No-No Boy: Empire Electric

Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40255

Format: CD, Album
Country: United States
Released: 2023
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
01 The Onion Kings of Ontario! (03:21)
02 Nashville (04:35)
03 Mekong Baby (03:41)
04 Western Empress of the Orient Sawmill (03:31)
05 Jakarta (04:09)
06 Nothing Left But You (04:02) 07 Little Monk (03:29)
08 Sayonara (03:21)
09 Minidoka (03:39)
10 1603 (05:31)
[Credits]
Producer: Julian Saporiti, Liner Notes Editors: James Deutsch and Carla Borden, Designer: Caroline Gut, Mixing Engineer: Seth Boggess, Mastering Engineers: Mike Monseur and Axis Audio
[Notes]
There are seemingly infinite layers of meaning to be found in No-No Boy's third album, Empire Electric. You can listen closely to singer-songwriter Julian Saporiti’s lyrics, which juxtapose true stories of struggle from throughout Asia and its diaspora with Saporiti's own reckoning with intergenerational trauma. You could also let the majesty of Saporiti’s songcraft wash over you, his captivating melodies cloaking those themes in a veneer of hope and ecstasy. But the deepest storytelling happens at the sonic level, as sounds drawn from across the Eastern hemisphere mingle freely with distinctly American instrumentation – banjo and koto, lap-steel and guzheng – while electronically manipulated field recordings of rushing water, chirping birds and other natural sounds ground us in the now. Adventurous and affecting, Empire Electric offers a vision for a new kind of folk music, one that tells unorthodox stories through unorthodox means and finds new pathways through our tangled roots.

No-No Boy & Mariachi Los Broncos

"La Banda Más Chingón en Wyoming"

Smithsonian Folkways – CD SF 56126

Format: Single CD
Country: US
Released: 2023
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, Latin
[Tracklist]
1 La Banda Más Chingón en Wyoming (03:48)
2 Nitro '66 Cannonball Blues (02:34)
[Credits]
Julian Saporit (guitar/banjo/vocals) Emilia Halvorsen (vocals) Jacob Miller (vocals)
Producer: Julian Saporiti, Liner Notes Editor: Carla Borden, Photographer: Noyel Gilmore, Art Director: Emilia Halvorson, Designer: Darryl Norsen, Engineer: Tim Beken, Seth Boggess and Mike Monseur
[Notes]
The cultural and geographic lineage of No-No Boy's newest single "La Banda Más Chingón en Wyoming" is layered and deeply American: a mariachi rendition of a folk-country song about a 1940s Asian American swing band composed in Wyoming by the son of a Vietnamese refugee from Nashville performed in Southern California. The song is a bilingual reimagination of "The Best Goddamn Band In Wyoming" from the 2021 No-No Boy album 1975. Julian Saporiti and Emilia Halvorsen Saporiti are joined by Mariachi Los Broncos, whose bandleader Jessie Vallejo drew thematic connections between the Japanese internment camps that Saporiti so vividly sings about and the detention centers set up at the US Southern border overfilled with Latin American migrants. The mariachi's bold exuberance underscores the song's triumphant perseverance in the face of bigotry and life-shattering oppression by the state.

The single's B-side "Nitro '66 Cannonball Blues" is a brand-new No-No Boy song featuring The New Celestial String Band. As understated as the A-side is boisterous, it takes inspiration from the traditional "Cannonball Blues," approaching the tune from the perspective of a Chinese American immigrant railroad worker who, after building the transcontinental train lines that laid the groundwork for massive cultural and economic expansion, was deported back to China in 1885. The song is heartbreaking and full of life, highlighting Saporiti’s masterful storytelling and creative production techniques.