the Iditarod   INTERVIEWS

the IDITAROD INTERVIEWS and FEATURES
             PTOLEMAIC TERRASCOPE (UK), Issue #32
             BROKEN FACE MAGAZINE (Sweden), Issue #13
          # PROVIDENCE PHOENIX - Feb. 6, 2003
          # SOFA (France)
          # NORTHEAST PERFORMER - September 2002
          # ROCKERILLA (Italy) - July/August 2002
          # VIBRATIONS (France)
          # PROVIDENCE JOURNAL - April 12, 2001
          # PROVIDENCE PHOENIX - Feb. 7, 2002
          # NUMERO MAGAZINE (Portugal)
             DREAM MAGAZINE, Issue #3
             COPPER PRESS, Issue #14

Providence Phoenix - Feb. 6, 2003

THE IDITAROD IS A SLED-DOG RACE

But it's also a local band that happens to be very busy. This Sunday afternoon they'll celebrate the release of not one but two records at Atlas Bower Books (245 Meeting Street, Providence) -- Yuletide on split UK/USA label Elsie and Jack, and River Nektar on BlueSanct/Secretly Canadian. It's a big occasion, and it's an early show with a 4 p.m. start, so there's no excuse not to go. The bill also features Barn Burning in an acoustic setting. Why not do a little browsing and a little winding down before the work week revs up again? Help Carin, Jeffrey, William, and newest member Miriam (cello) celebrate the release of the two new discs. Admission is free and the vibe is good.

The band will be showcasing its new music in a full-on tour, stopping not Stateside but in far-flung places like Wales, Scotland, and Iceland. It seems the Iditarod is a long race indeed, with many-tentacled arms reaching out internationally. Check theiditarod.org for more details.

Plus! Jeffrey and Carin have started a new record label called Secret Eye, a truly cool and seemingly eclectic (surprise!) enterprise with some sweet releases coming up, including a disc by the fabulous, aforementioned Barn Burning. More on this endeavor later.

- Bob Gulla

Sofa (France)

FOLKWAYS
(excerpt from a lengthy article
on folk music, 1960-present)

Pastoral, semi médiéval et habité, le duo de Rhode Island, Iditarod, possède une grâce évidente, nimbée d'instruments acoustiques et portée par la voix de fée de Carin Wagner, qui emmène en quelque sorte le son du folk rock psychédélique britannique dans le vingt et unième siècle. L'éclectisme élusif du duo reste sa plus grande force, un éclectisme porteur de joie, de sourire et d'harmonie chez l'auditeur. Cette liturgie mystique se retrouve dans la musique du duo, qui ressemble à une ballade dans une forêt enchantée mais hantée, peuplée d'elfes, de chats et de fantômes. Si Iditarod s'éloigne par la forme du folk américain, empruntant de sibyllins sentiers forestiers, le fond appartient bel et bien à une matrice folk. Formée en 1996, Iditarod s'est étoffé et quelque peu électrifié depuis sa performance au Festival Terrastock de Boston, à l'automne 2002, rassemblement majeur de ce qu'on pourrait appeler le " folk périphérique ". Les tournées septentrionales, notamment au sein des Poor Minstrels Of Songs, avec des artistes similaires comme Sharron Kraus, Drekka ou In Gowan Ring ont contribué à renforcer ce psychédélisme évanescent qui caractérise Iditarod.
" The River Nektar " and
" The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat And The Angel "
(BLUE SANCT/CHRONOWAX)   www.theiditarod.org

- Florent Mazzoleni

[other artists featured in the SOFA piece: Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pearls Before Swine, Leonard Cohen, Vashti Bunyan, Nick Drake, Townes Van Zandt, Kate Wolf, Palace Brothers, Bevel and Songs:Ohia]

Northeast Performer - September 2002 issue

the IDITAROD

Providence, Rhode Island is a place stuck in a truly odd musical vortex; it isn't a big city, and yet New York and Boston are close enough for any band to travel to for an evening's show. However, the music that usually stands out is usually not the kind that caters to mass acceptance; it's more often the result of very original statements of what's going on, whether it be Lightning Bolt or String Builder, Small Factory or the Iditarod.

The Iditarod is comprised of Carin Wagner on vocals, lyrics, shruti, omnichord, guitar, else... and Jeffrey Alexander provides the music, lots of stringed instruments, phonograph. Alexander said, "technically speaking, we're a duo - but we do play with other musicians on a rotating basis. Lately performing with our friend William Schaff on drums, percussion & casio." (Schaff is also an artist whose work has been used by the Eyesores, Songs: Ohia, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and others - williamschaff.com).On their recent album The Ghost, the Elf, the Cat, and the Angel, they even have a musical saw thrown into the mix. With all of these disparate elements, it's tough to guess what the band might wind up doing in any given performance, but there's usually a grounding that hearkens back to traditional English folk music.

Despite the band's name, there really isn't much to do with Alaska or sled dogs in their greater ethos; what does translate however is the connotation of cold as most of this music is slow and delicate. Alexander said, "when we talk about our music, we usually say first off that it's quiet. The basic structures are folky, but we fuck with them and bring in unusual elements - avant-folk or experimental-folk... whatever." With Wagner's voice usually stepping to the fore, it's easy to picture yourself in a medieval realm - it's like Sandy Denny singing about the Dark Ages, but the musical experimentalism that the duo is willing to attempt would leave Pentangle fans searching for the second stereo that's lost in an album of Luc Ferrari's sound explorations.

The Iditarod began with Wagner's solo recordings around 1995 in Baltimore. Alexander was playing guitar and Moog in a rock band there called Science Kit who performed at the first Terrastock festival in 1997. He joined forces with Wagner certainly after her first recordings, and the duo moved to Providence in 1998. It was shortly thereafter that they released their debut full length, The River Nektar. The band has produced a slew of split singles and contributed to a variety of compilations, most notably the Poor Minstrels of Song series. In an effort to play up the wintry aspects of their name, the band has put out holiday CD-R's titled Yuletide for the past two holiday seasons.

The Iditarod spent much of the past summer performing with English folk singer Sharron Kraus. Planting their soundscapes behind her songs revealed how well the band truly did fit into the traditions that they evoke. The band is scheduled to perform at the Terrastock festival in Boston, and as usual they will throw in a few variables to continue to push the boundaries of what they're doing. Alexander said, "for Terrastock, Tara Burke is coming up from Philadelphia to join us on chord organ and chant vocal (she normally performs solo as Fursaxa). As it looks now, our Terrastock lineup will be just that - a quartet. We also plan to do some improvising with the band Stone Breath at the festival, so that would possibly add flute, bouzouki and more, at this point, unimaginable drone." It's the unimaginable that the Iditarod produce that make it so that there's no real reason to come in from the cold.

- Jeff Breeze

Rockerilla (Italy) - July/August 2002 issue

IL RITORNO DEI MENESTRELLI
(short excerpt from a feature article
on the "New American Songwriters")

…E l'America riscopre il folk acustico
Egualmente evocativi e reminiscenti di un immaginario popolato di favole e leggende,"The River Nektar" (1998) e "The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat And The Angel" (2002) rivelano il talento di THE IDITAROD,altra formazione che non sembraappartenere al nostro tempo ma a quello delle feste nelle corti rinascimentali. Originari di Providence (citta natale di H.P. Lovecraft) ed infatuati del folk acustico pill raffinato ma capaci a tratti di incursioni sottilmente sperimentali, Carin Wagner e Jeffrey Alexander danno vita a composizioni che mettono in evidenza le voco/s sognanti della cantante accanto ad un profluvio acustico di liuti e dulcimer, e si avvalgono della collaborazione dei tedeschi
Fit & Limo, pionieri del revival folk-psichedelico.

- Maurizio Marino

Vibrations (France)

AMERICANA # 8

Toujours en tête d'affiche, Rivulets refait surface avec " Thank You Reykjavik " (Blue Sanct), ep immaculé qui reprend quatre titres de leur merveilleux premier album éponyme paru en début d'année. Enregistrés sans mastering lors d'une session acoustique pour la radio islandaise, ces morceaux confirment que les chansons de Nathan Amundson font partie des plus belles choses entendues récemment. Duo de l'Ohio, les farfelus Swearing At Motorist poursuivent eux aussi un parcours sans faute, emmené par les chansons potaches et touchantes de Dave Doughman, dans une veine post-Guided By Voices, comme le démontre le réussi " This Flag Signals Goodbye " (Secretly Canadian). Rigolote et écolo, l'école Kindercore essaime à tout vent. Ainsi, le deuxième album de Great Lakes, " The Distance Between " (Orange Twin), à ne pas confondre avec les proches The Sixth Great Lake, s'il manque de génie n'en demeure pas moins une jolie miniature de folk/pop aux accents bucoliques et quasi-amateurs. Fragile, semi médiéval et habité, le deuxième album du duo de Rhode Island, Iditarod, possède une grâce évidente, nimbée d'instruments acoustiques. " The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat And The Angel " (Blue Sanct) s'inscrit ainsi à la croisée des ?uvres d'In Gowan Ring et de Black Heart Procession, la douceur féminine en plus. Dans un registre plus chrétien, enfantin et prosélyte, " A Prayer For Every Hour " (Secretly Canadian), cinquième volet des aventures de Danielson Famile est toujours aussi agaçant et touchant, la voix de Daniel Smith faisant penser à un groupe de reprise des Pixies jouant des chansons de carnaval dans une kermesse paroissiale. Le neuvième album de John Darnielle et de ses intrépides Mountain Goats parle de sept personnes, de deux maisons et d'une motocyclette. C'est un nouveau classique, ode sans fard au Texas occidental, avec comme à l'accoutumée, une production lo-fi à mort, des paroles cool, hilarantes et hautement littéraires, chantées par une voix à fleur de peau et à bout de souffle.

- Florent Mazzoleni

Providence Journal - April 12, 2001

the IDITAROD BRINGS ITS POOR
MINSTRELS TOUR TO AS220

Band: the Iditarod

Who they are: Carin Wagner, acoustic guitar, percussion, lead vocals; Jeffrey Alexander, acoustic guitar, phonograph.

What they play: "Vocals are the focus of our music," says Alexander. "It's acoustic-based folk music, but definitely has experimental elements. I'll do a lot of things with manipulating sounds, especially in recordings on the computer, and I'll do a lot of things with electronic effects, which isn't found in traditional folk."

Poor Minstrels: Alexander says the best way to travel and to tour was to get together with similar bands for a revue-style show. He has organized a package tour of similar groups from Rhode Island, Utah, Indiana and Pennsylvania - The Poor Minstrels of Song Tour - where the bands will each take a lead role on different nights, and pool money to pay for T-shirts to sell.

"It gives us a chance to have improvisational performances with other members of the group, as well, which is always nice," Alexander says.

Each band will put several songs on a compilation CD that the bands will press, then sell at shows.

Nordic travel: In October 2000, Alexander booked a series of shows for Iditarod in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The shows went over well, but in the U.S., Alexander says, the band has run into a lukewarm market for eclectic folk music. "If we were more traditional, we'd be on a coffee-house circuit, which always does well," he said.

History: Wagner and Alexander formed Iditarod as a duo in Baltimore in 1996. The pair (who are engaged) moved to Providence two years later.

Recording: The band has recorded three CDS and three 7-inch singles on vinyl.

Where to hear them: The Poor Minstrels tour plays AS22O on April 2l.

- Vaughn Watson
Journal Pop Music Writer

Providence Phoenix - Feb. 7, 2002

THE POOR MINSTRELS

When a band plays fiddle, guitar, cello, strumstick, shruti box, tamboura, and magnetic tape, well, you know you're gonna have a hard time getting your songs played on the radio. In fact, you may even have a hard time finding an audience to come see you play. So the experimental folkies in the Iditarod took matters into their own hands and decided to book a tour of Europe, where the countries are small and the money is different, but the minds are vastly more open to all kinds of musical expression.

The Iditarod, led by Jeffrey Alexander, is an avant-folk bunch, primarily acoustic, rooted in traditional British, American, and Scandinavian folk. Along with a loose collective of other American and Scandinavian musicians, they will be touring together as the Poor Minstrels. The caravan will make stops in Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and that chilly bastion of liberal musicality, Iceland. Pack the parkas.

The Iditarod, featuring Carin Wagner on acoustic guitar, percussion and lead vocals, and Alexander on acoustic guitar, phonograph, spearheaded the Minstrels concept. Though they base their work on tradition, they enjoy an edgy manipulation of sounds virtually unheard of within that tradition.

The first time the Iditarod and the Minstrels took their show on the road, they collaborated with some like-minded friends and cavorted mainly Stateside. This time, they've found simpatico musical brethren and likely a good reception in northern Europe. The show will also include Indiana-based strangers Drekka; dark folk singer Peter Scion of Gothenburg; and Ring (banjo balladeer Filip Ring Andersen) of Kristiansand, who both played with the Iditarod when the group toured Scandinavia back in October 2000. There will be eight musicians in all on Poor Minstrels 2, traveling together in two cars throughout northern Europe. With such an adventurous array of talent, you can count on hearing everything from Middle Eastern to Medieval to musique concrete. The four bands plan to function more as an ensemble than as separate acts, which should up the whimsy factor considerably. Plan on some inspired improvisation.

It all gets kicked off at AS220 on February 16, where you'll be able to pick up a special advance copy of the upcoming Iditarod disc, The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat and the Angel, as well as the Poor Minstrels 2 compilation. There will be music by New Jersey oddities the Danielson Family and the Iditarod. The show, which costs $5 and begins at 9 p.m., will be hosted by "the eminent mentalist and mind reader" Rory Raven. Like many nights at said venue, this one will be pleasantly unpredictable.

- Bob Gulla

Numero Magazine (Portugal)

TROVADORES PARA O SéCULO XXI
(short excerpt from the feature article
"Troubadours of the 21st Century")

Se a música dos Charalambides consegue ser sombria e lírica, ao mesmo tempo, então as obras dos Iditarod alcançam uma solene ternura. Também eles um duo - Jeffrey Alexander e Carin Wagner, ambos originários de Rhode Island - são um dos casos mais curiosos do que alguém já designou de avant-folk. Olhados com desconfiança tanto pelos clubes de rock como pela cena tradicional da folk, integram-se num circuito específico onde a abordagem, ainda que apoiada na estética do DIY quer-se mais lírica. Canta-se o mar, a beleza de um animal ou uma antiga lenda. É isso que os Iditarod fazem com toda a mestria por exemplo em The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat and The Angel. Com a voz de Carin, algures entre Shirley Collins e Chan Marshall, os arranjos quase medievais de Alexander e as colaborações de Jesse Poe e do casal alemão Fit & Limo. É neste disco que encontramos três aspectos que melhor caracterizam o duo: uma vontade de aventura por outros caminhos menos acústicos e/ou europeus (New Magic In A Dusty World e Raga In D#), um pendor romântico (Let No Man Steal Your Thyme) e um lado invernal ou quase sombrio (Unfortunate Lass) . É no juntar deste três vertices que os Iditarod pousam.

- José Marmeleira

[Also included in the article: Charalambides, Fursaxa, Magic Carpathians, PG Six and more…]