ago, and one was written a week or so before. We decided to record some of the new songs from our upcoming albums on this session with this more stripped down, bug-filled arrangement. Listeners will get to hear some brand new material performed by us live and outdoors in this setting.
“We ended up recording fourteen songs that night, doing one to two takes per song. There was a mic cord issue about halfway through, so we had to do a few extra takes on a couple songs, luckily Dan figured it out pretty quickly and we were able to keep up the momentum. We had a lot of fun playing and recording that night. It felt natural I suppose, good friends sitting around outside on a Summer night, playing songs and goofing off between takes. Working with Dan is a treat because he’s funny as hell and really good at what he does.
“I look forward to these releases each month, and we are greatly honored to be a part of the series. I think what Dan is doing with The Magnolia Sessions is a very important and respectable thing. It’s real music, in real time, from real artists. Raw and genuine with no bullshit.”
Writes Anti-Corporate Music and Black Matter Mastering engineer Dan Emery, “This was the first time I recorded a full band under the tree. I had done a few duos and even a trio, but this was the first quartet with multiple vocalists. I wasn’t worried that it would sound bad, but I went into it knowing that phasing can get out of control in these types of situations, especially when people move around. Surprisingly, there were no issues aside from a mic cable crapping-out halfway through the session. JOE is always fun to record. Even in the studio he does everything live. A month and a half before we did this session, he recorded two albums with a seven-piece band in three days. All live. Very efficient.”
Stream JOE WUNDERLE’s “Farewell Yodel no3” through The Sleeping Shaman now at THIS LOCATION.
The Magnolia Sessions titles are available directly through Anti-Corporate Music’s webshop HERE.
Watch for additional installments of The Magnolia Sessions to post the first week of the month from now through late Spring
JOE WUNDERLE’s The Magnolia Sessions Track Listing:
1. Talkin’ To Myself
2. Tell The Conductor
3. Farewell Yodel no3
4. Times Are Strange
5. Midnight Oil On The Ohio
6. From The Plains
7. Carry Me A Tune Old River
8. Farewell Yodel no1
9. Walking Bell
10. Eighteen Long Years
11. Don’t Know When
12. Heart Of It All
JOE WUNDERLE is a songwriter and folk country music artist from Ohio. Years of meandering writing and working are reflected in Wunderle’s songwriting. His sound has taken full form by musical collaborations with artists such as Jane Frazier, Tebb’s Karney, Joe Macheret, and David Mayfield. WUNDERLE’s writing evokes natural imagery and stories of hard working, hard traveling, hard luck through a low smoky country blues sound. His poems and tales are decorated with fiddles, steel guitar, yodels, melancholy, and sense of humor that is unique to its brand and true to its roots. His most recent release, Times Are Strange, was recorded live to cassette tape and released in July of 2021.
Upon swapping songs and talking ideas with Benjamin Tod last Winter, WUNDERLE contacted Dan Emery and scheduled a record as part of The Magnolia Sessions and studio time for a new album. After seriously cutting his hand with a hatchet, he put together a seven-piece band of some of his favorite musicians and friends from Ohio to record twenty new songs with Emery, and The Magnolia Sessions.
As a longtime listener of underground music, WUNDERLE has recorded and played bass with death metal bands Embalmer and Madness On The Mountaintop. He toured with Embalmer for almost six years as the bassist. He has played in punk bands and had a country blues duo called The Honey Brown Bandits. He has a since been on the road and writing songs performing under his name and has no plans of slowing down.
https://www.instagram.com/joewunderle
https://www.facebook.com/joewunderle
http://anticorporatemusic.com
http://facebook.com/anticorpmusic
http://www.blackmattermastering.com
https://www.facebook.com/blackmattermastering
https://www.instagram.com/black_matter_mastering