Root Music Report - November 2007
4 stars (out of 5)

Each independent member of Yarn really brings their own flavor to the group, melding it into a treat for everyone's ears. The newly formed band's first release really stunned us at how well they all worked together to create such a great CD. When we first listened, we began reminiscing of times long since past, and musicians that are in everyone's hearts and minds. Each song on this album is catchy and addictive, and they etched themselves into our memory and took up a place in our hearts.

Quentin Foster - RMR Staff

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Root Music Report CD Reviews

Village Records 11.26.07

Like a lot of the best alt-country bands this group had its roots in rock music. The roots were there, but their heart wasn't and they decided to follow that voice down the lost highway and pursue their muse. That siren voice took them down a country road and after a couple of miles they knew they were headed home. This debut album is full of seasoned music from a group that is truly enjoying themselves and will never have to look back. Here's a chance to hop on board and be among the first to discover this band.

Village Records


Yarn
Americana Roots
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Written by Don Zelazny


Yarn is a relatively new band out of the New York City area fronted by Blake Christiana, a classically trained guitarist who also handles vocals and songwriting duties on their debut release Yarn. He had previously run a rock band called Blake & the Family Dog in NYC. Apparently he wanted to head into a more country type sound when he met up with mandolin player Andrew Hendryx and started writing acoustic based songs. They would try out the songs during a steady Monday night gig at a place called Kenny's in New York. The tunes eventually became Yarn tunes and after playing with a number of musicians, they settled on Jay Frederick on drums, Rick Bugel on bass and Trevor MacArthur on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. The band also includes Shane Spaulding who does not play, but co-wrote many of the songs with Christiana.

The result of all this is a very enjoyable album from start to finish. The songs are bluegrass influenced acoustic gems. Christiana's love of the country-side of the Grateful Dead is quite evident on this record, with several songs reminiscent of the Jerry Garcia-David Grissman collaborations. Andrew Hendryx's mandolin playing truly anchors the band's sound, along with the smooth vocals/lyrics of Blake, who claims to use Gram Parsons as his songwriting measuring stick.

One of the CDs highlights is the second cut, "Bad, Bad Man," alternating between mandolin, fiddle and banjo runs with the singers admission that "I'm a bad, bad, man, candy in my pocket, broken woman on my hand…" "25 Years" is highlighted by some great harmony vocals and is one of the tunes with a definite Grateful Dead feel to it. Other gems are the up-tempo "Don't Break My Heart Again," and the beautiful "Angel in Woodstock," which Christiana says he wrote one night after listening to two Gram Parsons albums.

The band has toured heavily in the east in preparation for the release of this CD. If they come to a town near you I highly recommend you check them out. Their website is http://www.yarnmusic.net/, where they have a few live sets you can download.

Check it out here:

Americana Roots


Miles of Music
It's A Cracker
11/9/07

In a year that is already jammed with exceptional releases, Yarn makes the case for an entry into annual Top 10 lists. This Brooklyn-based band scores the rare triple-header of excellent country-bluegrass musicianship, memorable melodies and honeyed vocals. A little over a year ago Blake Christiana was considering quitting life as a musician but decided to take one last shot. Hopefully, the results have inspired him to stick around for awhile. Inspired by bluegrass workouts of David Grisman and Jerry Garcia and the songwriting of Gram Parsons, Yarn's 15 tracks feature stories of bad men doing unsavory things. -- Jeff Weiss, Miles of Music (self-released)

Miles of Music



Stomp your old cowboy boots inside the Kings County Opry
Brooklyn Courier
By Joe Fassler
01/09/2007

When Park Slope musician Dock Oscar founded the Kings County Opry three years ago, he was determined to establish a new place for old-time music. At the time, Brooklyn offered no haven for country musicians, and the established country music showcases were located on the other side of the East River.

But when Manhattan’s renowned Alphabet City Opry closed, Oscar put his cowboy-booted foot down.

“I’m not going to wait for someone to do this anymore,” he recalls thinking. “I’m just going to do it myself.”

These days, the Kings County Opry—which showcases country, bluegrass, and folk artists from Brooklyn and beyond—is a thriving event with an ardent following. Oscar has proven himself an ideal master of ceremonies, a role he often shares with fellow Park Sloper Alex Battles. Together, the musicians select acts with impeccable taste, work the crowd easily between sets, and even perform with their own bands from time to time.

The Opry’s location is a key part of its success. Freddy’s Bar and Back Room occupies an unassuming corner on Dean Street in Prospect Heights, but it hosts some of Brooklyn’s most unique events. On Diva Night, professional opera singers perform jaw-dropping arias in a casual setting. Cringe Night, where mortified readers share their teenage poems and diary entries, was called “funniest night out in New York” by Spin Magazine. Yet even among these dynamic counterparts, The Kings County Opry stands out.

Anyone stepping into Freddy’s on the third Thursday of the month has found a lively bluegrass band, and, most likely, an enthusiastic audience singing, dancing, and shouting for favorite tunes. It’s easy to see how Opry-goers get so excited. There is no proper stage, so performers and audience members nearly intermingle. The Back Room has been lauded by performers and fans alike as one of the city’s best-sounding spaces for acoustic music. And the bands, often with as many as eight or nine musicians playing and singing at once, create an atmosphere of unbridled enthusiasm. Over time, Dock Oscar likes to say, the event has evolved into “a good-natured riot.”

The show begins with the Song Circle, a round robin of short sets featuring a variety of songwriters and performers. Then, at 9:30, KCO favorite Yarn takes the stage. The band’s textured, bluegrass-tinged country is at once accessible and affecting. Carroll Gardens frontman Blake Christiana’s singing voice is the aural equivalent of a broken-in pair of jeans—rugged, homey, and dependable. Among this bevy of top-notch bluegrass musicians, mandolinist Andrew Hendryx’s thoughtful, articulate playing emerges as a crucial part of the band’s sound. Though Yarn’s jam band roots are manifest at times, the instrumentation never preens or overpowers; Christiana’s masterful songwriting shines through in each song.

Alex Friedman closes at 10:30, with his backup band The Other Failures. The Prospect Heights songwriter’s work shifts effortlessly between wry country ballads, raucous talking blues, and tender, introspective vignettes. Friedman is also a painter and artist who has contributed to magazines like the New Yorker; it is no surprise, then, that his songs have painting-like qualities. His songs are prolonged meditations that delve into their subject matter in way an artist might labor to render the details of a landscape or the features of a human face.

The music simmers, sometimes boils over, with expressive gusto as lyrical flourishes pile up like brush strokes. Friedman is candid about his desire to write striking, powerful songs: “The things I’m singing about are totally mine and totally true,” he says. “And I’m convinced that when someone is totally true to themselves, that truthfulness becomes their instrument.” Though several of his songs explore themes of artistic honesty, he warns against “paintings that are just about the paint.”

At The Kings County Opry, nothing is less likely.

Freddy’s Bar and Backroom is located at 685 Dean Street, at the corner of 6th Avenue; you can learn more about the venue by visiting www.freddysbackroom.com or calling directly at 718-622-7035. Additionally, the Kings County Opry website, www.kingscountyopry.com, provides detailed information about the series’ schedule and performers.

This month’s event takes place Jan. 18 and is free and open to anyone over 21 with ID.

Gazette Article 1/3/07

With his Family Dog on hiatus, Christiana having ball with Yarn
by Philip Schwartz (Gazette Reporter)

It has taken 30-year-old Blake Christiana years to get here, yet this is precisely where he wanted to be all along. After building an audience with the New York City-based Blake & The Family Dog, the Schenectady native has put together Yarn, a quintet that takes more of a turn toward rootsy territories with a bluegrass-influenced, harmony-laden sound.

"I had wanted to start some kind of acoustic project for like 10 years - some sort of glorified string band" Christiana, a vocalist, songwriter and classically trained guitarist, said late last month when visiting family for the holidays. "When I started the Family Dog, I didn't know what I was getting into. That started as an acoustic project as well. Then we added member after member after member, and we wound up with like eight people in the band, and it wound up being much more of a jam band than what I was going after...I was trying to focus on the song, opposed to the band."

ALBUM ON THE WAY

With Family Dog on hiatus, Yarn, which plays Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Saturday, is set to self-release its debut album, possibly as early as next month. While Family Dog was Wilco-esque alt-country or even mellow roots rock, strengthened by Christiana's sweet, laid-back vocals, Yarn makes a noticable nod toward early country and Americana. But Christiana's laid-back delivery remains. And so does the sweet, catchy songwriting.

Christiana, who moved to New York City at the begining of the decade, began writing for Yarn a year ago - a process he described as a whirlwind as songs came to him quickly. There are about 40 original songs in the bands repertoire now, 31 of which Yarn tracked for the forthcoming album. Christiana said they'll select about 15 for the final product.

"I know people don't listen to music this way, which I understand," he said, "but when I release this record, I want it to be one of those records where you put it on and don't skip around, I want people to be able to listen to it from the first track to the last. Those are my favorite kinds of records."

Meanwhile, he said some of his favorite Yarn tracks were co-written with Shane Spaulding, a member of Family Dog who grew up in the same Schenectady neighborhood as Christiana. The hometown connection continues with Trevor MacArthur, a guitarist and vocalist, and a member of both Family Dog and Yarn. He, too, grew up in that neighborhood.

EXCITING TIME

All these old bonds, Christiana said, strengthen the connection between players. And that this project is the one Christiana has been pining for - every since childhood when he first heard David Grisman and Jerry Garcia play together - makes this especially exciting.

Plus he agreed that this is a brand of music that has a universal appeal, as if it's so rooted in the American culture that it's hard not to be drawn to it.

Here he recalls a Brooklyn friend who has delved deeply into indie rock, as she's always onto the city's next big thing.

"And she'll come to see Yarn for the first time," he said, "and this isn't something she'd ever play in her CD player. But all of a sudden, she loves it and is trying to help us out... That's been the coolest part - people who you thought would never be into this music are totally into it. That's what gets me the most excited."

Reach reporter Philip Schwartz at 395-3111 or pschwartz@dailygazette.net

Yarn
WHEN: 8pm Saturday
WHERE: Caffe Lena, 47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs.
HOW MUCH: $10; $8 (members)
MORE INFO: 583-0022, www.caffelena.com

Jonesing for tight-knit alt-country?
by Sheryl Hunter
The Recorder, Greenfield, Mass
Thursday, May 17th, 2007

Yarn's set at The Route 63 Roadhouse marks first area visit for Big Apple hit.

New York is not a place that is frequently equated with country music, but Yarn, a hot up-and-coming band in the alternative-country genre, actually got its start playing weekly gigs in the heart of the Big Apple.

Fronted by vocalist, songwriter and classically trained guitarist Blake Christiana, Yarn formed about a year ago. It has consistantly winning over audiences on the East Coast and will now head to Millers Falls on Friday, May 18th, at 9:30pm for its first ever western Massachusetts show.

Christiana has always loved country music and dreamed of forming an acoustic string band, but he somehow got sidetracked and ended up fronting a rock band called Blake & The Family Dog. The Family Dog established a solid following, but Christiana was not happy with the jam band direction the group seemed to be taking. He soon met up with a mandolin player named Andrew Hendryx and began heading down a new, but familiar, musical path.

"I wanted to do an acoustic string-band project for years, so once I met Andrew, I started writing songs that would eventually become Yarn tunes," Christiana recalled. "We would try them out on monday nights at Kenny's and it wasn't long until we had 40 original Yarn songs written. This increasingly became more of what we did on Monday nights, and eventually the monday nights became all Yarn songs."

After playing out with a variety of other musicians, the band eventually settled in with a lineup of Jay Frederick on drums, Rick Bugel on bass. Trevor MacArthur, an alumnus of The Family Dog, took on the roll of rhythm guitarist and vocal harmonies. One other key member of Yarn is Shane Spaulding, a non-performer who co-writes material with Christiana.

Yarn's bluegrass-influenced, harmony-rich music is rooted in Christiana's love of country music, a love that started when he was a kid growing up in Schenectady, NY, listening to his father strum and sing old songs.

"He would always play old country hits and whole lot of Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley," Christiana said. "He would also play a ton of old folk standards like 'Froggie Went A-Courtin' ' and 'Midnight Special.' This definitely seeped into my subconscious and now comes out everytime I sit down to write."

Christiana was also a big fan of The Grateful Dead, especially the writing and playing of Jerry Garcia and the recordings he made with mandolin player, David Grisman.

"David Grisman and Old & In The Way really had a profound effect on me. I just thought it was unbelievable," Christiana continued. "And that was when I got the itch to start something like Yarn. It took me a while, but I'm here now."

But more than all those other influences, what really inspired Yarn is the work of Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons. After listening to both Parsons' records one evening in his car, Christiana was so awed by the power of Parsons' writing that he was inspired to rush home and pick up his pen. He wrote six Yarn songs that night.

"The one I know I wrote that night that made the record was 'Angel In Woodstock," said Christiana. "I wrote that song because I was headed down to Woodstock the day after Christmas to look at a music venue in downtown to consider buying it and being a club owner and putting my writing on the back burner. But after hearing Parsons the songs pretty much wrote themselves. I decided not to buy the club in Woodstock and give it one last go with making records."

It has turned out to be the right decision, as Yarn's timeless music, with it's early country and americana influences, has been a realization of a long-time goal for Christiana, and so far the listening public, has been receptive. Yarn released it's debut CD in March and the band is talking to a few independent labels with the goal of national distribution of the disc. The band will start work on its next album in June.

Since its inception, Yarn has performed at least 150 shows and completed a brief tour of the south.

"We have never played Western Massachusetts - the will be our first trip," Christiana said. "We hit Boston on occasion, and Boston seems to like us. We are looking foward to getting out to Western Mass. as much as possible. I think it will be a good fit for us."

Right now, Christiana is happy with the strides Yarn is making on the road and in the studio. "The response from the fans has been really great," he said. "People with all sorts of musical tastes seem to really dig what we are doing, and that makes me smile."

YARN AT SADLACK'S
INDY - Raleigh, North Carolina
September 13th, 2007
by Kathy Justice

Roots music from the shadows of skyscrapers, Brooklyn six-piece Yarn may call the Big Apple home but they nestle their sound in Nashville sunsets. Moving between scruffy alt.country and a twitter of bluegrass, lead singer Blake Christiana mines his heavy Americana sound from lyrics shaped by the genteel sincerity of Gram Parsons. His band follows suite, pairing Christiana's lo-fi hooks with articulate string accents. Catch them at Sad's tonight for free at 6 p.m. or preview them at Slim's on the 15th at 10 p.m. with The Vints.