Hymn for Her

We'll start off this music blogging project with a band I serendipitously stumbled upon this summer. It was a Friday night, I'd just gotten payed, and I wanted some wings from Luke's. Unfortunately I had forgotten that the clientele at Luke's is, aside from me and few others, made up exclusively of Gamecock fans. Normally this isn't a problem. A few jokes and a couple jeers between friends is about all you'd expect on a Friday night. However, on this Friday night the Gamecocks were playing in the College World Series. On nights like that it's best to avoid Luke's if you're not wearing garnet or black.

So we were faced with a monumental decision; a decision that could affect the entire outcome of the next four hours of our lives

We decided to go to McHale's Irish Pub which is known for two things: awesome burgers and terrible bands. We walked into the bar and saw the night's lineup written in a whimsical cursive script on the chalkboard which also informed us that kid's grilled cheese was on sale. When the band on this particular night began to set up I was expecting the worst. At first glance, I didn't like their look. They seemed like the kind of band that tried to win on gimmicks. I expected some sort of Belle and Sebastian knock off with trite attempts at irony and shoddy showmanship.

Boy, was I wrong.

The front man, clad in the attire you'd expect to find at a Nascar race, was simultaneously playing the guitar, drums, and harmonica. His bandmate, an interesting looking women, was strumming what appeared to be a homemade guitar made from a cereal box. It shouldn't have worked, but it did. They had a singularly unique sound, but if I had to describe it I'd call it a mix between Old Crow Medicine Show (circa "Big Iron World") and Beirut. With simply worded, yet poignant and very witty lyricism and some really solid technical instrumentals, the band really caught and kept my attention for the entire night. I actually bought their CD, The Amairican Stream and keep it in my car. It's become one of my favorite albums. What's really cool about this album is that it was recorded in the band's Airstream camper as they traveled across the country. It actually makes the lyric sheet in the album a really interesting read.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite songs.