Beehive Field Recordings: The Wildmans – 2021
The Wildmans come from Floyd, Virginia, a one stoplight town in the heart of Appalachia. Siblings Eli Wildman (guitar, mandolin) and Aila Wildman (fiddle), are accompanied by Victor Furtado (banjo). With sweet brother sister harmonies, The Wildmans seek to bring the mountain music tradition forward with their originality and passion. All three are currently enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and the band is writing for their second album with Travianna Records.
Nick Falk, long time mentor and friend, joins The Wildmans on percussion and harmony vocals for these recordings.
Eli and Aila Wildman met Nick when they were 11 and 8 years old, and he has been a mentor to them ever since. Nick holds a graduate degree from the Thelonious Monk Institute in New Orleans, undergraduate from Berklee College of Music, and has toured worldwide with artists including Molly Tuttle, Dori Freeman, and Oliver Wood.
This set of field recordings was captured in Floyd, VA for the band to use during the 2021, Folk Alliance International “Folk Unlocked” virtual showcase. (All filming and recording was done safely at an appropriate distance and our crew was masked.)
The Wildmans – “Rid My Mind”
“This song was written by our good friend Dori Freeman. Dori is an amazing songwriter and musician, she recorded this track on our last album with us and her husband, Nick Falk. They both sang harmonies together with Aila singing lead, it is one of the favorites from that album for sure.” – Eli
—
The Wildmans – “You Lie (Next To Me)”
“This song is originally written by songwriter John Lilly, we first heard it when Nick Falk (on drums) was recording it on Ric Robertsons album, “The Fool, The Friend” in 2018. Nick was playing us some mixes from Ric’s project they had just finished, they are all very inspiring to us being older and this song was a favorite. Now we are working on songwriting ourselves and decided this one would be a good addition with some brother sister harmonies.” -Eli
—
The Wildmans – “Bob’s Farewell”
“This is an old-time tune written by Joe Thrift, we chose this as a bit of a tribute to our favorite New Year’s music party Bobville; New Year’s eve just isn’t the same without hundreds of musicians jamming into the New Year together.” -Eli
Facebook: @TheWildmans
Instagram: @TheWildmans
iTunes: The Wildmans
