Fuel/Friends Chapel Session #10 :: The Lumineers
About a year ago, I had the pleasure one quiet snowy December Sunday night to go to a house of a new friend to watch a new local band called The Lumineers play a raucous, joyful house show set. A few weeks earlier, they’d played at my house show with The Head and The Heart, and after a final multi-band Bon Iver cover singalong, we all walked away singing a hearty “hey! ho!” to ourselves, shaking our heads at how damn good live this band was.
Fast forward almost exactly one year, when Paste Magazine just named The Lumineers one of the 20 Best New Bands of 2011, an assessment I can absolutely get behind. Wesley Schultz has a terrifically expressive voice with range and beauty that swoops all over the songs. Jeremiah Fraites on the drums a) always wears suspenders every time I see him, which is impressive, and b) adds a raw percussive backbone of urgency to every song, while cellist/mandolin/piano player Neyla Pekarek reminds me of a super-talented elfin rockstar, radiating joy.
This set was recorded that same humid July evening that The Lumineers played the Fuel/Friends House Show with These United States. Many of these songs have been part of the trio’s live repertoire for several years, but none of them were on their self-titled EP. So these are four songs that could be considered “new,” and might make an appearance on The Lumineers’ debut full-length album, expected in March 2012 (get on their mailing list to order it early)
They call their music “front porch folk,” and they can come play on my front porch (and/or back porch; we have options) anytime. Watch for The Lumineers on tour in the springtime –they play Boulder on December 30– and go see them if they come from Colorado to wherever you are.
And man, try to listen to these without tapping SOME part of your body. Toe, finger on the desk, the head nod — I’ll even predict some stomps/dances.
FUEL/FRIENDS CHAPEL SESSION: THE LUMINEERS
JULY 31, 2011
Big Parade
The Dead Sea (umm…3:06. that’s all)
Morning Song
Ho Hey (“I don’t know where I belong, I don’t know where I went wrong / oh but I can write a song…”)
ZIP: THE FUEL/FRIENDS LUMINEERS CHAPEL SESSION
[photo of Neyla + piano by Sarah Law, others mine]
Name: Heather Browne
Thanks for the zip file! These guys (and gal) are awesome!
Sashana — December 16, 2011 @ 11:40 am
Thank you so much! Love, love, LOVE The Lumineers!
Thomas — December 16, 2011 @ 11:54 am
Thank you so much. I love these guys and have wanted a copy of Morning Song for so long! It’s so beautiful!!
Lizzie — December 16, 2011 @ 4:12 pm
Had the pleasure of going to a show in Tempe AZ close to a year ago. Fell madlymadlymadly in Love with every song. So very talented, and a really…well…just NICE group of people. SO glad they are getting the recognition they deserve..Shine Bright Lumineers!
Jenney — December 16, 2011 @ 4:16 pm
Pure magnificence, thank you so much!
phillymcg — December 16, 2011 @ 4:25 pm
[...] an eye on in 2012? The Lumineers, that’s who. Fuel/Friends posted an absolutely fantastic Chapel Session with the band for you to check out (and download freely). Get ready to uncontrollably tap along (or [...]
Monday Links | songsfortheday — December 19, 2011 @ 7:34 am
Thanks again for introducing me to another one of my new favorite bands. This session is beautiful! Thank you! Thank you!
Logan — December 21, 2011 @ 6:57 am
[...] session from this past July has finally seen the light of day that you can download/listen to over here. A strong congrats is in order, because Paste Magazine also named the band one of the “20 [...]
Stream/download several Colorado holiday compilations, more music news | Reverb — Reverb Music — The Denver Post — December 21, 2011 @ 7:00 am
[...] Fuel / Friends Chapel Session [...]
The Lumineers: Ho Hey | Up Here In My Tree — January 10, 2012 @ 7:39 pm
[...] pleased they’ve chosen this band to fill that slot. Every since a solid recommendation by Fuel/Friends, I’ve had this band in rotation consistently and was hopeful I’d get to catch them [...]
waka 2012 :: a mixtape, yo. « folk hive — January 20, 2012 @ 9:27 am
[...] coming band, Kopecky Family Band. If you just can’t wait for the album, there’s a great Chapel Session from I am Fuel You are Friends (a blog you should be reading anyway) and a sweet Daytrotter [...]
Currently Rocking – The Lumineers — March 30, 2012 @ 10:00 am
I’m rediscovering this one right now. Great session, especially the closer.
Adrian — April 18, 2012 @ 11:10 am
I have used music for as long as I can remember, to either, lift my spirits, get me motivated, help me through profound sadness, give me a sense of inner joy, make me feel as though whatever it is that I am experiencing at the moment, someone else has gone through it and experienced it as well and it just took someone to put it into words and somehow take the feelings that are inside of me, and some how, put those same feelings into a musical instrument and let the emotion out into a song. The Lumineers have done just that and the song “Ho Hey”, is one of those songs that you can put on and hit the repeat button and let play over and over and never think about changing it because it is perfect. I can actually say that it brings me overwhelming joy to hear, and makes my “inner child” just want to dance. so I just want to say thank you for bringing my life joy with the simple touch of a button.
Nancy — December 3, 2012 @ 6:26 pm
[…] going to be the douchebag that says that I liked these guys before they blew up. They did a Chapel Session (which is the version I’ve posted) for my favorite music blog and I fell. Hard. This song […]
Old Long-Ago | Liza Palmer — September 25, 2016 @ 1:34 pm
Heather,
I found you 10 years ago. You opened my eyes to so much great music. I haven’t visited your blog in a while. I see that you are moving on. God Speed.
Laura
Laura — June 25, 2019 @ 12:19 pm