The muse hits us when we least expect it. Folding laundry has inspired a number of songs for me. Fortunately, Asheville’s Alex Krug finds herself in more picturesque settings. “I think I wrote the
lyrics while I was on a walk by a large, fast-moving creek. I was with
some friends, but I dropped back and wrote it down,”
Krug recalls. Krug’s spent her fair share of times in the woods. Growing up relatively isolated in rural Maryland fed an early passion for music and her grandparents’ record collection. After a stint as a wilderness educator for young adults, Krug returned to the fires that kept her burning when she was younger. An early incarnation of the band included Krug’s now-ex girlfriend, but it’s taken its final form as a six-piece that thoroughly explores the trails Krug places before them.
Sleeping on the Woodlands is four intricate songs that joyfully wed Americana influences with jazz. These songs will take you far afield, with free-wheeling song structures reminiscent of early-90s queer artists like Ani DiFranco. “Woodlands,” the lead-off track, exemplifies Krug’s trailblazing voice and lyrics.
Krug writes: “It’s sort of a song for the outsiders, whether that’s myself or someone else. I know a lot of people that feel similarly, not mainstream. It’s about feeling on the outside — like the moon is far away, but it’s so huge here on earth, it’s shaping our oceans and tides. Its light is on the woodlands. We sleep in this light in this subconscious at night. From the outside, it can look down on us. For those that feel on the margins, we have the benefit of seeing things and observing things. If you’re in it or caught up in it, you don’t realize what you’re doing or what’s going on. The people on the outside have more insight. That can be a gift and a curse.”
The six-piece already boasts quite a
list of accomplishments. They’ve shared stages with Horse Feathers, The Hip Abduction, Erin McKeown
and Donna the Buffalo, among countless others, and stormed such gigs as
LEAF Festivals, All-Go-West Festival, Grey Eagle, Orange Peel and Pisgah
Brewery. Additionally, their 2015 EP, Gentle Spotted Giant, was
named one of the Top 5 “Dreamiest Local Albums” of the year by the
Mountain Xpress and features production work from the prolific Michael
Selverne (Motley Crew, Steep Canyon Rangers, India.Arie), as well as
contributions from Bill Berg (Bob Dylan), Lyndsay Pruett (Jon Stickley
Trio) and Jackson Dulaney (The Blood Gypsies, The Aaron Burdett Band).
Sleeping on the Woodlands will be out on September 19th.
Alex Krug Combo — Official, Facebook, Apple Music