Pert Near Sandstone

“Our waiting days are finally over,” the title song decries, echoing the sentiment of a community recently pent up and beyond longing. What can develop from the turbulence of a still dwindling global pandemic and also respond to the noise of prattling politics? Art has its purpose in this exact hour.

It’s a strikingly different world than when Pert Near Sandstone first began nearly two decades ago near the sandstone river bluffs of St Paul. The former latchkey kids who grew up together a few Mississippi-miles upstream have been out on a spree, through the thicket, and have been performing and recording this past year in earnest, which has culminated in their eighth studio album.

‘Waiting Days’ has all the merit of maturity and the strengths of its four songwriters, offering responses to each other’s compositions through a long camaraderie.[After almost twenty years together, their bond has grown to reflect more of a family, a band of brothers.] In an ever-changing terrain, digitally enhanced and quickly refreshed, only an album like this could be harvested. By contrast to tik tocs, reels and tweets, this album was formed from the wilderness and carved from the heartwood. The band would say their music and sound come about organically, but under the tall oak trees of the Twin Cities, those wooden instruments may have been antennas drawn to the marrow, like a divination wand used to scratch an itch or soothe a wound, they tapped into this latest collection of songs.

As longtime stewards of the modern stringband revival, Pert Near has a songcraft informed by the American folk tradition in a delivery of acoustic instrumentation. The songs themselves tell a different tale, lightly veiled as bluegrass while sneakily appeasing their inner desire for a more modern musical timbre. [Their studio efforts have gradually strayed from the reliquary of common stringband selections. This traditional catalog from a bygone era, while being quintessential for the development of much popular music, can often be troublesome when scrutinized by today’s standards and public ethos.] Instead, Pert Near offers another full album of original songs that meditates on this exact present, rich with context and reference.

In “Who To Choose,” the iconic swashbuckler is nowhere to be found. Instead, there is permission given to an indeterminate personality to decide their own path in this human condition. This isn’t music reaching for the banality of pop hits- this is fresh air for blades of new grass to grow in.

In songs such as “Clouds Are Gathering,” the story and images reach into a field that isn't always aglow with sunlight, while finding beauty in the tenderness of relationships. In “Believe,” we are granted access to an inner world propelled by an almost symphonic string section. “Lay Down Your Burdens” has a simplicity that indeed helps us believe the genuine intentions of Pert Near Sandstone’s creative resolve.

The song of the road is also threaded across the album, sung by a band that has hit the pavement hard over their time, felt most in the opening track, “I’ve Been Traveling,” as well as “Soo Line Runs,” and “On To Dawn.” These are working songs that celebrate accomplishments and relish future endeavors, simultaneously creating a soundtrack for those all night drives that music festival devotees well know.

Chris Forsberg, a recent inclusion to the outfit, puts his fiddle stamp on the overall sound with turnbuckle solos and harmonious response to the melodies. The interplay of mandolin and fiddle carry much of the music across the songs, but it’s the mixture of guest instrumentalists that gives this album a unique tapestry of sounds and texture. Accents of piano, trumpet, choral vocalists, steel guitar and percussion lend to the recording, opening a deeper space that has become standard in production for Pert Near Sandstone projects. Trampled By Turtles’ fiddler and original Pert Near member, Ryan Young, recorded and mixed the album, the fourth he has gifted his audio wizardry to, along with his fiddle and other accouterments used to bolster the energy of the songs. The intimacy of collaboration is at the heart of this new project, after all, which spanned several of the harshest weeks of a midwestern winter in Ryan’s NeonBrown Recording Studio.

The railroad laden album cover looks as though it could be an illustration for the song, “End of The Line,” wherein a conversation between a hobo and railroad brakeman confront the possible obsolescence of their livelihoods. We can now hear that distant whistle as a token of hope. An electric steel guitar slides into the conversation and nods to early country music, played by the band's train hopper and mandolinist; Several other songs also feature his work on pedal steel guitar.

“Out of Time,” the album's heaviest hitting song, is a gazette of concerns that we face in troubled times. The explicit itemization is an alarm for movement; the singer’s vocal singe of desperation is motivation to confront the things most feared and to hold on to what is most dear. Lest we get lost in despair, we can find rejuvenation in one of the strongest singles, “All Waves Break,” that gestures with surrealism to offset the bleakness of a just-as-wacky reality.

Anyone that knows this band is aware of their humor and levity, and that charm is never far from the surface. It is a central component of their expression and shared experience. The connectedness to community is at the core of Pert Near’s music and philosophy. Nobody on earth is having a singular experience, as these songs shine a light upon. We are all here together. As the title track declares, “...I want to take you with me when I go.” Let’s get ready. Now is our time. The waiting days are over.