Ferd is a man and a band creating a fresh and vibrant interpretation of American music. Ferd is set to release their first album, Feelin’ Like the Wind,in 2022. The album is a musical journey into the toils of joy we all find while stumbling our way to forgiveness.
Ferd the band is nearly 12 years in the making. Ferd Moyse first met banjo playin Matt Morelock while performing with the Hackensaw Boys. Ferd met Chris Stevens years later when their paths crossed with the Hackensaw Boys. Stevens came up in Ohio river valley and performed his way east over to Virginia, where he played bass with the Hackensaws.
The fall of 2021 saw these dots connect and the three began playin together as a band known as “Ferd.”
Feeling Like the Wind will mark Ferd’s first album of original material. Recorded in the fall of 2021 by Jon Atkinson of Big Tone Records, album smacks with vibrancy. All tracks were recorded live to tape using pre-1940’s gear meticulously restored and maintained by Atkinson. The album features Haitian cellist and singer Leyla McCalla as special guest on four tracks.
The group began touring in early 2022. Stevens plays the big bass, Morelock on the banjo and Moyse fiddling and singing while stomping on an old Samsonite suitcase like a drum. The sound is driving, jubilant, original and fun.
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Ferd
It has been ten years since the Hackensaw Boys released a proper original studio album, which is a little hard to fathom until you take into account the turnover the band has experienced in the lineup. Similar to The Time Jumpers, the Hackensaw Boys are more of a collective than a band, but the constant has been guitar player and songwriter David Sickmen who’s been there from the start. Fiddle player Fred Moyse, who’s also been around for the lion’s share of that time, contributes five tracks as a songwriter to this new album..
- Saving Country Music
The band tours all over the United States and Europe, playing music for anyone who will listen and averaging 150 to 200 shows each year. But for Moyse, playing at Hal & Mal's could not hold more significance.
Moyse, 35, learned to play the fiddle when he was a teenager, and his influences were some of the musical acts that performed at Hal & Mal's when he waited tables there for about two years before he left Jackson in 1999. He watched The Vernon Brothers perform almost every Wednesday night. "That's where I fell in love with the fiddle—watching Tim Avalon play," Moyse says.
Whether performing for listeners hearing their music for the first time or regular fans, Moyse says the Hackensaw Boys put their heart and soul into performing, and it shows in their high-energy sound.
"When I'm on stage playing the fiddle, I'm doing just that," he says. "I kind of lose myself and leave my troubles at the gate."
- Jackson Free Press
