Back To the Trail

Take me back to the night I saw Lord Huron live.

While doing research for this post, I came across some interviews with the band's lead singer and founder Ben Schneider. As if I didn't already have tremendous love for the man responsible for writing some of the best lyrics I've heard in recent years, I've reached new depths of love after all that I have learned. But this isn't about my musical crush.

 But really though, look at him. Gah, so handsome.

It's about the fact that within the album's tracks are not personal stories, but rather Schneider has woven different fictional elements into the contents of the songs. The album almost works as an anthology of short stories, and those stories have more stories behind them. In an interview with NPR Music, he explains how the songs feature different character anecdotes. There's a wonderfully scripted narrative in this album which features travelers, lovers, sirens, and Punisher-like characters. The song "Love Like Ghosts" for instance is from the perspective of a female lounge singer named Frankie Lou with a mysterious, dark past, "Fool for Love" is narrated by Buck Vernon, a washed up country singer from the late 60s and suffers from hallucinations (he didn't go into details about this and now I'm more intrigued), and a working class man seeking revenge with leather jacket ruffians is the central character of "The World Ender." Whatever influences the creativity of Ben Schneider's mind, I hope he's comfortable with it because this kind of writing in music is fascinating. As a literature major, I found this background on the songs I love so dearly to be a complete game changer in the best way. Those who know me know that I love poetry and stories; I blast my Instagram and Facebook with it enough on a regular basis, so finding this insight behind the album was phenomenal.

The name Lord Huron comes from Schneider's home state of Michigan on Lake Huron. In an interview, he stated that as a child he would spend time there and pretend he was the Lord of the Lake. I first heard these guys in a Zales commercial about three or four years ago. Isn't the Shazzam app the greatest thing since the Walkman player? Their wanderlust inducing song "Ends of the Earth" swept me away and I've been floating in their sounds ever since as a die hard fan. Schneider initially started on an EP as a side solo project while working at an ad agency and ended up being asked to book shows. So he grabbed some childhood friends and fellow musicians, they started playing live and have been together since 2010. Their first full length, marvelous album "Lonesome Dreams" features in some songs what I can only assume is every instrument they could get their hands on, and still somehow managed to make it all work together. There's a ton of sounds coming at you when you listen to Lord Huron, especially in the lengthy, beautiful intro to "The Man Who Lives Forever".

On April 6, 2015, they released their second album "Strange Trails" which only further sealed my love for them. What's great about Lord Huron's album style is that it's sequential as one body of work. Sure, the songs can stand alone, but like the album which features fade-outs and fade-ins between tracks, they also play this way live. I was able to see them in New Orelans in May at the Civic Theatre (which by the way, if you haven't been there, it's amazing).

So my sister came along.

The show was on a Friday at 9 pm, I got off of work at 6 pm and we made the two and a half hour drive to New Orleans with Kelly having no clue what of she was getting herself into. Having never heard of them, she asked, "Can I dance to them? Can I wear my cowboy boots?" in her usual 20 question style. She's right, she's no ride or die chick. She HAS questions. Did I mention that I had work at 8 am the next morning and we made the two and a half hour trek back in the same night? Totally. Worth it. Also? My sister left a fan. They put on a phenomenal live show. Double also? Ben has some good foot work; it was entertaining to watch him shuffle around the stage enjoying their own sound. (Yes, I have a huge crush. What of it?)

A too short video of "Love Like Ghosts" live.  I'll get better with videos, I promise.

Despite the plentiful undertones of death and loss, the music also has a whimsical nature tone; Like I said earlier, it's as though the album is a compilation of old adventure stories.

If I could stress one thing to music listeners is that in order to fully appreciate music, be sure you listen to the words. Appreciate the work and art that goes into taking language and applying a specific mix of sounds to it to convey the full emotion that went into writing. Songwriters are storytellers, and there have been times where I'm half-ass listening and only when I actually pay attention to the lyrics does the song change completely and take on a new sound and meaning. It permanently inks itself on me once I listen closely (hey, what's a few more tattoos?) And after learning so much behind the songs of "Strange Trails" and Schneider's visionary spin on music and storytelling, I will never listen to my music library the same way again.

Encore of "The Night We Met" Not shown here: me crying for this song or punching the guy who yelled "Free bird!"

If you follow me on Spotify, you'll see them frequent my music player. They'll be playing at the Austin City Limits Festival in October and I plan on catching them, if possible. Until then, here are the remaining tour dates for Lord Huron.

 Follow me on Instagram for updates of this blog and my adventures in live music @ml_brew

Happy Listening