New Dangerfield’s compelling juxtaposition of history, social awareness and virtuoso musicianship begins with its name. Black abolitionist Dangerfield Newby was the first of John Brown’s crew to perish during the 1859 raid of a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Va., that precipitated the Civil War.
Fast-forward to New Dangerfield’s contemporary—even futuristic—take on the traditional black string bands that proliferated in the years after the Civil War. Bluegrass banjo ace Tray Wellington assembled New Dangerfield in 2023, gathering up Rhode Island-based fiddler Jake Blount, Louisiana-bred upright bassist Nelson Williams and Canadian singer/songwriter and banjo player Kaïa Kater. The North Carolina native initially envisioned the project as a loosely collaborative venture with musicians he admires, but the quartet quickly gelled into something more focused, fully formed and forward-leaning.
Two members of New Dangerfield offer their thoughts on the band’s new single, “Put No Walls Around Your Garden.”
Kaïa Kater: “I co-wrote this song with Berkshires-based musician Billy Keane at a retreat in northwest Arkansas in the spring of 2023. The bucolic setting of the retreat, coupled with our rising climate anxieties, made way for a banjo-led, slightly apocalyptic warning of the dangers of resource-hoarding. We wanted to write something catchy, with an underlying spine of climate reality. The song became bizarrely clairvoyant when, just last month, my grandmother’s home in the upper mountains of Grenada was completely decimated by Hurricane Beryl. Though my grandma is physically OK, the whole family was shaken by the ordeal. We’re currently working to build her a new home and restore her garden.”
Nelson Williams: “When Kaïa first brought ‘Put No Walls’ to the band, two things popped into my mind: gleaning and land sustainability. Gleaning refers to the practice of leaving the droppings and edges of harvested fields untouched so the poor can come and gather what they needed to survive. If land isn’t sustainably managed, the environment and communities that depend on it fall into ruin. Taking care of our community and taking care of the land go hand in hand—and embracing these ideals in the modern world feels urgent, to say the least.”
We’re proud to premiere New Dangerfield’s “Put No Walls Around Your Garden.”
—Hobart Rowland
