Hope For Agoldensummer have a stage set up that resembles a musty corner of a time worn attic;it's( alittle)dark,quiet and stuffed with eclectic items certain to entertain and amuse. A wooden crate full of old-fashioned glass Coke bottles languishes at the drummer's feet while off to the right, a saw awaits its turn to sing.
To the left,a dinner bell beckons the listener to sit down for a musical stew hearty enough to satisfy the ears and the soul,chockfull of throaty blues, exhilarating familial harmonies and lilting cello accompaniment.
The cornerstone of this clan is guitarist/vocalist/ accordionist Claire Campbell, a former Charleston resident who paid her dues in our local blues clubs before heading to Athens, Georgia and forming Claire and Bain's Maple Yum-Yum with Bain Mattox in 2000. After the dissolution of that band, Campbell gathered a diverse group of performers to "create beautiful,dynamic sounds by way of multi-instrumentation and soaring vocals", says the HFAGS bio.
Those vocals come primarily from Campbell and her sister Page, by day an independent film maker, whose voices weave together to complement each other in a hauntingly resounding way that befits their shared blood.
So, besides vox humana, how many instruments do they handle? "Probably around 15 different ones", saysClaire, "but that's not counting the whistles and bells we just add, a lot of little toys we travel with. Will Taylor (formerly in Grace) is a classically trained cellist who dabbles in pennywhistle, while Deb Davis (formerly in The Josh Joplin Group) alternates between guitar, accordion, xylophone and the aforementioned dinner bell. Percussionist Jamie Shepard plays a wide variety of percussive instruments (including trap drums, bells, and those Coke bottles) and occasionally banjo and concertina.
The Feb.6 show is a prelude to their upcoming full-length release, due out this year. HFAGS put the CD together independently, and will hold CD release parties in their home base cities of Athens and Atlanta on the 19th and 20th of March, respectively.
"There are so many distribution companies that will release independent CDs," says Claire. "With the Internet and heavy touring, you basically accomplish yourself what a label would be doing for you... it just takes more time to do it."
Although this upcoming show is at Redux, HFAGS have graced the stage at Theatre99 numerous times; its avenue that allows the slow-burning acoustic intimacy of HFAGS music to spread out and fully sink in.
Their tunes are best described as poignant little slices of southern life that combine back-porch blues with old-fashioned country, and the band themselves are just as wonderfully unpretentious. At one of their Theatre99 shows, the Campbell sisters broke into a fit of giggles on stage that spread infectiously through the audience.
Claire is a student of yoga, martial arts and trapeze, which she says, "keeps me sane and able to play music." The vitality that comes from exercise bleeds through into both her songwriting and her musical outlook.
"In martial arts, you have to learn all these moves for decades, but one day you know them so well that you become an actual artist of fighting and create your own moves and combinations, "shesays, "you don't have to think about it anymore, you just fight. I think music is kinda the same way... so maybe when I'm about 60, I'll be able to play a really rad guitar solo."

Hope For Agoldensummer
with Quintin Nadig
Friday, February 6 at 8PM
Redux Contemporary Art Center
$5
(Opening of new Bob Snead exhibit "StuffIOwnandPeopleIKnow",there will also be a silent auction)