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Some of you may have noticed that Bill and Kate Isles took the win for “Best Album” in the Reader’s Best of the Northland 2011 survey. Of course we made sure to grab a copy of the album to review it.
 Bill Isles played his first show of original music after a 25 year hiatus 12 years ago this February. It was an interesting decision to go that long without playing and to reemerge and make music his life’s work. Not only did he become well known in the area after his comeback, Bill and his wife, Kate, have become recognized throughout the nation’s folk and country scene.  
“Still Beneath the Stars and Moon” is undeniably a laid back folk album that features a few seasoned guest artists who were mostly recorded using a minimal amount of gear, “our gear is very portable, I can carry it all, except stands, in two backpacks,” stated Bill Isles.
The CD features artist such as Canadian two-time champion fiddler, April Verch. Bill Isles met Verch in a hotel hallway following one of her performances in Montreal.  Later that year, Bill again met Verch at the Kent State Folk Festival in Ohio.  She expressed interest in recording with the couple and they later laid down her tracks a few months later in the “basement of an factory-turned-art-studio-space.” Verch is featured on the majority of the songs on this album and there really isn’t any lack of sound quality, especially considering the circumstances that they were recorded under.
Many of the other artists featured on the album were recorded in unorthodox  places such as hotel rooms and saunas turned sound booth with musicians like Banjo player and vocalist, Emily Pinkerton; singer/songwriter and classical guitar player, Michael Johnson; piano player, Laura Hall; Les Hazelton and Gordy Johnson take on bass duties and Jerry Siptroth does drums and percussion for the album.  All of the artists are very experienced and it’s fairly impressive that Bill and Kate got such a strong line up to take the time out to participate on this album.
The album starts uptempo with the track “Love is Meant to Be.”  Much of what this album is all about is displayed right from the start. Solid hooks and songwriting plus Bill and Kate’s vocals drives the album from start to finish. This song, as well as the majority of the tracks on the album have Verch’s fiddle on them that ranges from playful and light hearted to sentimental and soft.
There are several side notes in the liner about the background of some of the songs.  The second track, “Little Blue,” was originally inspired by a river in southern Nebraska of the same name. The song is written by Kate who came up with the melody for the song while she was sitting in front of a painting that was made by her mother of the river. Certain lyrics are pulled from a poem by her sister, Leona, and the poem, “Farm Wife,” by John Hanlon. This track is fairly minimalist and just features Kate softly plucking on the guitar and her vocals, as well as Verch’s fiddle.
I won’t straight up say that this is a gospel album, but there are a fair amount of biblical and Christian references here and there throughout it. “Though I haven’t read the Bible in a long time, I used to read it a lot. I found deep layers of meaning and revelation in the stories.

Bill & Kate Isles

I’ve carried that with me through my life. Most of the great writers seem to understand that it is a wealth of incredible knowledge and mystery. John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” was a huge influence on me,” explained Bill.
The third track “Truth or Consequences” starts off with the lyrics, “She said her world was recreated in seven lonely days,” then a little later the lyrics go, “She heard a voice come from the shadows, somewhere by a tree. It said, ‘I can show you something that’ll open up your mind. I’ll drop by in the morning we can take our time.’” The song is about a woman from Texas who is escaping something in her life and goes to live with her sister in New Mexico. At the end of the song, she ends up heading back to Texas. The reference to the biblical figure of Eve is fairly obvious in this song. “I started writing ‘Truth or Consequences’ about four years ago in Texas. I wrote the first three verses and then was stuck. Two years ago, when in New Mexico, it started surfacing again in my mind and after spending a week up in the Gila National Forest last spring, I finally found the story line. Why does she go home? Because that is where her truth is. But she had to actually go there, and in the process, the memories of that truth came back to her,” noted Bill on how this song came about. This is the only track that features Eric Lewis on the dobro. The slide guitar work is very pretty and well done.
The song “November Bloom” is based on the prose work of the same name by Terry Falsani.  The song has the feel of an old-time country/folk song, which it basically is other than the fact that it was written by Bill in 2008.  
The next track “Public Radio - A True Story” is perhaps the most amusing song on the album.  It is a summed up version of how Bill and Kate met.  Thanks to public radio, Kate heard Bill featured on a station and apparently went to check out his show.  Kate sings, “ I went up and bought an album, asked him if he’d sign it too. Put my address on his mail list.” Bill interjects, “I proposed to you.” To which Kate responds, “Uh-uh! We met first to have some coffee...Now we’re singing songs together, here on public radio.”
The track Mamadu stands out to me on this album.  The song is based on the Lawrence Hill novel, “Someone Knows My Name,” which is about an African girl who is sold into slavery and separated from her son Mamadu by a slave owner.  All in all it’s a beautiful, yet fairly sad song.  The song starts with the chorus, “I will find you when I get to heaven. God will bring you home to me. You were mine. I would love to keep you. You were born from the man who knew me.”  It’s really the flute by Kate and the banjo by Pinkerton that makes the song besides Kate’s vocals and the subject matter. There’s a break down at 2:10 where the flute and banjo are really highlighted and it’s an understatement to say that it adds to the song.
“She Kissed Me in the Morning” is the only track that features Michael Johnson on vocals and guitar.  The vocal harmonies between Bill and Johnson are great and the silky strums and finger work of Johnson’s classical guitar definitely fill out this pretty song.
There are a couple of covers on the album. The first one is “Cool Water” by the country-western singer and actor Bob Nolan. The other cover is “You Don’t Know Me” by Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker.  I’ve heard both of these songs before, but didn’t know who they were by, I’ll admit I’m not exactly an expert on country music. “You Don’t Know Me” is the only track that features Laura Hall on piano on the album and after hearing the original versions of both songs, I’ll say that they did a nice adaptation of both. It’s apparent that technology has done a lot for recording quality since back when these songs were originally recorded.
The song “The Calling” is kind of confusing to me because there are two years mentioned as to when it came out, 1997 and 1999.  I’d figure you’d just go with the year that the song was completed.  This song also has the one thing that I really didn’t like recording level-wise out of the whole album; the percussion is kind of distracting in it.  The song starts out without any percussion and it was holding itself just fine, then out of no where the thump of a hand drum starts up and it sticks out in a way that it really seems to be unnecessary, especially since it goes away and then comes back again.     
The last track, “Flood Waters,” continues another theme that comes up a few times in the album.  The last lyrics of “Little Blue” go, “Your banks can’t hold the swollen spring rains. Let them break through.”  The song “This Small Town” mentions in the chorus, “And the levee holds the river back, and the train rolls down the track, and there’s good will no looking back.”  The song “Flood Waters,” seems to be more of a metaphor for life’s hardships, or could indeed be taken literally for someone who has endured a flood. The song starts with the chorus, “Don’t go down by the bridge. Stay up high on the ridge. Don’t let those flood waters carry you away.”  The last line goes, “The sun is breaking through the clouds,” which I guess could be taken either way.  
Bill Isles explains this theme, “It’s funny because I didn’t notice that until the album was done...it is a different metaphor each time. In “Flood Waters,” it is about loss. In “This Small Town,” it is about holding back unwanted, and unnecessary change. In “Little Blue,” it is about the family breaking out of the banks and flowing out into the world. In This Small Town, the Levy prevents the river from becoming a flood. That was inspired by the levy in Elba, AL, build after the town flooded twice in the 1990s. We perform there every year.”
This album was very well done and the guest artists on it definitely added to the tracks.  The lay out of the CD’s packaging folds out with the lyrics and as mentioned, there are a few notes about some of the songs which I feel adds to the experience of the album.  Although putting the lyrics in was nice, for the most part I had absolutely no problem understanding each and every word on it.  There’s a picture of a Heron and a note saying in the liner, “all songs on this album were tested on animals.”  I’m sure most animals will prefer this album to most grindcore at high volume, but I’m guessing that those into grindcore won’t appreciate this album much.  
Recently, Bill and Kate have been touring down south in states like Florida, but they will be coming up to the Twin Ports on Thursday, February 16, to play just one concert this winter at Clyde Iron. Apparently there will also be a celebration of Kate’s 50th birthday and an open jam session/food donation benefit the next day on Friday as well at Clyde.  The two will then go on to tour down through Texas, California and other areas in the Southwest, then make their way back up through the Midwest and will be back in this area this summer.   
“We’re a very do-it-yourself outfit (with help from many, many friends). We’ve found it’s best to tour across the south in the winter. Weather is never an issue, except when we come home like we have this week. We leave our van at the Little Rock airport and fly home. When we fly back, we’ll attend the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, then tour west through Little Rock, Amarillow, back down into central Texas, then west to Arizona and California. It’s New Mexico on the way back, followed by central plains shows, then a week in the Chicago area before we return home on May 13. We love this life,” stated Bill about their rigorous touring.