By the end of 2016, the members of These Wild Plains were exhausted. After three years of navigating the American highway system, making pit stops at every truck stop, motel with a number in the name, festival (notably Stagecoach and Boston Calling), and dive bar offering two drink tickets per person, the band found themselves at a crossroads. Members came and left, relationships changed, priorities were examined, and much alcohol was consumed. Fortunately, all of the above is notorious for inspiring songwriters to do their job. Instead of succumbing to exhaustion, the band went to work. The end result is the latest addition to the These Wild Plains canon, Thrilled to Be Here.
On Thrilled to Be Here (out 9/6), the boys trade stories of love, death, and the vices they lean on between points A and B. Local watering holes and bad habits that you can’t seem to escape are paid a visit (“Cararro’s Blues and “Must’ve Rained All Night” respectively) while the legendary duo of love and uncertainty drop in for a beer on “Stick Around”. Sonically speaking, there is no particular zip code that this record hails from. It’s not quite country, though the fingerprints of that great tradition are all over songs like “The Quitter” and “Cazador”. Calling it rock and roll could be considered lazy, though there’s no other way to describe “It Is What It Is” and “Voices”. Both classifications could serve as a last-ditch home for songs like “Happy Birthday” and “All You Need”, similar to the way the first $49 motel you see off the highway serves as an acceptable place to rest after a fourteen-hour drive on I-40 (see “El Reno” for details).
Familiar might actually be the best way to describe the overall sound of Thrilled To Be Here, but not familiar in the sense that this record is a facsimile of something prior. Thrilled To Be Here is a collection of snapshots and notes from places you may have been before. Consider it a postcard from somewhere along the highway, or in the case of These Wild Plains, a postcard from home.
Glide is thrilled to premiere “Stick Around” (below) from These Wild Plains an achingly charming old school rocker in the feel-good vein of Tom Petty and Lord Huron. The band brings a rejuvenated touch of meat to the bone heartland style rock that bridges and binds.
“Most of the songs I write start off being rooted in some sort of experience of mine but they usually end up more like a “made for TV” adaptation rather than being pure documentary,” says singer Rob Motes. “The names get changed to protect the innocent and all that. “Stick Around” is an exception to that rule. It’s a love letter to my wife, or maybe more accurately, a tribute to her extreme patience. Being married to someone who is addicted to the masochistic nature of being a “working musician” is a hard row to hoe, for sure. I don’t know how she does it, but lord knows I would be lost without her. Besides, you don’t hear a ton of songs about things going well these days. Everyone’s always leaving. I figure it can’t hurt to have one about shit working out for once.”
Thrilled To Be Here will be released on September 6, 2019.
