Climate Change is the debut album of Maryland based group Harrison Country. Founder Don Harrison has described their music as “21st Century Folk Music” — stories about life today, told using a number of different American music traditions from Blues to Country to Broadway to Bourbon St.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Harrison Country about the latest project, musical consumption preferences, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from?
We’re from Annapolis, Md. I’ve recently discovered that our Harrison family has been in the area since the late 1600’s, and I incorporated a bit of family history into the song Shadow Games.
What style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Since we draw on so many American music traditions, I had a difficult time describing our music, but eventually came up with “21st Century Folk Music.” We don’t sound anything like the folk revival tunes of the ‘60’s; it’s folk music in a more fundamental sense. The people who wrote John Henry and Scarborough Fair weren’t trying to create “folk music.” They were telling stories about their lives and the world in which they lived, using language that ordinary people could understand, with the instruments and music traditions available to them at the time. We’re doing the same thing. Climate Change consists of 12 stories about squabbling teenage girls, gluten free linguini, university safe spaces, blind dates, family vacations, and fishing and cheating. The stories are told using many different traditions and influences: Nashville, Memphis, Motown, Big Pink, Laurel Canyon, Broadway, Bourbon St.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
Probably my genes. My maternal grandfather sang and danced in variety shows, and there was an old mandolin and guitar in the house that he and my grandmother had played before I was born. Though I never really learned to play, I used to sit for hours and pick riffs and listen to the emotional movement in the notes. What keeps me going is the challenge of solving the multi-dimensional puzzle presented by each new song I write, getting the melody, rhythm, harmony, instrumentation, vocals and lyrics all working together to create an entertaining finished product.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific with Climate Change?
I think any popular song should do some of these five things: make you laugh, cry, think, get the groove and sing along. We didn’t start out with the idea that we were going to create an album in a specific genre. The goal was to create the best “feel” we could to tell each story. If that meant the title track Climate Change ended up with “country” lyrics but sounded, as keyboardist Larry Byrne described it, like “Aretha Franklin meets the Beach Boys,” so be it. I got some feedback on this tune from a Nashville critic who seemed as if her head was going to explode because “you just can’t have a country song with horns!” (Apparently, she had never heard Ring of Fire.)
One of our very specific goals was to put some playfulness into the recordings, to push back against the morose, featureless landscape that I see in just about every type of popular music today. Pick Your Poison is about a blind date that “Mr. Bro’ Country” has with “Ms. High Fashion Crunchy,” told with a Spaghetti Western feel. I purposely used the de rigueur “bro’ country” rhymes: “baby,” “save me,” and “crazy,” though hopefully with a bit more wit. Fantasy League chronicles a woman’s reaction to her beau’s fantasy football obsession. Men in the House introduces a rogue’s gallery of today’s manhood: “thirty year old lost boys, catwalk cowboys, dumbbell divas and a dude with a ‘do like Donnie Trump.” There are certainly some thoughtful songs on the album – When the Geese Fly, Laugh Again, Like a Ghost – but first and foremost we wanted to make fans smile.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
The promise of the digital music age has been “all the music you want, whenever you want it, for next to nothing in cost.” You would think that this would lead to a great deal of cross-pollination among music genres, but it seems to me that exactly the opposite has happened. Genres have become very rigid, and since all of our songs are “crossover” of one type or another, we’ve had to create our own slot. The upside of the digital age is twofold: we can get the word out via independent blogs like Middle Tennessee Music, and we can also use low-cost technology to experiment with a song’s feel before we ever get into the studio.
What was the last album you listened to?
Adam Wakefield’s Gods and Ghosts. Magnificent vocals, creative production and captivating lyrics. If you like your blues with a country flavor, or your country with a blues chaser, don’t miss this one. I met Adam before his appearance on The Voice, and have known his girlfriend Jenny Leigh Freeman (a great singer in her own right) for a number of years. I know he’s worked hard on this, and if there is any justice in the music world, this album should finally give him the recognition he deserves.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I actually like all 3. MP3s on my iPod (yes, I still use that Stone Age tech!) are great for long listening, like on a drive. But there is still a lot to be said for Vinyl and CDs. They focus my attention, make me see the album as a singular, tangible, artistic creation, and not just part of the limitless cacophony available to me by typing in a few letters in a streaming service. When I go into someone’s home, and see display racks of vinyl or CDs, I want to browse, look at the liner art, read the booklet. A digital recording does not have the same power to make me want to explore and discover.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Spotify, mainly because it’s what I’ve become accustomed to using.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
www.harrisoncountry.com Also, Spotify – Harrison Country album Climate Change. And of course, the Spotify playlist Indie Music Spotlight!
Anything else before we sign off?
I have two closing thoughts.
First, I wish that in some magical way, we could return recorded music to the prominence it once had in the industry. I believe that the rise of streaming, and the subsequent collapse of recording revenues, is destroying creativity in popular music. If the point of an album is just to drive concert ticket and t-shirt sales, does it really have to be all that good? If it’s all about a night on the town, just give ‘em the same old stuff. I think that’s part of the reason for the vapid audio wallpaper that you hear on Country Top 40 today. If the music business in 1966 had resembled today’s, Sgt. Pepper’s never would have been created.
Second, I’d be remiss if I didn’t put in a shameless plug. We’re planning another album, tentatively titled Keeper of the Past. This will be more of a theme album – stories from the past, folks trying to navigate today with yesterday’s chart books. But I think we’ll keep the same musical approach we had in Climate Change. Every song will be like the chocolates in Forrest Gump’s box – you never know what you’re gonna get!
