Just one listen to Andrew Grimm’s well-worn gravitas and backwoods authenticity, you know this isn’t just another Americana wanna-bee. In fact, Grimm has been out there and hustlin’ his songs for longer than Tyler Childers has been old enough to drive. Enter Grimm’s gritty project June Star and the release of its new album How We See It Now out March 26 via WhistlePig Records.
Coming off a dizzyingly prolific run of releases – this will mark his 11th full-length record in six years – How We See it Now came about by breaking through the social-emotional chokehold that 2020 strapped the world with. Though these songs were not written for or during the lockdown (for that see Grimm’s 2020 solo release A Little Heat), they were born from a flurry of creative output. Grimm holed up at Magpie Cage Studios in Baltimore, MD and culled together a ‘best of’ from his past three years’ worth of Bandcamp output. When he finally sat down to listen to years worth of material, these were the songs that stood out as surefire winners.
Listening through, it’s easy to hear what was so special about these twelve tracks: pedal-steel laden laments sway drunkenly next to folk-rock foot-stompers and his vocal performances ache with the same existential doubt we all feel at the moment. But where some artists wallow, June Star searches for hope. On songs like “I’m Not Afraid of the Fall” his romantic resignation comes off not like a forlorn sigh, but a deep breath, prepping himself for all the joy and pain that comes hand-in-hand with love and existence.
Grimm, who has been plugging away on the scene with June Star since 1998, doubles as an Academic, teaching college literature courses during the day, while crafting songs in his spare time. In essence, Grimm has been producing albums since 1998, though he humbly claims that he has only mastered it in the last decade. As Grimm’s writing has matured and grown, he’s learned to focus his lyrics and narratives on the external, even going so far as to write an entire album focusing on his neighbors on 2018’s East on Green. Adopting this new ethos has engendered a myriad of songs culminating in How We See it Now, which expertly melds the lyrical punch of his literary inspirations with the down-to-earth, no bullshit naturalism of Paul Westerberg.
Glide is thrilled to premiere “How We See It Now” a burly rocker that summons the strength of old folk greats like Gordon Lightfoot alongside the heavier shades of Skynyrd and Whiskey Myers.
“’How We See It Now’ is a reflection on the inevitable change we agree to when your status shifts from single to in a relationship to it’s complicated. There’s a fine line between compromise and sacrifice,” says Grimm.
