Lay These Weapons Down (out 10/21) is the sophomore record from the Champaign, IL indie outfit Rebecca Rego and The Trainmen and represents a swift departure from their 2014 debut folk release Tolono. LTWD is a sonic exercise the group planned and labored on for over a year. Since the release of Tolono, the group has faced divorce, death, and illness, the quartet of musicians (Rebecca Rego, Matt Yeates, Eric Fitts, Cory Ponton) laboring over some eternal questions: the purpose of art, the importance of struggle, the rejection of safe and unexamined lives. The result is a much darker and existential cast to Rego’s songwriting, and the band’s music as a whole.
Inspired by collaborations between No BS! Brass Band and a number of different artists at Justin Vernon’s inaugural Eaux Claires Festival, Rego and The Trainmen enlisted their close friend Reginald Chapman of No BS! to team up for LTWD. The result is a record where Rebecca & The Trainmen’s unique brand of indie-folk in enhanced and enlivened with baroque horn parts. Beyond just charting out brass, Chapman (who has previously worked with Foxygen, Mountain Goats and Natalie Prass), was instrumental in helping full form and hone Rego and The Trainmen’s new vision.
Glide Magazine is premiering the springy Americana track “The Worst Part About Being Right.” Not often a voice strikes the listener as one that fits the music and lyrics so impeccably, but Rego offers a jazzy scat delivery topped with polished musicianship, making for an inspirational indie anthem.
“I wrote this song immediately after watching the series finale of Breaking Bad,” describers Rego about the track. “For the early part of its existence I called this the Walter White song. To me it’s about our egos and how we talk ourselves into believing we are doing something for one reason but in our hearts we know our egos are really running the show. I also really loved how the horn arrangements came together on this one. They were a true collaboration between our friend Reginald Chapman (NO BS! Brass Band) and our bass player Eric Fitts. They were played by two different horn sections and laid over the top of each other during mixing. We were really excited about the energy they added to the song.”
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