The Folk Orchestra
The Folk Orchestra are the closest thing Snowstorm has to a Ken Kesey Merry Pranksters Collective.
Aboard a magical bus, they travel the land bringing criminal psychotic growling acoustic east-meets-west country and russian folk music, filled with violins and accordions and flutes and fuzz guitars and banjos and all the wrong instruments playing all the right songs, but not necessarily, sunshine, in the right order.
They managed to get nine musicians onto the two-person stage of the 12 Bar Club in London once, just because it seemed like a challenge. The keyboard player had to be lowered in from above.
Loosely organized around the songwriting nexus of Tim Victor, sometime Chris T-T Band member, their sound is utterly single minded, totally unique and effortlessly brilliant.
If you can see yourself enjoying the eye-of-the-storm chaos of the mass-handed first Mercury Rev album applied to traditional folk and country song forms, or just want to hear some Kletzmer Country and Western about killing your children because they were getting on your nerves, you’ll love The Folk Orchestra.