Caleb Klauder and Sammy Lind have spent almost a decade dipping into the deep wells of American traditional music as members of the Foghorn Stringband. When they get together outside the band playing shows as the Foghorn Duo, the two explore all of the knotty branches that stretch out from that core sound—from raw bluegrass and country to weeping folk ballads.

The Foghorn Duo brings all of this and more to their first album together, Lonesome Song (Self-released), a warmly recorded collection of both traditional songs and originals written by Klauder that highlight both the duo’s understated playing and the surprisingly full sound they are able to generate with just two acoustic instruments.

I caught up Klauder as he was packing for a trip to Seattle to talk about the album, his musical partnership and bringing traditional American music to the people of Malaysia.

Since you and Sammy have been playing together for so long and have performed so many songs together, was it hard to figure out what to put on the record?
We don’t use setlists when we play, so we just end up playing what comes to mind. That’s what ended up happening in the studio as well. It was very spontaneous. Plus, we have this big catalog of tunes that we have done together so to try and pick and choose seemed sort of futile. There’s definitely a bunch that we recorded that we didn’t put on there. We did everything live with three microphones and mixed on the fly so if something didn’t turn our right, you couldn’t change it. Those were the ones that didn’t make the cut.

What can you tell me about the songs that did make it on the album?
The first one, “My Horses Ain’t Hungry,” that one was fun. We have been doing it for a long time as a mandolin and guitar. In the studio on the fly we decided to try it as a banjo/guitar duet. He just flew into it, perfect and natural and it only took us one time and felt really solid and moving. And I got all the words right! “Billy Gray” is one that I really liked for a long time. It was nice to get that one recorded because we’ve been trying to record it before and you record a song enough times starts to lose its magic and even a live recording can drain the spontaneity out of it.

What is the working relationship like with you and Sammy?
It’s always changing, but overall we communicate pretty well. The two of us are pretty much always on the same page. We’re most interested in playing music and having a good time. It’s nice not to get stuck in a certain genre too. We can do my own songs, a country song, bluegrass thing, or an old time thing. One thing that’s happened is that sometimes we’ll be playing and I’ll be thinking of a tune to try out and then Sammy will say to me, “We should play this song” and it’s the one I was thinking of! It kind of scares me.

What is that attracted you to playing old time music like this?
One of the biggest things is the straight up acoustic sound of it and the accessibility, sitting in a pub social aspect of it. I’ve been in a rock band with tons of gear but I was finding that the kind of music where I can carry my case in and open up and play is a really cool thing. And the songs - everyone can relate to them in some way. There’s an aspect of that it’s everyone’s music. The traditional stuff usually has no author and it’s a communal kind of thing. It really takes the ego out of it.

Do you have any thoughts about why the appeal of this music seems to stretch so far beyond the U.S.?
All that music came from across the sea. It changed in America but it has roots all over the place. And I think just the songs, the balladeers and stuff like that the stories are basic stories that people relate to; common stuff that everyone feels and deals with.

I ask that because the Foghorn Stringband went to play in Malaysia recently. What was that experience like?
Humbling. We were invited over there for a world music festival. We were the first American band they’d had. The whole thing was sponsored by the Malaysian tourism board, and they had this big ceremony where they introduced all the bands and had us all stand up. You know, “From Ivory Coast…from Pakistan…from USA, Foghorn Stringband.” It was the most surreal thing in the world. The best part about it was being able to spend time with other musicians at the hotel and sit side by side and play music together. The audience was really open and receptive, too. They were excited about everything on the stage. You’d look out and see 8,000 Malaysians dancing like crazy. I remember we did a waltz and you could see everyone waving their hands in the air. That was their waltz. We were all really nervous, but as soon as the first song was over, we were all looking at each other thinking, “This is pretty amazing.”

Foghorn Duo releases Lonesome Song Thursday, June 12 at Mississippi Studios. 8 pm. 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+

Links:
Foghorn DuoSpace
Foghorn StringbandSpace

Photo courtesy of the band’s MySpace (Klauder is on the right).