Tim Harrington (guitar) and Paul Wright (cello) are Tall Heights. Their music is evocative. It grabs a hold of you and gently wraps itself around your heart and mind and allows your imagination to soar along with it. Their sound is contemporary, yet ageless. Tall Heights have become fan favorites in Boston and are currently touring to support their new CD, Man of Stone. Tall Heights is one of 24 acts chose as Emerging Artists for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, NY.
Falcon Ridge is celebrating its 25th anniversary the first weekend in August and the Emerging Artist showcase is always one of the highlights of the festival. The musicians are chosen by a three-member jury and are given the opportunity to perform two songs (not to exceed ten minutes). The audience votes for their favorites and three or four acts are asked to return to the main stage the following year.
You can find out more about Tall Heights here.
Here’s the official video of the title song “Man of Stone” from their newest CD,
How long have the two of you been singing and playing together?
We’ve been performing as Tall Heights for three years, but we’ve known each other since childhood and did some singing together starting in high school, so it was a long time in the making.
You spent a fair amount of time playing at the coveted spot near Fanueil Hall in Boston. How did you manage to nab that precious spot? It’s a tourist mecca!
We signed up in 2010, and almost missed our audition slot. Picture Tim sprinting straight from van with cello on back and guitar in hand, through the promenade onto the stage just as they announced us. I guess they found our hectic performance charming.
It just happened. We like that it means something different to everybody.
Describe your songwriting process. Do you co-write all your songs or do you switch off?
We find our respective muses in solitude, so each of us develops ideas on his own and then seeks help from the other in selecting the best ones, refining song structure, and building the harmonies and instrumentation.
Man of Stone
Who would you say are your biggest influences?
We love Laura Marling, Anais Mitchell, Gregory Alan Isakov and Bon Iver.
How would you compare Man of Stone to your previous two recordings?
We’re really proud of this one. I think it carries and builds upon the haunting, shadowy vibe ofRafters and The Running of the Bulls EP, but it’s deeper, and at times, darker. We’re hoping that thematically there’s a lot for listeners to latch on to here. These songs deal with departure and return, living with uncertainty, and finding one’s place in society.
What would you like to accomplish in the next year or two? Any musical aspirations that you’d like to share?
We want to share this new record with a whole mess of people, continue
to hone the songwriting craft, and keep playing with the artists we
admire. And we’ll keep our fingers crossed for Newport Folk.
** The Falcon Ridge judging panel changes year to year. Many thanks to this year’s panel, Carter Smith, producer of Common Ground Community Concerts in Hastings-on-Hudson NY, Dennis O’Brien, talent buyer for the Newtown Theater in Newtown PA and Kathy Sands-Boehmer, booker for the Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead MA now in its 43rd year of presenting great acoustic music.
everything sundry 