Austin Crane, the man behind Valley Maker, brings us When the Day Leaves, his latest work with long time collaborators Amy Goodwin and Trevor Spencer. Where his previous album Rhododendron was written and inspired by the cultural changes surrounding the 2016 Presidential election, When the Day Leaves was more inspired by personal changes around moving from Seattle back to his home state of South Carolina. The songs on the album were written just prior to Crane’s cross-country move with his wife and contemplates both the fears of moving to a new place as well as the fears of where we have been moving as a society.
Fans will recognize that the spiritual motifs and thoughtful reflections in the album are similar to his past albums When I Was a Child and Rhododendron as well as the familiar finger picking acoustic guitar lines coupled with beautiful harmonies with Goodwin. This is immediately apparent on the album opener “Branch I Bend,” which seems to be about how all the small things contribute to our larger selves. The inward-looking lyrics are also found on “Mockingbird,” where Crane uses the restoration of their century old house in South Carolina as a metaphor for renewal of old relationships and hope for a better future. The folk-rocker “Pine Trees” brings to mind the home that Crane left behind in the Pacific Northwest and is juxtaposed with the album’s first single “No One is Missing.” The later finds Crane in his new home in South Carolina in both lyrics and the music video. Though some of the lyrics on the album may seem bleak, as the album closes with the titular track, Crane ends on an optimistic note singing “For one more day I’ve been given/Just to lie down beside/And feel the night erase it/And I wait there.”
The most obvious lyrical theme conveyed in the eleven tracks is one of movement, whether a change physical location or emotional changes that reflect Crane’s uncertainty in moving and with the state of the world. Though the songs on the album were written pre-pandemic, many of the tracks feel like they could’ve been written last month. Such is the timelessness of Crane’s songwriting, and those on When the Day Leaves are some of his best.
Photo credit: Bree Burchfield
