Felix Hatfield, the Portland, Oregon-based ramblin’ folk singer who has lived all over the United States (including Alaska), says he met the memorable songwriter, Jolie Holland, when she picked him up hitchhiking one day. After meeting one another, Hatfield says, the two hung out for a couple of days, shared philosophies, read books, sang songs and now, years later, Holland is an essential collaborator on Hatfield’s first-ever vinyl release for his new LP, False God. Hatfield and Holland will celebrate the collection of songs, which is set for a formal release on October 23rd, with the new single, “Nobody For Me,” which we’re happy to premiere at American Songwriter here today.
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“She had a van and was headed in my direction,” Hatfield says.
Ever since, the two have grown a relationship, becoming closer and closer friends. Now, Hatfield says, they’re like family. That Holland, co-founder of The Be Good Tanyas, chanced upon Hatfield is rather serendipitous. In truth, it’s almost a miracle. The artist can be hard to find – even by accident. He’s lived in states from Vermont to Virginia to Oregon and Alaska. He boasts about being in eight different newspapers with eight different musician monikers, from Oscar Fang to Felix Butterscotch.
“I’m a name-smith,” Hatfield says. “I’m fascinated by names. My dream job would be to name, well, just about anything.”
Hatfield, who’s also written songs with the famed Americana group, Old Crow Medicine Show, has spent decades crafting and accumulating the work that would eventually become False God. In fact, the 13-track album is the most produced work of Hatfield’s, to date. It includes harmonies and horn arrangements, giving the collection a wacky-wonky sensibility. It’s part New Orleans street march, part Dust Bowl sad song sharing session. When Holland heard the tracks for the first time, Hatfield says, she knew she wanted to be part of it.
“She came over and I was like, ‘Wanna sing on my record?’” Hatfield says. “She said, ‘Sure.’ So, she ended up singing on, like, every song. I think I had to take her off some stuff, which is weird to say. She gives the thing a whole new depth, which I really appreciate.”
Holland, who will soon release her own track in support of the Carrizo Comecrudo Nation, can often sound like a whistling, rustling haunted house incarnate. She brings a crucial sonic compliment to Hatfield’s album. Holland’s voice sounds like the sands of history spilling out as Hatfield’s rumble bucket songs chant and call. It’s a night singing in a shack seen both singularly and as part of a longstanding continuing lineage. It’s the product of a life singing, writing and existing as an artist first and last.
“I feel super lucky that I was brave enough to follow what my vision was of what I wanted to become,” Hatfield says. “To be able to write songs and tell stories.”
These days, the 43-year-old Hatfield finds himself sorting through the objects and work he’s accumulated throughout his life. He’s finding old films previously tucked away that he’s appropriating for new False God music videos. He’s also tending to his personal plant garden, watering and weeding and naming creatures that come his way, including a new spider friend that he’s named “Sheb Wooley,” after the in-real-life country singer who wrote the hit, “The Purple People Eater.” In Portland, Hatfield says, he’s afforded the general freedom and friendly atmosphere to work, create and collaborate with musicians.
The songwriter’s love of music, though, came in his mid-teens. A subscriber of the old Columbia House send-away program, Hatfield would get new records each week to listen to. But it wasn’t until he heard Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” on vinyl that he knew what he wanted to do with his life. That song, Hatfield says, showcased the right balance of artfulness, digestibility and wisdom – it pointed him along his path as an artist. It pointed him on his way home.
“I was like, ‘What is that?’” he says. “It was the most simplest voice and accompaniment. And I hadn’t heard that yet. It sounded live, in a way. But it also sounded easy and accessible.”
Hatfield says his new single, “Nobody For Me,” was written, in part, about a one-man band – a Northwest musician named Rollin’ Joe Jordan. Hatfield heard Jordan once talking about feeling lonesome and so he wrote a song about it. Coincidentally, the one time Hatfield sang the song live, Jordan was in the audience and Hatfield had to change a lyric from “Rollin’ Joe” to “Old hobo” so as not to give anything away.
“But it works for anybody who feels down and out,” Hatfield says. “The irony, though, is that the video for the song is about a guy who doesn’t have any friends. He’s going along but a bunch of other hitchhikers drive by and pick him up. I guess the lesson is that you might not be as alone as you think you feel.”
