Portland, Oregon bluegrass outfit Cascade Crescendo have been together for just over three years and already they have gained a loyal following with their tightly crafted bluegrass that embraces tradition alongside more progressive, jam-oriented styles. This makes sense since the four members of Cascade Crescendo grew up in a music festival environment where bluegrass acts are often booked alongside jam bands, funk, and Americana acts. These guys happily inject a little bit of all that stuff into their sound.
After growing their chemistry in the live setting with frequent gigs around Portland and beyond, it eventually came time for Cascade Crescendo to enter the studio and cut an album. The group walked away from the sessions with 11 original songs and, keeping tune with their own upbringing and that of their audience, they even included a bluegrass rendition of the Smashing Pumpkins favorite “Disarm”. Caught In The Rain – an appropriate album title for a band who calls the rainy Pacific Northwest home – is an impressive debut for this young band and one that leaves you wondering what they will be capable of as they continue to grow as musicians.
Today Glide Magazine is excited to present an exclusive premiere of Cascade Crescendo’s new video for “On the Other Side”, one of the standout tunes on Caught In The Rain.
“Through the past half-century and beyond, bluegrass and old-time music songwriters have churned out more than their fair share of songs about death and dying, often seemingly masked behind a major key and an upbeat tempo. In keeping with this bluegrass tradition, ‘On the Other Side’ is a song born out of reflection on one’s own mortality, acceptance of its inevitable arrival, and imagining the pieces and memories left behind when you’re gone,” says Hunter White, guitarist and songwriter for Cascade Crescendo.
The video, rather than tackling or portraying these deep concepts, features footage from Cascade Crescendo’s recording session at the Hallowed Halls recording studio in Portland, Oregon, as well as scenes of backyard bluegrass pickin’ in the Portland springtime: enjoying life while we have it. Notably, the song features the fiddle skills of Yonder Mountain String Band’s Allie Kral.
WATCH:
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Cascade Crescendo’s Caught In The Rain is out now. For more music and info check them out on Facebook or visit cascadecrescendo.com.