Mix together some gypsy and jazz sounds, with a little whimsical folk, and some good old-fashioned rock and roll and you’ve got The Folly’s new self-titled EP.
Mix together some gypsy and jazz sounds, with a little whimsical folk, and some good old-fashioned rock and roll and you’ve got The Folly’s new self-titled EP.
The RVA band, consisting of Jordan Lette (vocals,guitar), Anneliese Grant(vocals), Johnny Powell(bass), Josh Santamaria (drums), and Sid Kingsley(keys), has been carving out a space in the Virginia music scene for over a year playing local and regional venues.
After recording material for six months at a studio in Henrico, The Folly released their six-track debut EP Sept. 1.
It’s eclectic, upbeat and no two songs sound alike.
“It’s about coal miner rebellions in the 1800s in West Virginia,” Grant said, referring to the first track. “Then we go into an acoustic sound, we have one song on there where we didn’t do any drums so just foot banging. The girl who plays fiddle with us just slapped her flip-flop down for the song.”
The leading track, “Coal Minors Rebellion” is sort of Heart/Janis Joplin-esque, while “Hold You Down” is very jam/jazz heavy courtesy of some awesome sax skills by Gordon Jones (DJ Williams Project), and “The Kraken” has this folksy sound resulting in a multi-layered, well-rounded first record for the group.
Even though they’ve since made some lineup changes to the current one mentioned above, the EP The Folly put out features Lette and Grant, and Ray Montoro (bass), Jonathan Kirven (drums) Tara Dillard (fiddle) Phil Walker (keys), Gordon Jones (saxophone) and Jackson Shurlds (trumpet).
“The older bass and drummer just had other life obligations and left on good terms last winter,” said Lette of the lineup change. “Still great friends to this day. “The new drummer and bassist joined the group in January and we were fortunate enough to have Sid Kingsley join on as regular as keys last month.”
Phil Walker, Tara Dillard and Gordon Jones still play with the band on a semi-regular basis and they also have a revolving back up band which makes for a unique live show experience.
“Almost every time we play, different people will pop up last-minute saying, ‘hey can we play with you so certain nights Tara is on fiddle, it’s going to be a little more folky that night, or if we have Gordon on sax…so it’s a slightly different show each time,” said Grant.
To build a name for themselves, The Folly plays regularly at The Camel, Cary St. Cafe, Strange Matter and Pop’s Market.
The band just came back from playing the 8th Annual Pink Moon Festival in West Virginia and has hit the smaller festival circuit a bit, playing the Carytown Watermelon Festival in August and Maryland’s Shadefest.
Grant and Lette do most the writing, but they also use some of Grant’s previously written songs from her solo project. Grant, who also performs acoustically with just Lette, draws her inspiration from a variety of musical influences.
“I love the XX and I love jazz, particularly, so all the classics, Eva Cassidy, Aretha Franklin and I think that’s the reason why are music covers a lot of different ground because we like so many different things,” she said. “Then it goes back to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, ACDC, Queen…”
Lette originally started forming the band two years ago, but ultimately had a lead singer leave.
“Before it was even The Folly I had a girl with us who went to Beyond The Voice so myself, the drummer and the bassist kept things going, it fell apart, but I really wanted to get back together once I had a real solid idea.”
This is where Grant comes in. Thanks to the modern age of social media it doesn’t take as long as it did years ago to search for the singer or a drummer to round out your band.
“I posted in music groups and someone who I didn’t even know put her name on there,” said Lette.
In April 2015, Grant had her first practice with the band and thus, The Folly was born.
The Folly plans to go on tour early next year, performing up and down the East Coast along with a mini Dallas tour in November that will feature just Lette and Grant.
You can find The Folly’s new EP here or on iTunes, Spotify, or Amazon Music.
Catch them at RVA Fashion Alliance’s fashion gala at Fox and Hound on Oct. 15 and on WRIR’s British Breakfast at 9:30 am Oct. 22.
