Crooked Fingers Make Fortune

In an age where it’s becoming easier to locate music from all corners of the globe with each passing week, Crooked Fingers are making their new disc a bit more challenging to hunt down.

The band’s fifth full-length, Forfeit/Fortune, can be purchased digitally from CrookedFingers.com and iTunes. That’s simple enough, but for the dwindling number of people who still buy proper CDs, physical copies of the album can only be found at about 20 independent music shops spread across the U.S.

"Actually, I think it's about 26 retailers or so by now," says band leader Eric Bachmann. "It'll likely be in some independent stores in major cities in Canada as well."

Bachmann hand-picked the selected retailers, which are all longtime supporters of Crooked Fingers and his Barry Black and Archers Of Loaf output from the '90s. While Bachmann realizes that going this route creates another obstacle for attracting new listeners, he’s hopeful that fans won’t mind making the extra effort to find Forfeit/Fortune and give some much deserved business to quality record stores at the same time.

"To be honest, it's a bit of a new way of doing things, so it's an experiment. We're not sure if it's going to work, you know. But the reason we thought we'd give it a try is because when we analyzed where all my previous records had sold, the remarkable majority of the sales were from independent retailers, not bigger chains."

Forfeit/Fortune was recorded in Nashville, Tucson, Az. and Denver this past spring. Different players — including Neko Case, Silver Jews’ Brian Kotzur and DeVotchKa's Tom Hagerman — were recruited in each location to help Bachmann flesh out the album's 11 songs. Bachmann crafted the lyrics and music himself before meeting up with each set of contributors. Some tracks were performed exactly as written, while others saw guests modifying or making up their own parts, which added more varied sounds to Crooked Fingers’ blend of folk and indie rock.

"Driving and flying while recording allows you to get away from something you're quite close to for a while so that, when you come back to it, you have a bit more clarity," Bachmann says.

"I'm fortunate to have a lot of musician friends all over the country. Neko is a friend I've known for a while now, so it was just a natural thing to ask her to sing. Tom Hagerman helps me out whenever I need violin. He's a great friend and a great musician. He just had a daughter. Maybe when she grows up, she can play on one of my records."

Crooked Fingers will tour behind Forfeit/Fortune throughout North America until the spring. Opening slots for Okkervil River at Montreal's Les Saints on Saturday and at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre on Sunday are included in their current batch of dates.

Bachmann says all his experiences in Canada over the years have been great, "despite having the van broken into a few times by junkies looking to score a pawnable guitar so they can buy heroin."

Bachmann's last bout of extensive gigging was in support of 2006's stripped-down solo effort, To The Races. While he enjoyed sharing its quiet songs, he's looking forward to playing a more energetic set this time around.

"I want to put on a more up-tempo show. To The Races was so mellow that I want to step it up a notch this time and try to make the shows livelier.

"It's most rewarding for me when each tour creates a slightly different feel in the room than the previous tour. I tour a lot, so variety keeps it interesting. So this one will be more festive, I guess."