Chatham Rabbits

Image result for chatham rabbits all i want from you
Graham Craycraft
“All I Want From You” is the first album of North Carolina duo Chatham Rabbits. Sarah and Austin McCombie decided to leave the safety and security of day time careers and step out into the world of full time, no backup, this better work, musicians. Their debut album released on January 11, 2019 consists of ten songs at forty minutes and is a genre mixture of country, bluegrass, old time and others.
Chatham Rabbits pulls immediate sounds from groups like Mandolin Orange, Gillian Welch, and even a bit of Old Crow Medicine Show on song “The Fire.” Austin and Sarah take different songs to lead the vocals, but they all carry an enchanting thread through its entirety. You could put on this album and just lay back in a quasi dream state. Many of the songs on this album have classic themes or subject matter seen in this genre and others. Love, longing, hard living, etc. What is most impressive in this album is the ability to take these classic subject matters and tell them in a way that allows the audience to see them from a different perspective and be entertained at the same time.
Take a look at the song Heat of the Day. A song about illusions seen during the heat of the day. A mirage that most people are familiar with that occurs from the sun’s rays and heat. In this song the narrator has a consistent battle with the “heat of the day” and blames it for all the problems she is currently facing. Instead of purely hating what she says has caused her so much strife, she uses the same heat as a solace. It is a song of the battle between humanity and forces bigger than them. The heat of the day is a beautiful representation for the weight and struggles that each person is forced to carry through their life. The narrator seems all but hopeless and decides to give into the forces larger than herself. The heat of the day may have ruined her life, but she will now simply give into this power and we are left wondering what will happen as the song drifts away.

There are more wins than losses on this album and, despite some songs with overarching cliches, it works. Songs like Rambler, Heat of the Day, and Bugle Boy are all beautiful stories. Give it a listen on Apple Music or Spotify or wherever you get your music and see what you think. Is this a group worth following?

https://www.chathamrabbits.com/ Here is their website for more details and a closer look at the band.

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