Photo by JASON QUIGLEY
They may look young, but boyfriend and girlfriend folk musicians Nelson Kempf and Keeley Boyle exude an all-encompassing spiritual power as the duo the Old Believers. While their sound -- a mix of bygone music that isn't afraid of modern sampling -- can be hard to pigeonhole, fellow musician Matt Hopper easily describes them by saying, "Somewhere on the ladder of tender, gentle music and beautiful melodies and leads, there's a rung with (the) Old Believers' name on it. They have an organic, homespun quality ... that harkens back to a more innocent time."
Couple mixes traditional folk into modern experiment
Published: December 12, 2007
Last Modified: December 13, 2007 at 05:31 AM
Nelson Kempf and Keeley Boyle aren't just folk musicians; they're folksy, a pair of baby-faced, fair-complexioned kids, the sort you want to call "youngsters." Boyle in her dresses and Kempf in his sweaters and tie are the picture of idyllic Americana -- apart from the tattoo of a magpie on Kempf's forearm that grounds them firmly in the present.
This torch-carrying for tradition is also summed up in the name of their boyfriend-girlfriend, two-guitar folk duo -- the Old Believers.
"I think it has a sort of vague, all-encompassing spiritual power," Kempf said on the phone from Portland, Ore., where the couple currently resides.
The two christened themselves after the Old Believer sect of Russian Orthodoxy, which has many adherents on the Kenai Peninsula, where Kempf and Boyle hail from originally. They aren't part of the faith (Kempf describes them both as agnostic) so the name is more about nostalgia and the weight of history.
While neither is technically old -- Kempf is 19, Boyle 20 -- these Old Believers play a style of folk that flows from the wellspring of the genre's past, with a sound and ambience that carry the weight of bygone days they weren't alive for, of an age they haven't reached yet. Their sound is immediately recognizable, but it's not one their fans have been able to pin to a certain seminal artist.
Matt Hopper, icon of the young Alaskans music scene, is an Old Believers follower who doesn't struggle when asked to describe the group's sound.
"Somewhere on the ladder of tender, gentle music and beautiful melodies and leads, there's a rung with (the) Old Believers' name on it," Hopper said. "They have an organic, homespun quality ... that harkens back to a more innocent time."
This month, the duo return to their old country -- Alaska -- opening for Hopper on his mini-tour of the state.
The Old Believers started in the duo's hometown of Kenai, then moved to Portland last year before it played a single Alaska show. Previously, Boyle and Kempf were in a high school alt-folk four-piece called the Tim Sturm Band. After the members graduated in spring 2006, they traveled to Cider Mountain Recorders in Athol, Idaho, a "destination studio" that also functions like a musician's lodge and retreat. The band recorded and worked at the studio from August through December, until members of the rhythm section decided they wanted to go back to school.
After returning to Kenai for the holidays last year, Boyle and Kempf chose to go it alone.
"That kind of forced us to play folk music because we didn't have all the backing," Kempf said. "Plus," he added, "(folk) was really our main interest anyway."
The two moved to Portland in early 2007 but only started playing out in June. In the short time since then, they've made surprising progress. They quit their day jobs and are now paying the bills by playing music. Kempf adds that the shows are consistently full of fans they've never seen and even representatives of North Carolina's Yep Rock Records and other indie labels have expressed support, though nobody's hinted at a deal yet.
The Old Believers recently helped book a couple of Portland-area shows for Hopper, who also moved away from Alaska to pursue music. Hopper reciprocated, recruiting them for a brief California tour in October and now the upcoming Alaska dates.
After that?
"I've got lots of plans," Kempf said, in a voice that suggested a smirk. "I've actually got the next five albums planned."
This first is an extra-long EP they'll make in January. Kempf will pull the hard drives that hold the unfinished Tim Sturm Band sessions out of his closet and he, Boyle, and some Portland guest artists will complete them. Kempf says the album will be different than the usual Old Believers fare -- for one thing, he'll be sequencing electronics.
It might sound strange, a traditionalist pair dabbling in sequencing. But that inked magpie on Nelson's arm underlines that these throwbacks to a simpler time are clearly living in the present.
"At first we told our families that this was an experiment," he said, "but it's really not. It's what we're doing. It's kind of what we have to do."
Matt Hopper, Kate Earl and the Old Believers
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Wild Berry Theater (5225 Juneau St.)
How much: $10-$12, available through www.centertix.net
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Maxine's Glacier City Bistro (Mile 0.3 Crow Creek Road, Girdwood)
How much: Free
Matt Hopper, Kate Earl and the Old Believers also perform
8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, at Triumverate Theatre, Kenai, $10
8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, at Playhouse Theatre, Soldotna, $10
Web: www.myspace.com/oldbelievers, www.myspace. com/matthopper, www. myspace.com/kateearl
