Meaghan Burke & The Rhythm Method – A Few Concerns

released on CD & digitally January 15th, 2021

Meaghan Burke’s third album A Few Concerns marks the culmination of her six year collaboration with contemporary feminist string quartet The Rhythm Method, nimbly navigating the crossroads between contemporary classical music, song, and improvisation. The eight songs at the heart of the album, written between 2015 and 2019, express “a few concerns” about the current state of politics and patriarchy, and speak to the collective pain – and complicity – of living in a so-called superpower. 

Harnessing the power of four string instruments and Burke’s fluid, wry, and powerful voice (with backing vocals from The Rhythm Method), the album is stylistically omnivorous, with an emotionally raw, sonically complex musical landscape. The songs explode and implode in unexpected bursts of noise and silence, and the quartet is by turns a textural cloud, a rock band, a chattering collage, and a time-tested vehicle for gorgeously rich harmony. 

Music and words by Meaghan Burke
Tracks 4, 6, 10 by The Rhythm Method

Performed by The Rhythm Method:
Leah Asher, violin, vocals, objects
Marina Kifferstein, violin, vocals, things
Wendy Richman, viola, vocals, stuff
Meaghan Burke, cello, vocals, guitar

watch Meaghan & The Rhythm Method in an archived streamed performance of the album’s material from 1/23/21 on YouTube

You may also enjoy The Rhythm Method’s playing on their 2022 GBR release The Rhythm Method