Arborea

Arborea can readily be linked to the freak folk and new American guitar scenes that surfaced early in the twenty-first century. The Maine-based husband-and-wife team of Buck and Shanti Curran occupied a midpoint between Joanna Newsom’s otherworldly female vocals and Jack Rose’s rigorously disciplined guitar work, yet the overall result stood apart from both. More precisely, the Currans aligned with the lineage of performers who emerged from the late-’50s folk revival and aimed to link present-day music with older traditions rather than treating it as a medium for purely personal expression, all without resembling revivalists themselves.

Buck Curran completed a Navy enlistment, then established himself in Norfolk, Virginia, where he took a position at the guitar shop Ramblin’ Conrad’s. The establishment doubled as a local folk hub and hosted appearances by figures such as Bert Jansch of Pentangle and Mike Seeger of the New Lost City Ramblers. While there Curran handled sound, trained as a luthier, and performed with area blues groups. Once Buck and Shanti Curran married, the couple relocated to Maine, where they raised two children and Buck continued constructing and restoring guitars. More than five years into their marriage, Buck acquired a banjo for Shanti in 2004; tuned to a minor key, the instrument prompted the pair to begin composing together, rapidly building a modest body of work that fused Buck’s technical command with Shanti’s evocative singing. They adopted the name Arborea and issued the self-released Wayfaring Summer in 2006.

Extensive touring followed, with a preference for house concerts and other musician-focused spaces that favored close listening. Through MySpace the duo joined the nationwide circuit of acts that gained traction after Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom’s breakthroughs, among them the Philadelphia imprint Language of Stone. Their palette expanded to incorporate additional instruments, among them the harmonium played by Shanti, electric slide guitar, and ukulele. Buck oversaw two compilation projects: Leaves of Life, which supported African charities and included contributions from Devendra Banhart, Alela Diane, and further artists, and We Are All One, in the Sun, a tribute to guitarist Robbie Basho. In parallel, Arborea produced additional recordings, among them House of Sticks in 2006 and Red Planet in 2011, occasionally collaborating with Espers cellist Helena Espvall.