“… the circus is falling, down on its knees, big top is crumbling down, it’s raining in Baltimore, 50 miles east, where you should be, but no one’s around …” —Counting Crows
“I never wanted to be a songwriter more in my life than after the first time I listened to August and Everything After by the Counting Crows, or as I’ve always felt, by Adam Duritz. His poetry always seemed to melt into my soul and dig deeper into my marrow with each listen. I have to thank my older brother for introducing me to the Counting Crows, Pearl Jam, and Dave Matthews Band when I was a teenager.
I must go back even further and thank my father for listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska album or thank my mom for sharing Jim Croce’s brilliance with me when I was younger. I was surrounded by music when I was growing up and I lived with musicians while I was in college but I never played an instrument or even sang a note until a few years ago.
I did write a lot of poetry. A lot… I wrote an epic 10-page poem for a girl that I had talked to on the phone once while I was playing college baseball. It didn’t pan out with her but I’d like to believe that she held on to that poem like I hold on to my dad’s vinyl records; Hendrix, Sabbath, The Moody Blues, Gordon Lightfoot, Dylan, The Who, and many more.
There are some things you can never part with and my dad’s records are some of a few that I will never release. But I have to confess, as much as I love listening to vinyl, I don’t own a record player. I am fortunate to have friends that have record players, thus lessening my burden of carrying one around with me.
And I have started collecting/buying more vinyl in the past year through donations to artist Kickstarter campaigns or picking up albums while I’m on tour from other artists. And when I buy them I ask myself one question; will these songs/records be played 5/10/25 years from now?
And when I was nearing the recording session for Winter Kissing on the Spring I asked myself one question over and over; will I want to play this song next year or 5 years from now? I pushed more than 20 songs over the cliff and found the 10 survivors that would make up the new album, the new sound, the new progression, the new beginning. I’m proud of the new album and I hope it brings listeners ‘down to their knees.'”
—Luke Mitchem
Luke Mitchem’s fourth release, Winter Kissing on the Spring, arrives in stores on October 23.
