Hear James Elkington’s Earthy Folk Tune “Wading the Vapors”

There’s bound to be a Fairport Convention or early-Nick Drake comparison anytime a folk-leaning artist incorporates strings into their work, and so it goes with burgeoning artist James Elkington’s “Wading the Vapors.”

The song from his forthcoming Wintres Woma simultaneously has an earthy and an astral bent to it. It’s possible those emphatic strings and the fervent guitar work was recorded a few months ago, but it’s also possible this is music from four centuries back. Elkington’s voice never quite rises to the same insistent level, which only heightens the sense of being out-of-step. Here Elkington isn’t just wading through something, he’s going at his own pace and in his own direction. When it’s from or who it sounds like doesn’t matter nearly as much.

Wintres Woma drops June 30 on Paradise of Bachelors and is available for preorder here. Listen to “Wading the Vapors” below, and see where previous Wintres Woma single “Make It Up” landed on our recent list of the week’s best songs here.