I’m skipping through my SiriusXM favorites while driving in my car, not quite sure what I’m in the mood for. The ‘70s on 7 has been my default of late—what can I say? It takes me back. But it’s also become somewhat stale, with the same songs played over and over, just in a different order that the day before. My other favorites spotlight old-school soul and R&B, singer-songwriters, garage rock, outlaw country, and AOR-styled rock that’s replete with deep tracks, double shots and blocks but, as with that ‘70s station, it’s always the same-old, same-old. Nostalgia has its place, but at times it’s both a vice and vise. So I flip to Apple CarPlay, where I jump through hoops to get to the “Recently Added” section—what once took a few clicks now requires too many twists of the wrist, but that’s grist for another post down the line.
I press play on the new EP from the Clearwater Swimmers, sent to me as Radio Flyer but since retitled as Seasons, which I imported into Apple Music a while back in order to listen to while on the move. In short: It’s a sonic oasis that embraces the old while channeling the new. Guitars chime like bells one moment and reverberate like Old Black the next, with thud-thick Crazy Horse-like rhythms dancing across the water with galleons but never guns. Lead singer Sumner Bright’s dulcet tones conjure the innocence of yore (whenever one’s “yore” may have been), while the music echoes Neil Young and, too, the Byrds—it’s part Zuma and Notorious Byrd Brothers, in a way. Some are sure to hear elements from other artists and bands, I’m sure, but to my ears the refrains always sound fresh and new. My only gripe is its brevity; at five songs and 19 minutes, it’s too short.
In addition to Bright (acoustic and electric guitars synthesizer), the band includes Connor Kennedy (piano, synthesizer, electric guitar, harmonies, bass), Sander Casale (electric guitar), and Timothy Graff (drums). They recorded the songs last June in a Maine farmhouse, writing in collaborative fashion. The EP is due out the 20th, but won’t be available everywhere—the band decided to pull its music from Spotify. It can, however, be purchased from Bandcamp for a buck.
The mood-inducing “Seasons” opens the five-song set; it’s a boat drifting into the abyss of memory, if a sense. “Landline” continues the trip with an allegory about the quest for success; as Bright explains in the press release, it’s “about the passion and fallout of choosing to have a dream or ambition. Sander [Casale] brought the chords to the group and the whole thing came together easily. The melody had this kind of tragic descent to it that made it really easy for me to try and write a song from a more narratively driven standpoint.”
The pistons continue to fire on “Engine.” Bright says, “It feels like the other spectrum of dreaming and of choosing not to – keeping things close to home. We wrote it in the same weekend that we wrote ‘Landline’ but it took a us a long while to get the feeling right. I’m glad we stuck with it. The release of the chorus section always gives me a very strong reaction whenever we play it.” “Radio Flyer,” for its part, reminds me of the Byrds’ “Goin’ Back,” while “Branches”—available only as a bonus track on Bandcamp—possesses a hazy Zuma-like vibe.
To return to the top: I’m driving in my car on a summer-like spring day, windows down, and music blasting, free from the yoke of nostalgia. The Seasons EP is a perfect antidote to the oft-frustrating soundscape I and many other music fans navigate almost every day, in other words. It channels the past, no question, yet is of the present, ably navigating themes most will identify with.
The Old Grey Cat 