The Lone Bellow

Fri Aug 13 2021 at 08:00 pm

200 41st Street South Birmingham AL 35222 | Birmingham

Saturn Birmingham
Publisher/HostSaturn Birmingham
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The Lone Bellow: Half Moon Light Tour at Saturn with Early James and The Latest

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The Lone Bellow

“I want it to bring comfort,” The Lone Bellow guitarist Brian Elmquist says.
“But it’s not all hard conversations. There’s a lot of light and some dancing
that needs to happen.” Brian is reflecting on Half Moon Light, the band’s highly
anticipated new album.

Half Moon Light is an artistic triumph worked toward for years, earned not by
individual posturing, but by collective determination and natural growth. With
earthy three-part harmonies and songwriting as provocative as it is honest, the
trio made up of Brian, lead vocalist Zach Williams, and multi-instrumentalist
Kanene Donehey Pipkin creates sparks that make a stranger’s life matter or bring
our sense of childlike wonder roaring back. On Half Moon Light, The Lone Bellow
mix light and dark to muster a complex ode to memory, a call for hope, and an
exercise in empathy. Anchored in the acoustic storytelling that first so
endeared the band to fans and critics, Half Moon Light also takes more chances,
experimenting with textures and instrumental fillips to create a full-bodied
music experience. The result is The Lone Bellow’s most sophisticated work to
date.

“We try to invite as many people into the process to see what we can make
together,” Brian says. “I like that spirit and that freedom. Then, the songs
speak for themselves.”

That wholehearted embrace of collaboration defines Half Moon Light. The record
marks a return to recording in New York with Aaron Dessner, whom the band counts
as both a hero and a friend. “We already had a friendship with Aaron and a
strong, shared understanding of our musical vision,” Zach says. “It’s really
important to us to be a part of a community of musicians. We like that way of
making something. Aaron showed us a new way of trusting. His idea of bringing in
Josh Kaufman and J.T. Bates was such a beautiful gift. The meekness that these
friends brought to the table was something that we will never forget. A sense of
controlled fury. Lightning in a shoebox.”

“Aaron has a powerful quietness about him,” Kanene says. “A lot of people I meet
in the music industry have lots of bravado, and it’s something I have trouble
believing. Aaron doesn’t have that. He is a joy to work with. A true friend.”

For the first time, the band stayed where they recorded, sequestered from the
world at Aaron’s studio in upstate New York. They fell asleep at night to the
sound of coyotes howling and felt the freedom to fall into rabbit holes that
would have otherwise been left unexplored. “We made this record in a place of
joy with our friends. We were trying to do something bigger than ourselves,”
says Brian. “I think we’ve been wanting to make this record for a while now. It
just hasn’t come together as perfectly as it did this time.”

A lone piano launches into a hymn as the album’s intro track. The pianist is
Zach’s grandmother, playing at the funeral of her husband of 64 years––Zach’s
grandfather. The hymn returns as an interlude and outro, underscoring The Lone
Bellow’s intention for 12 songs to be experienced together, as an album.

Wonder––feeling it, losing it, finding it again––underpins the entire record.
Pulsing with the trio’s signature harmonies, the track “Wonder” is a loving call
to reclaim the childlike awe and appreciation age takes away. Zach pulled from
vivid childhood memories to craft the song, which transports listeners to
moments of breathlessness experienced in the everyday: cheap coffee, backroad
car rides, pine-tree views, and powerful songs.

Jubilant “I Can Feel You Dancing” rolls into a cathartic celebration. The song
pays tribute to “lionhearted” free spirits with horns and soaring vocals. With a
winking jungle beat, “Good Times” tells tales Zach has collected over the years.
“Some stories were told on a boat I worked on in the Caribbean in the middle of
the night. Some were in old Irish pubs in Manhattan. Some were in backyards down
in my hometown. Some were in a hospital bed,” Zach says. “I wanted to shine
light on the fact that there are still people living with beauty and reckless
abandonment.” Delivered over intimate acoustic guitar and hushed backing
instrumentation, “Enemies” is a self-contained call and response that reconnects
life-defining moments with the frustrating or tenuous present that threatens to
snuff out the magic.

Lead single “Count On Me” reminds us to lean on one another with soul-shouting
intensity. Praise for deep friendships pops up again and again throughout the
album: “Friends” celebrates the relationships forged after years together in the
trenches––with a musical swagger that nods to David Byrne and Tom Petty.

Kanene takes the lead on tour-de-force “Just Enough to Get By.” Her inimitable
voice––capable of grit and smoothness––pushes through line after line with
steely purpose. The performance would saunter were it not for the rage bubbling
underneath. Kanene wrote the song about her mother, who was raped at 19, then
sent away to have the baby that resulted. When she returned home, she never
spoke of what had happened until 40 years later, when Kanene’s half-sister––the
baby––found them. “I’ve met my half-sister many times. She’s wonderful and
lovely and an amazing story of something never being too broken to be fixed. But
my mom had to work through the trauma,” Kanene says. “This song was me putting
myself in my mom’s place, releasing a lot of complex emotions. Anger is
definitely one of them. Hurt, frustration, sadness. We all have experiences that
could be better if we could talk about them, but we keep them hidden.”

Album standout “Illegal Immigrant” also features Kanene’s vocals. Brian took the
lead writing the song, which tells the true story of a mother and child
separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. The chorus’s “I promised I’d find you,
wherever you are, wherever you are / Here I am” is equal parts haunting,
heartbreaking, and reassuring––and the unfiltered words actually spoken by the
immigrant mother into a press conference microphone. Kanene sings with weighty
restraint––like a parent burying their own terror so they can be their child’s
rock. “I was trying to tell her story the best I could,” Brian says. “I wanted
to keep myself as far out of the equation as I could and just try to connect––to
help find some compassion.”

Brian also penned “Wash It Clean,” which both Zach and Kanene point to as a
favorite. Lilting with guitar and harmonica, the song is a letter to Brian’s
dad, who passed away suddenly last year. The two had a strained relationship,
and Brian spent years trying to find some common ground. They did, and then two
months later, his dad was gone. The band recorded the song on the one-year
anniversary of Brian’s father’s death, without Brian even realizing it at the
time. “I feel like that means he was here––or in me,” Brian says. “Working
really hard to find understanding was probably one of the greatest gifts and
lessons of my whole life.”

The stories behind the songs matter––but they aren’t what matters most. In the
end, The Lone Bellow’s music needs no explanation. Just listening offers a salve
and a shelter. “In my own perfect little world, I would be able to put the music
out and not talk about it––just, Here. Bye. See you next time,” Zach says, then
laughs softly. “I do hope someone will find this music in a peaceful moment,
when they can turn it on and get lost in the story and the sound
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200 41st Street South Birmingham AL 35222, Birmingham, United States

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