Kacy & Clayton will release Carrying On via New West Records on October 4th, 2019. The 10-song set was produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and recorded by Tom Schick at The Loft, Wilco’s recording studio & rehearsal space in Chicago, IL. Carrying On follows the international acclaim for their previous records Strange Country.
Check out the Mike Trask-directed video for the song “High Holiday” that premiered today (below). The song features the legendary musician Charlie McCoy on bass harmonica who is well known for his contributions to infamous recordings by Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Simon and Garfunkel, and more. McCoy is also featured on “That Sweet Orchestra Sound,” Carrying On‘s closing track. Speaking to PopMatters, Clayton offered “I’d heard he was still doing sessions and got excited. One of my favorite things he’s ever done was on Tom T. Hall’s “In Search of a Song.”
The music Kacy & Clayton make is inextricable from where they grew up. They sing about the kind of people you’d find in Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan (population very few). Their sound is equal parts homespun, coming from a family and community where playing music is an ever present part of social gatherings, and the rare country, blues, and English folk rock they obsess over and collect. It’s an arresting amalgamation of psychedelic folk, English folk revival and the ancestral music of Southern Appalachia. For Carrying On, Clayton cites as influences: Bobbie Gentry’s Delta Sweete, Hoyt Axton’s My Griffin Is Gone, Cajun fiddle music, and the steel guitar of Ralph Mooney, who played on many of the records that defined the Bakersfield country music scene of the 1950s. Sixties psych has also woven its way into these new songs; Kacy enjoys telling people that they live 250km from the mental hospital that coined the term “psychedelic.”
Of Carrying On, Jeff Tweedy said “When I first heard Kacy and Clayton, I was struck by how much detail and nuance they had absorbed from what sounded like a large swath of my record collection. When I told them that they were as good as the artists they were drawing from, I’m not sure they believed me. On this record I don’t hear those influences as much as I hear them taking the things they love so intimately and telling their own story. I think they’re a truly great band.”
Kacy & Clayton have also announced a Fall tour supporting Ray LaMontagne beginning October 11th in Providence, RI. Prior to the release of Carrying On, the band will perform select headlining dates, appear at NPR’s Mountain Stage, as well as multiple festival appearances including Americanafest and the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival in September alongside Foo Fighters, The Killers, and more. (Please see all dates below).
Carrying On will be available on compact disc, across digital retailers, Standard Black Vinyl, Pink Marbled Vinyl exclusively available at Independent Retailers, and hand-poured colored vinyl with every copy unique available now for pre-order directly from New West Records
Photo By Mat Dunlap
