A little folk band's work is never done. But we are getting awfully close.
These last few months, since getting into the studio to record Howling Back at the Wounded Dog, we've had the sensation that we were just getting by. Just making our bills' due dates, just getting to the show on time to have a quick soundcheck before lights up, just scraping the top of our email stack to ensure that we have a little job security for 2020. And in just getting by, we've let a lot of things slip. Like our blog. Like our daily walks. Like our mental health. Like writing.
We are sitting now three weeks away from the drop of the record that has had us scrambling for radio promotion and get-to-print-on-time and music video shoots. And while it feels like this year has slipped through our fingers, the living has been happening in spite of us. Late nights and early mornings have become our norm, and while not sustainable, it's been a season of saying yes, and... which may explain why its also been a season of just.
Scarcity of time doesn't alleviate our compulsion to create. And even when not doing so intentionally, it has leaked out all the same. Mallory hand stitches journals late into the evenings. Scott has been carving stamps and making prints between the hustle of up-and-leaving that box store parking lot. Unincorporated song lyrics are sitting on the backs of receipts in the bottom of Mallory's purse and on bookmarks in that novel Scott meant to finish last month. But it's all chaos. Maybe creativity without intention is always chaos.
Ready or not, we are about to enter into another season-- one of our favorites. As we sit for the fourth day in a row in a small town in West Virginia, we can feel Fall coming in. The nights are cooling off and even a couple of leaves have changed. We've switched from iced Americanos to oatmilk cappuccinos. Somehow, it's like time is taking a sigh of relief, too. All of our hard work and just making it will pay off on September 6th. But if we aren't careful-- if we don't choose to make the time, it will be us just making it to the next record, and the record after that and the record after that with endless stretches of road and load in and load out...
Howling Back at the Wounded Dog is going to be in the hands of you and the internet so very soon. And while we aren't taking a break, we are taking a breath. The hard work of summer is coming to an end. The hard work of Fall is ahead of us. We are going to take to the hard work of looking up every once and a while, and of making time, and of celebrating its passing. Our work for the day is done-- or as much as we can manage. Perhaps its time to breathe all those chaotic scraps into creative life. And maybe hone the chaotic noise into howls at the moon.