New Dangerfield - "Put No Walls Around Your Garden"

Photo by Justin French

It's been a little while since we've heard from New Dangerfield (the string superband featuring Kaia Kater, Jake Blount, Tray Wellington, and Nelson Williams) are back with a brand new single. "Put No Walls Around Your Garden" was co-written by Kaia Kater and Billy Keane, and it's simply a masterclass in folk music. It's surprisingly sparse and maintains a tension throughout the song. It's a timeless folk song that still sounds modern. If you are a fan of any style of folk or Americana, it's going to be impossible not to adore New Dangerfield.

Kaia Kater says of the band's new single:

"I wrote 'Put No Walls Around Your Garden' with Billy Keane, a wonderful songwriter from the Berkshires, during a 2023 retreat at The House of Songs in the Ozark Mountains. We used the allegory of a farmer and their seasonal crop yield as a commentary on resource hoarding and climate change. I brought the song to the band and we arranged it for a stringband context, while also inserting a bridge/breakdown meant to illustrate the urgency of the message. Playing and singing the twin banjo and vocal melody makes this song so fitting for stringband music in a new context, and I find it’s a bit of an earworm!" 

You can listen to "Put No Walls Around Your Garden" below. For more on New Dangerfield, check out the band on Instagram and Facebook.