Sawyer Fredericks - No Need to Wonder (2025) Hi-Res

As usual, Sawyer Fredericks instinctively amasses a good collection with a voice that sounds like it started singing during the Civil War era. I’m convinced he would’ve had a place in The Band if they ever needed a distinctive rural voice. “Lonely Bear” is a back porch homegrown beauty.

The instrumentation is woven with threads of spirit & polish. Some tunes here are superior to his earlier work, while his reliable old-fashioned intonation. “Farm Song” is something Levon Helm would’ve appreciated. There are 11 reasons with No Need To Wonder on this LP filled with pitchforks, rain barrels, mossy roofs, bullet-riddled paint cans, rusted tin signs of Esso gasoline, water-logged Bibles, sepia pictures tacked on the wall taken with a box camera, coupons in the kitchen with dates expired & a calendar in the hall from 1962. Can you smell it all? This music will help.

It’s literal folk rock, closer to rural folk. Story-heavy like “No Need To Wonder,” a song that could be covered by Taj Mahal or Keb’ Mo. This is American music just as engrained in the soul of this country as jazz, blues, & vintage country. Yeah, these are Sawyer Fredericks (vocals/acoustic guitar/acoustic bass guitar) originals, so I must be crazy. Or am I?

I believe he’s contributing something valuable through his new tales & musical notes to the vintage fabric of the American songbook. They can stand alongside tunes by the Carter Family & all those folk tales from the Appalachians with no authors. Sawyer certainly learned his approach to traditional music well. You can hear it in the tone of his voice, his playing & attitude that resonates in the lyrics that live between the notes of his music. And why not?

Songs of home, childhood, days on the farm, nature, journeys, relationships that end, the environment, narcissism, questioning faith, struggles of every young person, toxic patriotism in America & death. All of these — but never too heavy-handed.

Songs like “Funeral Parking Only” have a broad scope similar to what late career Frank Tovey attempted in 1991 (“The Liberty Tree”) with banjo extraordinaire Paul Rodden. Written & produced by Sawyer, the LP was recorded in Woodstock, NY with impressive tunes with muscle, honey & yes, a rock fuse (“Mother”).

The closer is a rollicking message song that kicks ass the John Lennon way. “Ain’t Ya Proud” avoids the radical & controversial but lays out the vinegar of society & its toxic patriotism.