Spencer Cullum - Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection 3 Spencer Cullum

Coin Collection 3 is the concluding album in Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection trilogy (2021, 2023) - a series that has defined his solo career, born from a need for connection to the place Cullum is from and the influences that shaped who he is today; just as much a platform for his talented circle as it is for his own genius. 

A kaleidoscopic collection of folk, jazz and pop, Coin Collection 3 was made up of reel to reel field recordings, iPhone voice notes and rough studio takes taken around the world, and all put together to cassette tape from the comfort of his purpose-built garden shed. It features collaborations with Erin Rae, Rich Ruth, Oisin Leech, Hollow Hand and more.
 
As a way to make sense of everything from the climate crisis to late-stage capitalism, the musician turned to the folklore of his native England. He found comfort – even answers – in the occult-tinged tales of ancient relics and midnight rites rather than in the extreme Christian views that tend to warp his adopted home in the American South. “I felt more settled in that,” he says of the folk narratives that have found their way into his music today. “I love reading about standing stones and old folk stories about how men would get enticed into the woods and murdered by some sort of witch. I love that, it's brilliant.”
 
Grounded in a reverence for, and an almost fear of, nature, these stories gifted Cullum an outlet through which to voice his frustration with the modern world and craft a more just plane beyond the here and now. Several of the album’s offerings, such as “Gavon’s Eve” and “Old Paul Hill,” are written through this folk lens where nature prevails over the evils of humankind. As he puts it: “I made my own A24 horror film.”