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Nashville, TN: As much as I love live music (as in, I made my career around it), when I'm not there for work (as in, getting paid to be there), I actually don't like to be around it very much at all. It's usually loud and late and I feel like there are many 'to do's' I could be doing instead of watching a band I don't know play songs I don't know.
The exceptions to this are when I'm actually familiar the people on stage. Oh, and boy bands. But you probably already knew that.
So when my friend Tommy invited me to the CD release party of his band, Lost Hollow, I was, of course, on board. To be honest, however, my expectations were not that high. It's not that Tommy isn't a great musician -- he's a fantastic one. And it's not that his wife, Lorrie, the other half of Lost Hollow, isn't a great singer -- she's a gorgeous one. It's just that I'm used to Tommy looking like this:
And instead, when I arrived at The Rutledge, I was greeted with Tommy looking like this:
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| Photo by Bret Pemelton |
Tommy is a session drummer for major Nashville country acts and tours with me when
our boss does big time shows. And both Tommy and Lorrie are songwriters, with two credits on the
Duets album in 2007. So my guess was that this little band of theirs -- featuring some other prominent country session players -- was going to be just that: country.
Not to say that I don't like country music -- I very much love the real life lyrics and memorable melodies the genre offers -- I just don't tend to listen to it when I'm not working in it. This usually goes for any genre I'm working with at the time. In fact, I listened to a
lot of country music when I was on tour with a certain
boy band.
Though there was a fiddler on stage, when the music began, I instantly knew this was anything
but country. In similar stylings to harmony-driven, folk-rock bands such as
The Civil Wars,
The Swell Season and early
Nickel Creek, Lost Hollow's sound is haunting and mysterious and their lyrics are introspective and painstakingly beautiful. Lorrie described their songs dealing with
"the roller coaster ride of emotion -- ecstasy and devastation -- otherwise known as life."
One of my favorite parts of discovering new music is hearing age-old topics (ie. love and loss) described in a way that is a gut-punch to your soul. Luckily, Lost Hollow provides
song lyrics on their website which I could re-read once I heard their performance... and, of course, sing along with after I downloaded their album.
Some of my favorite lines include:
How do I say this without breaking down
Please don't come around
Cause me without you
Is something I'm still working through.
How
The silence is killing me
One word would set me free
But I don't hear a thing
Something's broken
And I think it's me
Something's Broken
But the subtle, strong, hypnotic tide
Has slowly pulled me out too far from you
Drifting
Lost Hollow makes me want to get into a relationship again knowing I'll have the perfect soundtrack to the painful breakup part.
Then again, maybe I should be careful what I wish for and just enjoy this beautiful music.
