The chapel is in the middle of a graveyard in Keene, New Hampshire.
And its acoustics, as Kevin Dremel tells it, ‘are absolutely exquisite.’
For three days in May, he and the rest of the band Cartoon holed up there to record their first new studio release in more than a decade.
The 11-track release, ‘The Chapel Sessions,’ will meet the public Friday when the folk-and-bluegrass band plays Schwab Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. (Visitors to the concert, part of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, will be required to wear a festival button.)
‘It’s minimalist,’ said Dremel, a Cartoon guitarist and vocalist, explaining the musical style of the new release. ‘ … The Cartoon sound in and of itself is minimalist. The effects on (the album) are actually the (chapel) room. It’s just nuts-and-bolts music; it’s the songs in their raw and native form.’
Often compared to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the four members of Cartoon are all Penn State alumni, though none lives in Pennsylvania anymore.
They’ve played the arts festival together for the past three decades, and it’s usually the only occasion that reunites them as a band. Their last studio release, ‘In the Living Room,’ has become a staple of home music collections across central Pennsylvania.
‘You could say we revolve around the arts festival,’ Dremel, of Keene, New Hampshire, said in a Thursday interview. ‘It tends to be a lot of fun. We get to laugh; we get to visit people. Cartoon shows are, in a lot of ways, like a family reunion.’
Dremel said the band also played Wednesday at a State College benefit to support the Mid-State Literacy Council and is scheduled to perform at 9 p.m. Saturday at the American Ale House and Grill, 821 Cricklewood Drive. (Reservations and a $15 cover charge are required for the Ale House show. Call (814) 237-9701 for information.)
The two-hour Ale House performance, to include some special musical guests, will be heavier on some older Cartoon classics; the single-set concert in Schwab Auditorium will have a sharper focus on new material, Dremel said.
Cartoon’s other band members are lead guitarist and instrumental arranger Jon Rounds, who teaches English at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut; guitarist and singer Glenn Kidder, who works for Blue Cross in Massachusetts; and singer and vocal arranger Randy Hughes, who teaches English at Sand Hills Community College in North Carolina. Dremel is a public-access-TV producer by day.
The band has posted a couple full-length song samples from ‘The Chapel Sessions’ on its website.
Related features: Love the arts festival? Tell the world. Share your observations on the StateCollege.com microblog or post your photos here. And don’t miss our live festival camera, focused right now on South Allen Street.
