Kai Crowe-Getty Album Release Pt 3: The Wreckage.
Old Hank: O, Nelson County.
Bazz: Is that the beginning of a bluegrass song?
Old Hank: No, it’s the beginning of this blog post, come on Bazz, focus.
Bazz: What a seminal album The Wreckage is. And what did I tell you the first time I listened to these songs?
Old Hank: You told me it sounded like Nelson County. I mean what is it about a place that produces these writers, musicians and bands?
Bazz: It’s just a magic place. We talk about it all the time.
Old Hank: It’s like wine people talk about the “terroir” – the combined influence of factors of climate, soil, topography and farming that produce a unique fingerprint of a place that shapes the flavor and aroma of the grapes in a wine.
Bazz: I see where you’re going.
Old Hank: The Nelson terroir–the influence of the land and its ghosts – is just dripping from this album on almost every song.
Bazz: Absolutely and It’s more than the writing that sets Nelson music apart.
Old Hank: The voices–Crowe-Getty, Kerl, Monnes among others–they make singing so simple and earnest and effortless. It’s maddening when you are trying to learn and what seems to come so easy to them comes so hard to you.
Bazz: And the community. The close knit, tight weave of relationships in these bands produces a special sound too.
Old Hank: Well, we ain’t gonna solve the mystery of Nelson County in this post, but we promise to keep working on it. We do have to dive into the essential truth of the writing of this album, and this one is gonna be emotional and we are going to be drained when finished.
Bazz: Are we doing the mom thing?
Old Hank: I don’t see how we don’t.
Bazz: For our readers, Kai Crowe-Getty lost his mother when he was young. He doesn’t talk about it a lot but he sure as shit writes about it on The Wreckage.
Old Hank: Also for our readers, an admission. Bazz lost his mom this month. My sister and I just put my mom in palliative care. Both struggled with mental health and addiction.
Bazz: My mom’s battles with mental health were deep and lifelong....and not talked about. Her issues were the kind of issues that shape a family even when they’re not spoken aloud. Listening to Kai's album brought a lot of that back, especially the feeling of growing up in the shadow of someone else’s pain.
But Stay on point Hank. Tell them the theme and cite the examples.
Old Hank: OK. Our take on this incredibly moving show last Saturday night has been the quality of the songwriting. Genna Matthew set a high bar especially with her take on surviving Nashville. Rebecca Porter is becoming a stalwart voice of working people–the income inequity, exploitation and struggle to make it on next to nothing.
Kai has written a profound and moving account of familial Wreckage, not just surviving it but leaning on family, friends and the soil from which he came to rise from the ashes and soar above it, scarred but wise, and with quiet and otherworldly strength.
Here you go.
From SouthEast State: You can just feel the shock and emptiness of a kid watching someone he loves tear themselves up, and leaving him forever.
Starin at the pictures layin on the floor
There he is in ‘53 a few years from the war
She's sitting in a lawn chair in her sundress drinkin’ gin
Staring up in every frame, slowly growing thin…
She talks about her parents
Like one day they'll be back
And when she went to meet them on that August day
We stood around the parlor and stared out at the bay
From Dancin’ on a Razor’s Edge: Having the rug pulled out from under you when the story of your life goes really wrong…and the helpless rage that sets in.
Nothin ever goes as planned,
Water hits the dam and washes us away...
Nothin like a mother's love
It's delicate and tough
It knows no cage
When that’s taken from a boy
Turnin up the noise, turnin up the rage
Scars they never really heal…
Now I’m always lookin back
Running off the tracks
Your hand in mine
From Heavy as Heaven: Coming to grips with mental illness and addiction that takes a loved one, and the fear that it will get you. And I think a nod to sharing that load with a father who is left to summon his strength alone and hold shit together for his boy. An amazing man.
You said you seen the good ones all go first
Leavin us shufflin round this dirt
We’re broken and we’re damaged and we’re cursed
The best of us can’t push against the worst…
You got a heart that feels a great depression
But i know it's hard when you're heavy as heaven
And there's a hole that we both fell thru
Turning all all our reds to blue
You said it seems like all we do is grieve
In this crowded room i'm just tying to breathe…
Bazz: …Oof. I can’t.
Old Hank: Me neither.
Bazz: This is profoundly personal writing. And yet it has such a light touch.
Old Hank: It’s like he paints it in images with watercolor, softens it, smears it, and somehow the meaning gets more crystalline through that process.
Bazz: I just don’t know what else we can say here.
Old Hank: Nothin left to say. Just the specifics of the performance.
Bazz: Let’s talk about this incredible band he put together.
Old Hank: Yessir. From Adam’s Platic Pond, Adam Long on the Tele and steel guitar, Alex Angelich on Bass and backing vocals, Justin Paciocco (Villages) on keys and Julian Carta on guitar. Johnny Stubblefield (Parachute) on drums. Genna, Rebecca and Lizzie Cahalin joined for backing vocals on American Radio as well.
Bazz: They were flawless. I mean we have to see Adam’s band stat. They performed on the album as well as Robert Word, Andrew Hollifield, Sam Wilson, Evan Hunsberger, Koda Kerl, Marie Borgman & Casey Wayne McAllister. Kai has talked about how this record was an excuse to play music with friends and artists he loves.
Old Hank: That’s quite a line-up. It suggests Crowe-Getty’s instincts for putting together a team for a record and a show are on point.
Bazz: From a setlist standpoint, Kai and his band played the Wreckage plus some songs that aren’t on the record and a really fun cover of the Wallflowers One Headlight that had the crowd including Genna and Rebecca dancing their butts off. And it reminded us of how much Dylan there is floating around in the voices and writing up in Nelson County.
Old Hank: I guess we’ll end with a thanks, Kai, for giving us part of yourself, a masterclass in writing, and a real example of how to construct a night of profound and affecting performances by what felt like a family of artists who know, love and have each other’s backs.
Bazz: Yup, we’re gonna remember this one for a long time.
Old Hank: I’m all out of feels and my hanky is snotty.
Bazz: Eat a gummy, take a nap, and then get up and play your guitar Hank. Keep the beat everybody!
Old Hank and Bazz
