On The Verge

Spirit Family Reunion

Brooklyn, N.Y.
Broken String Attached
www.spiritfamilyreunion.com

“Sometimes you get to feeling like there’s a song that the Carter family was meant to sing,” says Nick Panken (vocals, acoustic guitar) of Spirit Family Reunion’s “authentic American music.” In addition to the Carters, the six-piece also looks to Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Cheese Read and Gillian Welch as influences. The band members, who first came together in late 2008, are enjoying playing festivals and are excited “to be playing in the summertime, with a new record, new songs and a good wind blowing.” They released their first full-length No Separation in June, which contains new songs they put together while touring during the past year as well as “old songs we hadn’t figured out how to play or record,” Panken says. “Unifying songs meant to be sung for and with a group of people and more solitary songs that come from a lonesome place—[as it] turns out, they fit quite nicely together.” SFR got their start busking in subway stations, on street corners and at farmers’ markets around New York. “You see all sorts of things and meet all kinds of people down there,” he says of the subway performances. Their shows generally consist of “some sweat, something to stomp to, a chance to sing, maybe a good old traditional song or two, and probably a broken string.”