Sometimes in the course of doing a music site you end up writing about bands that you don’t know shit about outside of them having an album you really dig. Such is the case with Abalone Dots. I took their newest cd, Traveler, out of my box of cds that I am trying to find time to listen to, tossed it into the cd player and started doing dishes (no, I do not have a dishwasher). Now I am sitting here at the laptop with hands that are still damp, writing about some band from Sweden with an album that I am absolutely in love with.
Abalone Dots is an all-girl string band consisting of; Elin Mörk (fiddle and vocals), Sophia Hogman (mandolin, cello, keyharp and vocals), Rebecka Hjukström (guitar, banjo, dobro and vocals) and Louise Holmer (bass, piano and vocals) from Västervik, Swede. The album opens with possibly its strongest track, “Craighead County Sky”, but barely takes a step back from there. Featuring the classic sounds you’d expect from an Americana string quartet and 4 part vocal harmonies, I’d suggest you give these gals a chance to fill that hole that the breakup of Nickle Creek left in your musical future.
Abalone Dots – Craighead County Sky
Abalone Dots – Ballad of Lee McKay
Abalone Dots – Over Georgia
Autopsy IV
Part time blogger. Full time hater.
Oh holy crap! This is SO fucking good! These women are terrific players and musicians! Thanx for the heads up on ‘em … it ain’t gonna take long for ‘em to be headlinin’ some showz …
Glad to know someone else out there digs these tracks as much as I do.
wow…Nickel Creek reincarnated indeed!
Awesome melodies and taste.
Olin & The Moon and Abalone Dots need to date. That doesn’t happen enough, FULL bands dating.
Hi there! I’m from Sweden and I can’t tell you how happy I was when I stumbled upon this on your blog. Not only do you share my love of a band, Abalone Dots is currently my favourite all categories, but you also picked my favourite tracks. My weakest spot is Over Georgia, but it is shortly followed by County Sky and the McKay ballad. Glad to see I’m not the only one.
I actually saw them live in october, playing at culture festival in Stockholm, and they are the most talented, beautiful young musicians you can imagine. If you like their sound I definately recomend their first album, From a Safe distance. I like that one even better, listen out for the tracks Under the rain and Long lonely road. Enjoy!
They are definitely really good! I only recently discovered them when they were announced to be playing in Sweden’s Melodifestivalen, but I’ve been playing their two albums all the time. Elin’s left the band, so I wonder how that will affect their sound now – I know that they’re going to be doing some new material in Swedish for one thing!
I profiled them earlier this week on my blog: http://fromanothercountry.blogspot.com/2011/12/artist-profile-abalone-dots-sweden.html