Where Does Music Take You?

Flatland Calvary, Soundgarden, Brandtson, and Greta Van Fleet

Oh, there's a river that winds on forever
I'm gonna see where it leads
Oh, there's a mountain that no man has mounted
I'm gonna stand on the peak

—Lord Huron

---

Songs take us to the ends of the earth and back. This week Ben, Jonathan, and Kody take you to Flatland Calvary, Soundgarden, and Brandtson. The Bonus Track will take you to the imaginary space created when lyric and instrument meet.

---

A Life Where We Work Out by Flatland Calvary with Kaitlin Butts (Ben)

Everyone needs a good country ballad once in a while. This one has a Texas accent and a West Texas flare. While it’s a song about an unfulfilled vision of love, it does something music does well - expresses a longing, a dream. Eugene Peterson says poetry is the first human language (babies coo and rhyme before they speak) and the poetry in this song works for Flatland Calvary.

Also available on Apple Music.

Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden (Jonathan)

My pick this week is in honor of the 30th anniversary of this song and Soundgarden’s album Superunknown. Black Hole Sun captures everything great about the sound of 90’s grunge/rock. We lost lead singer Chris Cornell way too early in 2017, but he leaves us with great songs through his time with Soundgarden, Audioslave (as frontman with Rage Against The Machine members), and Temple to the Dog (a project with Eddie Vedder). When I think about Soundgarden, I think of Chris Cornell’s incredible voice. Be sure to check out his posthumously released album No One Sings Like You Anymore.

Also available on Apple Music.

Cherokee Red by Brandtson (Kody)

After reading this week’s Bonus Track, I searched for a certain sound and pulled something out from the vault - Brandtson. This led me to a Reddit post about “Midwest Emo.” I don’t think that is really a thing, but here are the adjectives that describe its musical components: “twinkly, mathy, fingerpicked guitar melodies with thick chords and arhythmic, syncopated drums with whispery, soft lyrics.” I think that’s Brandtson.

For some reason, their music takes me to cold spaces, and my good friend’s living room floor where Brandston crashed one night after a show to save money on their tour travels. At the time, it felt like the equivalent of having Nirvana over for a sleepover. Enjoy their song, “Cherokee Red.” I hope you’re reading this, Layton!

Also available on Apple Music.

Bonus Track: Greta Van Fleet, The Sonic Spacemen by Tyler Holloway

Many bands take us places. They take us all over the world, they take us to ethereal heights, to places unseen by our eyes. Yet each of these places is experienced in our mind where our thoughts can run wild. Many bands do this through their lyrics, the words given to the music that form our imaginations so that our thoughts can romp and explore the endless space created by the artist. 

But very few bands capture our minds through the actual music played by their instruments; in the case of Greta Van Fleet not only do the lyrics provide imaginative food, but how they craft their music - the feel, the tone, the notes played, the stereo panning - affects the way we taste this food. Whether or not they knowingly are doing this is only for them to disclose. Still, the product they produce is a rich imaginative meal for their listeners to partake and enjoy as they savor the space created by them. 

Within the corpus of Greta Van Fleet’s music, this ability of sonic space creation is best seen in their most recent album Starcatcher. However, this ability is not new to them in this album only. Take their first EP, Black Smoke Rising, for example, which tells the story of people facing their leaders who are absent from society and not dealing with the true “fires” of their land. It is the guitar riff, the bass lines, and the drum fills that give this song a rebellious edge. An edge that says this new generation will not accept idleness but will fight until the smoke is quenched. While the lyrics are powerful in their own right - it is the music that gives the song the force and emotion to provide its listeners with a clear mental picture. The point remains that early on Greta Van Fleet captured the mind and moved the soul with their music and their lyrics.

Now when we turn to their most recent album Starcatcher, every song is crafted to bring the listener into the space the band has created. Each riff and note seems to bring them into the story of the album - a story of triumph, failure, anxiety, and rest.

From the short & pithy Runaway Blues to their magnum opus Meeting the Master, Greta Van Fleet has truly mastered the ability to create beautiful imaginary spaces through their songwriting. 

Therefore, I implore you to listen to their music, explore the depths of space they create, ascend the heights they bring you to, and stand back in awe as the four men from Michigan advance rock and roll into the new frontier. Here is a playlist to get you started:

—

Tyler Holloway is a graduate student from Tennessee living in Kansas City, MO. He’s married to Alayna and serves on staff at Fellowship Kansas City. His first CD was Imagine Dragons’ Night Visions and his Mount Rushmore of musical artists is as follows: Led Zepplin, Coldplay, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and John Mayer.

—

Great work, Tyler! Thanks for reading, friends. Tell us about the music that takes you to “ethereal heights.”

-TheMusicSwap