On the same day of its much-ballyhooed Sony Masterworks CD-release, the Traverse City trio lit up the Grand Rapids radio studio with new songs. (Story, video, podcast)
‘An Incredible Four Years’: For The Accidentals, that culminated Friday in release of their new studio album. (Photo/Local Spins)
As Katie Larson puts it in describing The Accidentals’ frenetic schedule, being on the road for 230 to 240 days a year is “kind of a strange lifestyle.”
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Road Warriors: Hours after appearing on WYCE, The Accidentals were at Hoxeyville in Wellston. (Photo/Ryan Boldrey)
It’s also exhausting, especially when you’ve spent much of the past year juggling live performances on tour with countless hours of work in recording studios around the country – something the Traverse City alt-folk heroes managed while wrapping up work on their full-length, Sony Music Masterworks debut album, appropriately titled, “Odyssey.”
So, bandmates Larson, Savannah Buist and Michael Dause appeared understandingly relieved as well as ecstatic when they rolled into Grand Rapids for Local Spins on WYCE on Friday, the same day that long-awaited album officially was released internationally.
The Accidentals chatted about the new album and played three songs in-studio at WYCE (88.1 FM). Watch them perform a rendition of the title track here, with the full radio podcast below.
VIDEO: The Accidentals, “Odyssey” (Local Spins on WYCE)
The Sony Masterworks signing represents a major step for the band, putting the young musicians on the same eclectic label as established stars such as The Lone Bellow, Branford Marsalis and The Bad Plus.
“It’s been an incredible four years since we put out our album, ‘Bittersweet,’ that Savannah and I wrote when we were in high school,” mused Larson. “Now, here we are on a label with an amazing roster of musicians. … It’s definitely been an odyssey.”
Savannah Buist (Photo/Local Spins)
The next 10 days alone would be an odyssey for most folks but just another tour leg for The Accidentals: Band members were up before sunrise Friday for the trek to Grand Rapids for a radio appearance, then immediately wheeled back up north to Wellston for the afternoon kickoff of the Hoxeyville music festival. They packed up afterward and hit the road to play their first-ever Canadian gig Saturday at the Summerfolk fest in Owen Sound, followed by shows next week in Toronto and the Upper Peninsula.
By the time they return to their northern Michigan home for an official album-release show on Aug. 27 at Fountain Point Resort on Lake Leelanau, they’ll have racked up another 2,230 miles or more on their trusty touring van.
As daunting as it might seem, those are the kinds of road rigors that have helped this group of multi-instrumentalists cultivate a fast-growing audience and widespread media attention – and also given them an opportunity to rub elbows with notable names in the business, with a few of them (Keller Williams, The Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee) appearing on the lush new album. (Read the Local Spins review of the new album online here.)
“We made it a mission to take the old songs and some of the new ones and combine them to represent the sound as it is currently,” Buist said of the group’s more expansive sonic approach, which includes plenty of keyboard work. “I think those (keyboard) parts really filled in some of the sound and breathed life into the songs.”
Friday’s Local Spins on WYCE show also boasted the on-air debut of new tracks by Suzies, FlyLiteGemini, Jared Sjoblom, Jetty Rae (this week’s “musicians’ pick” by The Accidentals), Deep Greens & Blues and Matt Ten Clay & The Howlers, as well as new music from Christopher C. Cordle and John Merchant. Listen to the podcast here.
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE with The Accidentals (8/18/17)
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