Track by Track: Strangers and Friends

Today, we’re going to break down the five songs in our upcoming EP Strangers and Friends and discuss some of how they came to be.

Amarillo

Zack: When we set out to record this EP, we wanted to create something that was far more stripped-down and purely acoustic than either of the albums. Amarillo was the first track we recorded, and was correspondingly the most simple, accompaniment-wise, of the five songs. It also ended up being the first song that I mixed and mastered, and I had to learn a lot about how to do both of those from our home studio.

Given that, I’m super happy with how it turned out, and it ended up being my favorite track from the album. I think it’s one of the best songs Kendra has ever written, and I’m particularly happy with my mandolin solo toward the end of the song. I tend to improvise the majority of my solos live, but that one is good enough that I’ve mostly been playing it as recorded.

Kendra: At the height of the stay-at-home orders here in NC, like many folks, I was feeling pretty down. An image kept popping into my mind throughout the weeks (that were dragging on into months by that point) of self isolation: a truck stop outside of Amarillo, TX in the gray, drizzly morning light. We had pulled over and slept there for a few hours before continuing on. It didn’t seem significant at the time, but I kept coming back to it. I jotted a note down that said, “I never thought I’d wish I were sleeping at a rest stop outside of Amarillo,” and that’s where this song began.

It’s funny how easy it is to take things for granted, and I hope I never get so comfortable that I forget how lucky I am to get to do what I love.

Dream Train

Zack: I wrote this one shortly after the initial impact of Covid19 began spreading through the country. Almost immediately, we had lost a ton of gigs in a very short span of time, and the future was looking pretty bleak. All the while, though, I saw my social media feeds absolutely full of people attempting to deny the reality of what was happening, and attempting to downplay the pandemic. With this in mind, the image of a train barreling off the tracks while everyone aboard is happy and oblivious seemed appropriate.

Musically, I wanted to write something with banjo that didn’t sound “traditional” or folky in any way. Instrumentally and vocally, this was a big departure from a lot of my other banjo songs. I’m particularly proud of the funky main riff, and the percussion that Kendra and I added. Kendra’s shaker was the last bit we added, and it helped to really seal the deal.

Kendra: This is such a fun one to sing and to play. It’s upbeat and sounds happy-go-lucky, but the message is — as you can see — not quite the same. I love writing that makes you dig for the meaning. This one also gave us a great opportunity to add a little percussion, which we’ve been doing live over the last year. It was also the perfect excuse for me to play the holy grail of instruments: the egg shaker.

Harbinger

Zack: This was the last song written for the EP, and the only pure co-write of the bunch. One of our favorite original tunes is “Sister’s Lament,” and we’ve both wanted to add more Celtic folk-inspired songs to our repertoire. Kendra asked me “how traditional should the melody sound?” I replied “as traditional as possible!” and this what we came up with.

I think Kendra’s lyrics are really evocative, and I really enjoy the flavor of my guitar licks between the verses. The vocal round at the end was all Kendra’s idea, and it almost didn’t happen! We struggled a lot with figuring out how it would work, but it ended up being not just the highlight of the song, but one of the highlights of the whole album.

Kendra: If you’re ever feeling stale in your writing, challenge yourself to try writing at an instrument that isn’t your go-to. In this case, it was piano. Zack was playing a chord progression and I started dabbling with some modal melodies. Eventually, I fell into a pattern that felt like it was going somewhere, and I looked out the window to see a mayfly landing on the glass. The first line came into mind, and then the rest began to take shape. I think nature is full of so many fascinating creatures who can teach us so many things about ourselves, and I wanted to honor that through these lyrics.

Snowfall and Starlight

Zack: This is the oldest of the songs on the EP, being written in December of 2019. Our band had been growing to the point where were starting to establish legitimate fans and were able to meet some genuinely kind and awesome people. Leaving my other job to pursue music had been terrifying, but meeting all these great people and sharing all these amazing experiences with Kendra had made it worthwhile. We’d met a lot of strangers along the way and many of them became our friends, hence the title of the EP.

Around Christmas, I’d heard Chris Thile and crew play Arthur McBride on “Live From Here,” and I started listening to that song really heavily, and many others from the excellent Andy Irvine/Paul Brady album. The rhythm and vibe from that song ended up forming the basis for this one. Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs was the only song we had where we both sing the whole time, and I wanted to do another one. After struggling with what to do to fill some of the instrumental gaps, I discovered that the harmonica was an excellent fit.

Kendra: I love a good chance to work my harmonizing muscles and when Zack asked for me to sing the whole time on this one, I was happy to oblige. This song also summarizes our lives as musicians so well. We’re constantly roving from place to place, meeting strangers who become friends, and we hope to look back on this life we’ve lived and know it was a life well spent.

When it came time to name the EP, we tossed around a bunch of ideas, and settled on Strangers and Friends, which is a theme in this song, from the glow of each hearth to the kindness of strangers. We created this project as a thank you to the folks who sent us encouragement and tuned in to our livestreams while we were in the thick of the stay-at-home orders, and it seemed appropriate pay tribute to those strangers and friends.

Then I Wake

Zack: Aside from “White Winter Blankets,” we have few songs that lean heavily into the dreamy, atmospheric slow jam ambiance, and this one has been a great addition in that mold. I only play classical guitar on this one, and Kendra provides the ukulele, vocals, shaker, bells, and rain stick! When we were first recording this one, we had no intention of making this the last track on the EP, but the soft fade away just made perfect sense.

Kendra’s vocal toward the end of the track features my favorite editing trick I used on the album. I divided her repetitions of “watch it fade” across about a dozen tracks or so, gradually lowering the volume and strengthening the reverb on each repetition until it all resolved back to normal on the last line.

Kendra: This song was originally titled “Dream Song.” I wrote it back in January after waking up from a dream in which I was standing by a crumbling stone wall singing some of these words. I changed the melody and added to the lyrics. I wrote this one on ukulele, and used it as an opportunity to go in a slightly different direction than my writing typically goes (the dreamy, atmospheric realm mentioned above).

I know my wheelhouse as a writer and performer, and I think sometimes I stay in it to a fault. This song allowed me to play around, and stretch my muscles (literally and figuratively).