East Cameron Folkcore rises from ashes

East Cameron Folkcore will present a two-night album release show for their upcoming album Sound and Fury: Songs in the Key of Love and Death on April 8 and 9 at Blue Theatre.

The theatre only seats 85 people, however, the choice of venue was intentional.

"We basically had the idea of wanting to do it in a theater setting because it's going to be a theatrical show. We're playing the whole album from the start of the album. It was written as a concept album, based on a Greek Tragedy, based on our story basically," said vocalist/guitarist Jesse Moore.

The music on Sound and Fury is a reflection of dealing with the lost of a friend.

In October 2009, Jesse Moore's Bankrupt and the Borrowers band mate Jon Pettis died in a house fire which also left the survivors with no home and only the clothes on their backs.

Afterwards, Moore used previous material he had written with Pettis and wrote newer songs that became the upcoming album Sound and Fury.

"Immediately after the fire, Jesse locked himself in his room for a month to do this album before he left to go to Connecticut and shaped a lot of what this album is now. We used at least half those songs on there," said Blake Berstein, trombone player for East Cameron Folkcore.

"And that brings out how much Jon's on the record that directly contributed to several of those songs," said Allen Dennard, back up vocalist.

Pettis can also be heard on the album. Several of the songs were recorded with Moore as he contributed with the song writing.

However, there are some songs such as the first single "Start Over" that people assume was written after the fire.

"That was actually the last song that I wrote before Bankrupt and the Borrowers started," said Moore. "It just became prolific in some way of how everything happened, of what happened and... what we all had to do. Basically start over from scratch and figure out what we're gonna do after losing Jon and going through all that."

"I was going through all these tracks… and I saw a track that said ‘Start Over with Jon,'" said Eric Lopez, bassist.

"It's [Moore and Pettis] sitting down playing, which really turned my face white, because I had no idea that this song had existed. I just assumed it was written in the context that most people see it as a new song about starting over when in fact, it was an older song."

The collective of musicians, from various bands such as Van Buren Boys, Clyde and Clem's Whiskey Business, and Hobomouth, first formed as a side project for Moore.

"In the beginning, Jon and I got together on my birthday a couple of years ago, recorded ‘Doctor's Orders' and just having everybody living in the same neighborhood, everyone just came over and recorded parts on it. Folkcore just started as a side thing," said Moore.

The same neighborhood is along East Cameron road - south of 51st Street in East Austin. As the bands realized they were playing in the same venues and lived in close proximity of each other, they eventually started hanging out more at shows and in the neighborhood.

"We just got together and started playing a bunch of folkier songs that I had that didn't really fit into Bankrupt. It was kind of a side thing, and then after the fire, just became our main project to work on," said Moore.

"It's the only safe place for me to make music at all anymore. I didn't think I was going to make music, and I probably wouldn't if it weren't for this band. I've stopped all the other [bands]. Well I got one more band to quit, but it won't be this one," said Dennard.