It’s been an enthralling past year or so for Midnight North. Since 2018, the San Francisco-based Americana collective has seen the release of their second live album between playing nationwide tours and sharing bills with the likes of the Infamous Stringdusters. 2019 sees the band on the road again, gearing up for a 2019 fall tour, and still finding moments in their arduous schedule to produce new music.
The latest Midnight North tune comes in the form of “Long View”. The song encompasses each of their noted influences, beginning with haunting folk harmonies that pave the way for more roots rock-driven melodies and percussion. As ever, the band produces captivating vocals amidst a soulful roots arrangement. Their secret may lie in the full-bodied of their Hammond B3, providing the lower end of songs like “Long View” an ardor that sets them apart from other roots-driven bands. Keyboards and the variety of string instruments work well in layering the forward-driving Americana number, as always. It’s another august contribution to Midnight North’s catalog as they ready themselves for their October tour.
Connor O’Sullivan, Midnight North bass player on recording and producing “Long View”: “We wanted to try something new with this recording. We’ve been lucky to have our own sound engineer, Andrew Erickson, on the road with us for a while now and we realized between us we had all the equipment to record ourselves. So we moved all our gear to a house right on the beach north of San Francisco. We did some experimental sessions first, then got Midnight North in there to record a few tunes which ‘Long View’ came out of. The song starts and ends with a recording of the ocean waves right outside the door where we were working, it’s quite soothing.”
Nathan Graham, Midnight North drummer on beginning writing “Long View” on the banjo: “I experience an overwhelming sense of calm when I sit down with my banjo. Grahame and I sat down and shared ditties and fragments in a hotel room outside NYC last year over coffee. One of these was the early demo of ‘Long View’.”
Grahame Lesh on writing “Long View”: “We had suspected that Nathan was a great songwriter ever since he’d joined the band. When he and I finally sat down to listen to some of the ideas that we’d both compiled, the first thing he showed me was the chorus to ‘Long View’. ‘Like building a ship in a bottle. Like rowing a boat on the open sea. I look past you looking at me. I take the long view.’ The lyrics and melody struck me immediately, and as soon as I could I started working on building a song around it. It all came to me very quickly.”
TOUR DATES
10/18: Moe’s Original BBQ – Tahoe City, CA FREE SHOW %
10/19: Alibi Brewing – Truckee, CA FREE SHOW %
10/23: Mohawk Austin – Austin, TX
10/24: Double Wide – Dallas, TX
10/25: Last Concert Cafe – Houston, TX#
10/27: Callaghan’s Irish Social Club – Mobile, AL*
10/30: The EARL – Atlanta, GA*
10/31: Saturn – Birmingham, AL^
11/1: The Basement East – Nashville, TN*
11/2: Salvage Station – Asheville, NC*
11/6: Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY+
11/7: Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore, PA+
11/8: The Hamilton Live – Washington, DC+
11/9: Levon Helm Studios – Woodstock, NY+
11/10: Garcia’s At The Cap – Port Chester, NY+
11/13: Zanzabar Louisville – Louisville, KY+
11/14: The Bluebird – Bloomington, IN+
11/15: SPACE – Evanston, IL+
11/16: The Bent Keg (Formerly Mill Creek) – Appleton, WI+
11/17: 7th Street Entry – Minneapolis, MN+
%Caravan to Wondergrass
#with the Ben Miller Band
*with Los Colognes
^with Los Colognes & Blackfoot Gypsies
+with Cris Jacobs Band