2nd Annual Soulfolks Beat Invitational

 

the most magical time of year has fallen upon us. for it is the season of folly and thump, the soulfolks beat invitational has returned! 

this is your opportunity to play your beats on the mythical ruby yacht soundsystem. to get a spot on the line up, submit your beats to soulfolksrecords@gmail.com by june 1st. if accepted, we will email you back with further instruction. 

the beat invitational is july 7th from 11am to midnight.

this event is open to the public and donations are greatly accepted for entry. 

in addition to 12+ hours of continuous music we will have chef mic true's vegan food truck out front in our parking lot offering a wide variety of vittles. 

our friends at the Goody Vault will be hosting a pop up vintage shop in our soulfolks salon as well as the inimitable Throwing Shade Eyewear, dealing couture sunglasses and the like for all revelers. 

Code Blue Cold Brew will be in the building keeping us caffeinated and upbeat. 

we invite you to stay the day and enjoy yourselves. our neighbors at the Arcane Workshop will be open and hosting rentable game rooms and such. 

see you there
Soulfolks Records & Tapes
115 E Old Hickory Blvd
Nashville, Tennessee 37115

July 7th at 11 AM

submit beats to soulfolksrecords@gmail.com

5 to the Eye with Stars

 

art by Indiana Brierley

FIVE
TO
THE EYE
WITH STARS

a neohoodonic dip dabble through time and space. an effervescence persistent. bubbling overjoy in overtime, orthofloralpoetical nuance. this will take a strong sense of self. are the visions communicable? then i have reason to doubt them. 

SINGIN' THE BLUES
EATIN' GREENS

RF

crow billiken

 

one had to find new methods of operating outside time. rap's positioning as a mouth form, the acquired slickness and the dusty ridge of the bap's boom are my native tongues. but what of the yawp's origin?

i'm from chicago. my blood line traces its way to the city of broad shoulders by way of arkansas like many other great migratory palm road riders. my grandfather would hambone and howl, he liked music played in minor pentatonic motions on acoustic instrumentation. getting your first pair of cowboy boots was a right of passage in my family, you'd go for a drive out west and come back with somn supposedly reptilian; dyed and stretched, pointy at the appropriate places, 1 inch taller. cold blooded. 

we a blues people. it's all in the hokum and the bop. my lazy eye and my drawl, my drawers and my teeth. no longer did i want to play the blues as a metaphor or an intimation of a style. the blues is not an evocation. it is breathwork and shadow play. cross colors at the crossroad crawling king snake moan. calloused on the tips of every finger and the sides of the thumbs. 

i wanted to learn songs that predated the music industry and everything that means, songs that are older than recording, than amplification, songs that are older than electricity in every home. it consumed me. a stream of ideas became a mighty river. what did Black American music sound like before white American business practices began to steal / shape our rhythms? my mind itched constant. 

enter crow billiken 

a bad character. a tennessee hustler.
student of lightskin hopkins,
learned the blues from samuel james
up to biddeford, maine. 
the old style, skrong mojo hand, sharp dress. 
acoustic country blues
from the delta quadrant 
hill country 
memfis to tejas
rhythm and lead
slide and singin

good for a 30 minute set
wherever you need me

contact @

crow billiken twitter
crow billiken instagram

fred mcdowell

 

somn about fred strikes me as a mason. will do research on this matter at another time.

RF

my sentiments exactly

 

"what can i say about mc's?
every heart churning insult
will be seen as reason 
to praise their demise. 
i hope they're buried so 
deep
even the maggots and the
worms can't 
breathe. " 

- beans of antipop consortium 

if you want to be a dope mc you must always be studying

 

bring me my runnin shoes

 

the light emitting diamond cutter scriptures

 

       during the first of my 15 year exile in the city of gnashville, the light emitting diamond cutter scriptures revealed themselves to i. eleven concise chapters of pure will with no dilution. these scrolls were time tested during the roughest of waters. when the monk relinquishes all things, all baggages, all material goods, all styles, all names, all containers, all ideas to become a shimmering effusion. releasing on Black Friday 2021 (11/26)

    THE LIGHT EMITTING DIAMOND CUTTER SCRIPTURES 

executive producer: R.A.P. Ferreira
mixing: vast ness. & R.A.P. Ferreira
mastering: Daddy Kev
artwork: brightboy 

    

our first visual cue for these seminars is aptly titled "East Nashville", enjoy-- 

    we shall be reading directly from the Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures on Black Friday in Los Angeles at the Echoplex. the ruby yacht will be gathered in full effect. we do humbly request your presence. tickets 

 -GRAND
VERBALIZER

the giga transmission

 

    peace world

we’ve been preparing. come may 29th we shall let the weapons gleam in open sunlight once again. ballyhoo and much bounty. buy tickets here this will be a live broadcast from SPACE gallery in downtown portland, me. while the stream is open to the public, the physical performance is not. for the first two weeks tickets are 15$ and 18$ day after that. we begin at 8PM EST. see you shortly

yours

RF

notes on BSC from hob mtn

from a solitary peak on the noble Hob Mountain, i write this missive to you, kind traveller.
have you been on this road long? summer seemed to expand well beyond its anticipated boundaries, scorching the whole wide world up, and while i was not burned. i am missing everyone. 

i've heard tell of a curious place, available from anywhere, never closed, and open to those who are knowing. you are guaranteed to be the sole client for the duration of your visit. to put it simply? a cafe, only for you. 

if you find yourself on a particular corner, in a particularly forgettable city-- across the street from a green record store, the cornerstone corner of the hotel scallops; next door to the nOstrum grOcers shop is a small coffeeshop called bob's son cafe. 

a sort of haven for the real Beat Poets, neohoodooists, bluesmamas, shittalkers, seatsniffers and pianists. the air is clean, the menu is stacked and the music is exclusive. 

bob's son cafe

in the cornerstone corner of the hotel scallops; next door to the nOstrum grOcers shop. yes, across the street from the green record store. 

keep an ear to the grindstone. 

we'll talk again after regime change. 

yours,

RF