Artist:Sarah Shook & The Disarmers Hometown: Chapel Hill, North Carolina Song: “No Mistakes” Album:Nightroamer Release Date: February 18, 2021 Label: Thirty Tigers
In Their Words: “I’ve had my share of jealous and insecure partners and I know I’m not alone in that. ‘No Mistakes’ takes aim at such folks with the message to get a damn grip and grow the hell up. If you’ve been mistreating your partner, quit pretending they’re the problem. Own up to your shit. Apologize, mean it, work hard on yourself. Hope like hell they give you another chance but know they don’t owe it to you. People get trapped in cycles of serial monogamy with people who tear them down all the time. It’s more common than we’d like to admit and a lot of people never get out of that trap. I wanted the video for ‘No Mistakes’ to portray some of the good things one kind of healthy relationship can offer: true joy, deep friendship, shared interests, where both partners respect and value themselves and each other. No codependency. No manipulation. No controlling behavior. Just straight up love.” — Sarah Shook
Yamaha Guitar Development is a custom shop in Calabasas, California, where luthiers build acoustic, electric, and bass guitars for Yamaha artists. The shop is also a research and development facility, contributing to production guitars that are available to customers around the world. In this interview, Senior Acoustic Guitar Builder Andrew Enns talks about his approach to the craft and his collaboration process with the engineers in Japan.
How did you get into guitar building?
Before I started building acoustic guitars, I was building electric guitars as a hobby. Then I got a job building classical guitars and learned acoustic guitar construction from master luthier Kenny Hill. From there, I learned everything I could from Kenny and other acoustic builders I met, then applied that knowledge to my guitars.
What is your approach to the craft of building guitars?
My approach is very traditional. I’m not trying to reinvent the acoustic guitar — I am trying to make a better acoustic guitar. There is still quite a bit of mystery involved with guitar and what makes one sound a certain way and a seemingly identical one sound different.
My goal at Yamaha is to combine my intuition as a builder with the engineering knowledge and technological capabilities from the team in Japan. We’re trying to essentially break the code for total control of shaping a guitar’s sound and applying that to our production models.
How does the research and development at the shop connect to the production guitars that customers can buy?
All new Yamaha models go through the development process before hitting the production factories, and part of that process is building prototypes. The YGD custom shop builds all the initial prototypes for potential new models. We collaborate with the team in Japan and experiment with new shapes, materials, bracing ideas, construction methods, etc., to improve on existing designs and invent completely new ones as well.
What does the collaboration between the YGD custom shop and Japan look like?
I collaborate with the team in Japan on a daily basis. We collaborate to develop new construction methods and building techniques, and then we work together to train the luthiers at our factories who build our production guitars.
Could you pick a favorite guitar that you’ve designed or built at YGD?
My favorite project is almost always whatever I am currently working on. Sometimes I look back and think of a specific guitar that really stood apart from the rest. But mostly, I’m always in the mindset that the guitar I am building now is going to be the best one yet.
Discover more about Yamaha and their custom shop offerings at www.YamahaGuitars.com.
Artist:Sam Weber Hometown: North Saanich, BC, Canada Song: “Here’s to The Future” Album:Get Free Release Date: February 4, 2022 Label: Sonic Unyon
In Their Words: “Every album cycle brings one song that cuts me right to the core. Like a three-year cross-section of every complex life moment laid bare in the simplest words. Through confronting my deepest, heaviest truths through these songs I am able to see the world in a new way. ‘Here’s to the Future’ was that song for me, but also a toast and a prayer to the better and brighter days ahead. The first verse is sort of about leaving home and running from pain. The video is a compilation of Super 8 footage we took on some of my many drives from British Columbia, where I’m from, to LA where I am now.” — Sam Weber
From the stillness and quiet of the last year and a half, Emily Scott Robinson has emerged with a burst of built-up energy and creativity – not to mention a record deal – all culminating in the release of her new album, American Siren, her first release in partnership with Oh Boy Records.
Writing about characters both real and imagined, her storytelling skills are on full display across the album’s ten tracks, as she speaks to deep truths of lost love, lessons learned and dreams yet to be realized. Based in Telluride, Colorado, Robinson spoke with the Bluegrass Situation about building a foundation as an independent touring artist, her advice for songwriters in need of inspiration, and the song of hers which inevitably makes grown men cry.
BGS: American Siren is described as an album that “beckons to those who are lost, lonely or learning the hard way” – which sounds like exactly what people may be needing here in 2021. How much of this album was written during the pandemic and how did that impact your songwriting on this album?
Emily Scott Robinson: That’s a great question. Most of this record was written during the pandemic. One or two were written before COVID. “Cheap Seats,” I wrote in the fall of 2019. And then “Old North State,” which is the homage to my home state of North Carolina, where I was born and raised, was also put together before the pandemic. But all the other songs were written and completed during the pandemic. I think that that gives them a more shadowy tone in general, a deeper exploration of life and transitional periods and change and darkness and kind of what lies beneath the surface when you slow down enough for the water to stop swirling.
To you, what’s the through line thematically between these ten tracks?
You know, I don’t know that there is a specific through line because some of the stories are so unique, but there is an overall really feminine feel to this record. A lot of the songs in the stories are exploring women and women’s stories. They are exploring universal themes, but ones that I see a lot as a woman in my experience and in the lives of my friends who are women. Women who are, like, untamed! [laughs] Or a little bit wild. So, I think the siren theme — the idea that in every song, there’s either something calling to the character or the character is also calling out for something. I think that that works really well.
“Things You Learn the Hard Way” is filled with life lessons and wisdom that we all wish we knew earlier. And you actually did a bit of crowdsourcing when writing this one by asking your social media followers for scenarios and lessons learned. Was that a fun writing and research exercise for you?
Oh, it was so fun! I mean, it’s fun because I can pinpoint who in the world gave me each line. It’s funny because you can sort of see the progress, like the first verse is mostly my stuff. All the stuff about cars, that’s all mine. [laughs] That’s all stuff I learned the hard way. And then I ran out of stuff to write. So, I got on Facebook and this was at the height of the initial lockdown. So, it was in April or May of 2020. And I just asked people, what were some things they’d learned the hard way? And I got so many comments, like over 200 and they were amazing. It was the best. It was so incredible and some of them were so funny. And some of them were totally devastating and wild.
It makes the song special, too, because it’s almost like it’s a song you share with the fans, too, right?
Yeah, completely. The actual thread itself is so beautiful and therapeutic. It just catches this whole range of human experiences. And this is my philosophy as a songwriter: you’ll never run out of things if you just talk to people. People are remarkable and people contain so much and they have the most incredible wild stories and there’s so much that people can tell you. And so, if you feel like you don’t have anything to write about, just go pay attention to the world, like get out of your own head. Just go look around and see what people are living through. … People are sometimes the worst and oftentimes the best and sometimes they’re just struggling right in the middle. I think to be a great songwriter who connects with people, you have to love people. You have to see them in all their beauty and all their ugliness and everything in between, so that’s really where that song comes from.
“Let ‘Em Burn” is a powerful standout that has gotten a lot of attention. And you partially drew some inspiration for this one from Glennon Doyle’s book, Untamed?
Yes. And I love this because I had read Glennon Doyle’s book, and I’d also read a lot of Elizabeth Gilbert’s work. And Elizabeth Gilbert was also in a similar kind of first marriage where she was this character – she didn’t have children, but she wanted to leave and didn’t know if she could and didn’t want to hurt a good man and all of this. And so, I kind of took all those women and put them into the same song. [laughs] For me, having grown up in the South, I know this character really well. It’s not unique to the South, but the woman who follows all the rules and the prescribed rules that she thinks she needs to fulfill in her life in order to be happy. And when it’s her by herself, she looks in at her life and she’s not happy. And so, it’s that question of what happens if a woman centers herself in her own story? What has to change and what has to be destroyed in order for that to happen?
I have had so many people, men and women just cry through this song. This is the song that makes grown men cry. I am telling you! I am so honored that I can transmit a song that would connect to people so powerfully, that they would be so deeply moved, that I would have 70-year-old men in the audience come up to me with tears in their eyes and ask me to write “Let ‘Em Burn” on their record that I’m signing. I mean, it’s so special to me. It’s a song that’s so much bigger than me, and I’m so grateful that I was the one who got to pull it out of the ether.
“Hometown Hero” is a very personal story about your cousin, who died by suicide. Was there any hesitation in writing and sharing something so painful, or was this a way to help you cope with it?
James is my first cousin. And I did want to follow the lead of his immediate family. I would never have shared this story in such a personal way if it was damaging or not something that his family wanted, but his family, my family, have all been really, really honest — including in his obituary and at his service and in talking to people about his life — about how he died and what he struggled with. I felt comfortable writing a song that was biographical and that was true in its detail because they were truthful about his life and his death.
We had a service for him, and it was a full military funeral service, and those images from that day burned onto my memory. I took notes in my journal that night because I didn’t want to forget that day. I knew at some point that I would probably write about it. And I understood that this was a thing that was also universal for thousands of other families and loved ones who were left behind when they lost a veteran in this way or when they lost anybody in this way, this song can be for anybody who lost someone to suicide. I perform this song in every full-length show that I play because there are a lot of people who need to hear it and want to hear it. It tells a story that is familiar to them. It’s a catharsis for them and that’s a healing thing.
You sing about dreams coming true someday in “Cheap Seats.” Does it already feel like with this album and the recognition you’ve gotten these last few years that some of those dreams are already being realized?
Oh, 100 percent. I feel like I’m that girl in that song … I am the girl in that song. I knew I had something inside of me that wanted to get out, and that’s really what that song is about. I firmly believe — this has been my experience in my life — that you have to fully experience where you are in order to be ready for the next phase. And there’s a line in there that’s so true for me, “I want everything before I’m ready.” And the true gift of my life is that they’ve always waited for me until I could enjoy them, until I could handle them.
If I would’ve gotten a record deal a couple of years ago, with the stress or the pressure of that, and the self-confidence that I didn’t quite have … I have this level of confidence and connectedness to my own work and my audiences now that I didn’t have three years ago. Because I built that being an independent touring artist. I built this deep well — it’s like I put down these deep roots of being so steady on my own feet that anything that came or went around me could not shake what I have within me. And that is a true place of beauty and power to approach the next phase of my career from.
Del McCoury has every right a person can have to slow down, take it easy, and bask in his own accomplishments. But, instead of taking some well-earned time off, the iconic bluegrasser engaged his inner music fan, keeping his ears open to new songs, albums, and artists. During the lockdowns and periods of isolation in 2020, while performing was off the table, Del McCoury found joy in going through dusty boxes of demos, listening to new music, and hearing new stories. From his childlike curiosity, he pulled together a collection of songs for an upcoming album titled Almost Proud.
With a working-man’s mentality and an evident penchant for learning, McCoury made an album that perfectly embodies his attitudes toward music. “I’m as excited about listening to new music today as the day I started — finding a new tune or a story that tickles me,” he says. “This album is the best of what I heard while the world was on pause.”
To announce the album, McCoury (a reigning IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year) released “Running Wild,” a song that he started 15 years ago but only took the time to finish in lockdown after his son, Ronnie McCoury, played him a portion of a long-lost demo. It’s a classic cheating song, the likes of which are littered throughout the songbook of classic bluegrass tunes. Although there’s some time until the album will be released in full on February 18, keep a look out for more tour dates from the Del McCoury Band, because there never was an 82-year-old that worked harder in bluegrass. As he notes, “If I’m not interested, how can I expect the audience to be?”
Speaking to Yola over Zoom is way more fun than a video call has any right to be. From the time she dials in from the UK, she’s ready to chat. Good thing, because there’s a lot to talk about. About a week earlier, she picked up two Grammy nominations in the American Roots Music category of Best American Roots Song (“Diamond Studded Shoes”) and Best Americana Album (Stand For Myself), and she’s clearly still exhilarated by it.
“It’s very hard for it to even land because it feels really super surreal,” she says. “I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m endlessly grateful to the work that everyone puts in to get me to this point, and honestly, the faith that people have to let me lead at all. I wasn’t always in positions like that, ones that would let me lead.”
She’s speaking of a different kind of leadership style than, say, former British Prime Minister Theresa May, whose sparkly footwear worn during a speech about childhood poverty led to the idea of writing “Diamond Studded Shoes.” Although it does have a feel-good groove, you can’t miss its message of inequality. “And that’s why we gots to fight,” she sings.
To create Stand for Myself, her second album on Nashville-based label Easy Eye Sound, Yola reunited with producer-songwriter Dan Auerbach, and she also pulled in a roster of friends like Brandi Carlile (who sings on “Be My Friend”) and songwriters such as Natalie Hemby (who co-wrote five of the 12 songs) and Aaron Lee Tasjan (a co-writer on “Diamond Studded Shoes”). Still, the defining voice of Stand for Myself is, of course, Yola herself.
BGS: When I was listening to this record again, I was thinking that it does seem like a roots record in the sense that it traces your path from the beginning of your story. And as the album progress, here’s the blossoming at the end. Is that fair to say?
You nailed it. You got it. You felt it. You felt the emotions! It is. I was a bit of a doormat at the beginning and minimizing myself. Joy Oladokun and I were talking about when you grow up as a token Black person in an environment that there aren’t a lot of Black people in, and you’re trying to play guitar and trying to fit in, and you’re not fitting into a trope. … So, we’re in this minimizing, trying-to-fit-in phase. Trying to fit into Eurocentric life as non-Eurocentric people. That’s where we start the album, and then “Dancing Away in Tears” is a bit like a growing out of a relationship, romantically, but obviously it can be socially as well. When I’m singing it, it’s kind of both. It’s like growing out of an environment and just needing to be in another space.
And as you go through the record, “Diamond Studded Shoes” is about the idea of how the macro affects you. You might grow out of a microcosm, but the macro is going to affect how you interact. … Because I’m moving through that, I’m realizing the environment that I’m in and I’m realizing what I want from it, which is essentially connection. I think that’s why by the time we get to “Be My Friend,” you start to realize that I want to connect to people who want to connect to people! (laughs) That’s really what it is! And then I finally do, and as a result, I blossom. As I think humans do. Humans *like* humans, and when they feel seen, they blossom.
That’s really this record. It’s feeling seen, feeling loved, feeling allowed to grow and to do things without someone being like, “Oh, you didn’t serve me. Therefore I’m going to sabotage your existence,” which has been a lot of my life. Or people saying, “Oh, you outgrew me and I don’t like that, so I’m going to sabotage your existence.” It never seems to end, that idea. Or to sabotage people that are trying to help you get somewhere, so it’s not just you. It’s your friend or your squad or whatever. I’m dealing with that. I think “Whatever You Want” is about that, what I like to affectionately call the “bro”-tocracy, a top-down “bro”-tocratic system! (laughs)
This record is called Stand for Myself and not Stand BY Myself. You have surrounded yourself with important people here.
Yes! Just loving people. Big ol’ heart people! Softies! They might be badasses. Brandi and Natalie are some of my besties. Absolute softies of the highest order! That’s really what I’m looking for. I meet all sorts of people, and the people that will stick around in my life, that I will never outgrow, will be those big ol’ softies. Soft badasses! That’s my type!
When you are putting a band together, what qualities are you looking for?
Exactly the same qualities. A badass giant softie who can survive a five-hour brunch with me … and want more! (laughs) For real! Megan [Coleman], the drummer, is one of my best friends of all time. We’re doing Christmas together. She came around for a distance-hang in my yard during lockdown and we were like, “Oh, it’s so hot and disgusting!” We would be spraying water and fanning ourselves and trying to drink gin and tonic, just hanging out! We can spend hours — hours! — talking crap.
You’ve got to live with these people! Literally live in a box with these people. They’ve got to be your favorite people and they better be really amazing at doing their job, because you don’t want to micromanage them the whole time. No one wants to do that, but you want them to be excellent — excellent people, excellent at their job. So, that’s my type. That’s always the type of people I write with. Everything. When I can’t find that, I just wait. I’m patient until I can find that.
Let’s talk about patience. That seems to be a theme in your life. Can you talk about how patience has factored into your story?
Patience has factored into it. I wasn’t really aware of the time it was taking because I could always see the incremental steps, so I think that’s what makes it tolerable. If you were 19 and someone said, “Hey, it’s going to take this long,” you would say, “WHAT THE FREAK?!” It would be horrific! But you don’t know, and you only see every little step.
For example, from a young age, I was touring with DJ producers. We were opening for James Brown in Australia on this tour that this millionaire (now billionaire) guy would put on, just for his own personal entertainment. It was ridiculous money. … It felt like I was on my way because we were doing 20,000-plus natural amphitheater shows in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth … I felt like I was in it. I was in a band called Bugs in the Attic. They were signed and doing some things. But then it just took so much more time, and I got nodules and lost my voice. I had to quit all my jobs. My body wasn’t happy. I was internalizing all of this dissatisfaction instead of expressing it or dealing with it — or knowing how to deal with it or knowing anyone that would let me speak adjacently about what was on my mind.
I allowed people to clip my wings a little bit because I was of some use to other people. I had useful skill sets, so if I was in service, I was often making people a lot of money. And not myself! But other people. *Loads of money.* And loads of acts did good off the back of me. That was something that started becoming too evident. (laughs) I was like, I can’t have this! You know what? I’m going to have to be the master of my own identity.
You’ve been wanting to do this since you were 4 years old, right?
For real. One hundred percent, yeah, I have. I knew it. What I am doing right now is what my 4-year-old self said I should do. But I kept on getting talked out of doing what my 4-year-old self said, because I couldn’t possibly know at that age, right? Only I totally did! And they were like, “Maybe you should be a backing singer.” I don’t wanna do that. Or “Maybe you should be in a band.” Well, I’ll try it, but I don’t know if I wanna do that either. Or “Maybe you should just write for other people.” That sounds like fun, but I feel like I’ve got something to do myself. Or “Maybe you shouldn’t do it at all.” There were so many different options other than maybe just support you in being the artist. It’s a bit of a way around the houses, you know, but my 4-year-old self was dead-on. I should have just listened to her!
On your first record, Walk Through Fire, you’re pictured on the cover playing your guitar. Has that always been part of your dream, to be an instrumentalist as well as a singer and songwriter?
Oh, I’ve only picked up a guitar comparatively recently to most of my friends. I picked it up in 2014. I was a topliner before that – lyrics and melody, which is much of the song still. But I was very codependent. I was always reacting to people’s chords. It was harder for me to get something out on my own. People around me seemed very hellbent on making sure I couldn’t get things out on my own because if I wasn’t codependent, then all of a sudden they don’t have this topliner who can do all of the stuff. They’d tell me, “You don’t need to pick up the guitar. Don’t worry about it.” It’s really hard to play C, D, and G. I wouldn’t even look into it! (laughs) “I don’t think you have the inclination to play the guitar.” That’s what someone said to me. “It’s going to require a staying power that I don’t think you have, so you know, try something else. Everybody’s got things they’re good at. You’re good at loads of stuff. Just not that.”
Before you even tried it, people told you that you weren’t good at it?
Yeah! But when you’re in your early 20s, you don’t realize how much you don’t know. You think you’re real smart, and you’re officially an adult, and you managed to not die. You’ve put yourself in some sketchy situations and not died! There is something to that. We weren’t activists trying to save the planet. We were drunk! So, yeah, you’re naïve and you’re trusting, I suppose. But the 20s are for that. That’s where you make all of your mistakes. That’s what the whole decade is for: “Whoops! Oh no!” Then you get to 29 and you realize it’s not sustainable. And you have what I like to affectionately term “The 29 Panic.” (laughs) You purge a lot of weirdos and try to get it together.
You’re going into 2022 with these Grammy nominations and you’re going to be in a movie next year, too. And you have more things in store, I’m sure. What are you enjoying the most about this time of your career?
I felt like over the first cycle, we were all learning how to do what we’re now doing. I like to convert people. I converted people on my team from adjacent trades that I knew would equip them exclusively for what I needed them to do. (laughs) So, I’ve got this absolute team of badasses and we’re able to go into situations that look impossible and nail it. We convert situations that are way outside of our price tag. Way outside of all sorts of things! It’s exciting to know that you can handle something and actually have a plan. It may be somewhat ridiculous, and we don’t know how we’re going to do it, and we definitely can’t afford it, but we’re going to get it over the line, you know? It’s that fight!
Artist:Eddie Berman Hometown: Portland, Oregon Song: “The Wheel” Album:Broken English Release Date: January 21, 2022 Label: Nettwerk Records
In Their Words: “Even though this album Broken English was written at the end of 2019, before rumblings of Covid hit any headlines, it’s mainly about isolation and disconnection in an increasingly atomized world. But this song, ‘The Wheel,’ explores a different kind of separation — a separateness from feeling like a real human being in the real, natural world. The digital hallucinatory experience of everyday life is so filled with distractions that make you anxious, and anxieties that push you to distraction. It’s hard to remember that I’m an actual living person sometimes.
“But there are also so many fleeting moments of real presence which I feel, too — the damp smell of the Pacific Northwest woods, the eternal sound of waves breaking on the shore, looking in the eyes of my wife, laughing with my kids. … And so this song is about recognizing that elusive aliveness in yourself and others, and knowing that even though it can become buried underneath miles of algorithmic dread and nightmares of oceans filled with garbage, that aliveness, presence and belonging is always there, and always will be.” — Eddie Berman
Warning: This song and video are not for the faint of heart, as country singer-songwriter Hayes Carll pours a very tender and relatable experience into “Help Me Remember.” The song comes from the experiences Carll has had in his own family with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and it’s written from the point of view of a person battling with the affliction. Within the simplicity of the song, Carll captures so much that is felt by the 6 million people in America living with Alzheimer’s, in addition the millions of us who care for them.
Carll recalls, “I was 14 years old and sitting in the passenger seat of my grandfather’s truck in Waco, Texas, the town he had lived in for most of his life. He turned to me at a stoplight and asked me where we were. He looked scared. I know I was. I’ve thought a lot since then about what it must feel like to lose the thread of your own story. This song is for the people who’ve experienced what my grandfather did, those that are experiencing it currently, and for those who serve as their witnesses and caregivers.”
Carll includes a PSA at the video’s conclusion that is laden with resources for those whose lives have been impacted by Alzheimer’s and dementia. The Grammy nominee’s newest album, You Get It All, arrived on October 29 on DualTone Records, and as this beautiful song makes perfectly clear, his songwriting alone will be worth the price of admission. Watch the touching music video for “Help Me Remember” below.
Artist name:Lisa Lambe Hometown: Dublin, Ireland Latest Album:Wild Red
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
I always say Joni Mitchell taught me how to sing! Since I was 15 years old, I have listened to Joni Mitchell. She is a true poet with a golden voice and she is a true artist. Her songwriting is a huge inspiration. I remember being 15 years old and hearing Blue for the first time. I think that was a really defining moment for me — hearing an artist with a voice like Joni’s and a songwriting canvas beyond anything I had ever heard.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
When I was 3 years old, I stepped on the stage of the old Victorian theatre in Dublin to be in my first theatre show. I think since that moment really I knew what I wanted to do! I think in my teenage years listening to Joni, Stevie Nicks, Lucinda Williams, Jean Ritchie, Kate Bush and Emmylou Harris, it was a real time of music discovery for me. Coming to Nashville to make my first solo album, Hiding Away, in 2015 was a special defining time — and although at this point I was an established musician for many years then, it seemed like all the roads were leading to Nashville and a place that musically was so important and inspiring to me for a long time.
I love the intimacy of small shows, but equally I think one of the great memories was performing at Red Rocks in Colorado. At one point in the show to hear the wave of sound of the crowd singing back to me on stage in that natural amphitheatre in the balmy summer air was something kind of magical. One of the nicest shows ever!
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
Nature is a huge element in my songwriting, mostly because I tend to write my albums in quiet rural places where the landscape is a huge part of the vista and the feeling. This current album, Wild Red, was written in the wilds of West Cork, Ireland, on the edge of the southernmost part of the country, looking out to the wild Atlantic. The songs are inspired by being immersed in the landscape and nature. Local folklore and old stories are also part of the tapestry of this current album, and if you listen closely, you can hear the crackling fire in the background of some of the songs!
What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?
I studied acting and drama in Trinity College Dublin so theatre and dance are a huge part of who I am as an artist and performer. Telling stories is something really important to me and especially telling a story through song. It’s always about the story! Wild Red is inspired by a lot of local folklore and old stories, and for me, that was just a real gift to be able to take inspiration from things around me and craft new ideas from the lore that is so steeped in the fabric of the West Cork landscape.
Artist:Old Crow Medicine Show Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Song: “Paint This Town” Album:Paint This Town Release Date: April 22, 2022 Label: ATO Records
In Their Words: “This song is about growing up in a small town, and having to make fun wherever you could find it. Our band has always drawn its inspiration from those elemental American places, where water towers profess town names, where the Waffle House and the gas station are the only spots to gather; this is the scenery for folk music in the 21st century. And the John Henry and Casey Jones of today are the youth who rise up out of these aged burgs undeterred, undefeated, and still kicking.” — Ketch Secor
“At the end of the day, we’re still just trying to stop you on the street and get you to put a dollar in the guitar case. Then once we’ve got your attention, we’re gonna tell you about things like the opioid epidemic and the Confederate flag and what’s happening with the environment — but we’re gonna do it with a song and dance. We feel a great obligation to talk about the more difficult things happening out there in the world, but we also feel obligated to make sure everyone’s having a great time while we do it.” — Morgan Jahnig
Photo Credit: Kit Wood (Pictured L-R: Morgan Jahnig, Mason Via, Ketch Secor, Jerry Pentecost, Cory Younts, Mike Harris)
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
