Asheville-based songstress Alex Krug calls back to early ’90s heart-driven blues-rock on new single “Woodlands.”
The Americana six-piece keep things nice and rootsy, building upon the sound they put forth on their 2015 debut EP, “Gentle Spotted Giant.” “Woodlands” is a deeply felt ode to what the Japanese call “forest bathing,” which is basically spending time out in the open, enjoying the natural rhythms of life. “I think I wrote the lyrics while I was on a walk by a large, fast-moving creek. I was with some friends, but I dropped back and wrote it down,” Krug recalls, knowing that she had captured something special.
The track is lifted from the band’s new “Sleeping on the Woodlands” EP, which is flush with four organically-produced slices of Americana. Recorded at Echo Mountain Recording, the collection is a steam locomotive barreling down the tracks—the team behind the release is an exquisite lineup, including executive producer Jessica Tomasin, mixers Michael Selverne (also primary producer), and engineer Julian Dreyer. Even more, Jackson Dulaney’s work on lap steel is astonishingly tight, as is Zack Page’s upright bass, yet both permit the arrangements to really breathe on their own. Truly, it is Alex Krug and her mountain-crushing vocals and evocative storytelling driving the industrial-sized apparatus.
