Cascade Rye - Coming Through (2015)

In an old mobile home serving as a rehearsal space, Oregon-based roots/americana music quartet Cascade Rye sit in a semi-circle in the living room, the space dimly lit by a couple of lamps. Scattered across the floor and laying upon couches and chairs are sheets of music with lyrics and chord charts scrawled in faded pencil. All manner of instruments including acoustic guitars, violins, mandolins, banjos, a dobro, and accompanying instrument cases punctuate the room like some kind of musical-themed decor. The band - husband and wife Jake and Kalyn Payne on vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards, guitarist/mandolin/dobro player Chris Arellano and mandolin/banjo/violinist Scott Eastburn - have joined together for a rehearsal. There is an obvious camaraderie inherent with this quartet that is reflected in the ease with which the band launches into an improvised tune, a sort of warm-up for the day's work ahead. Jake Payne plays acoustic bass guitar, his sinewy bass lines simultaneously melodic and solid as Kalyn punctuates the piece with foundational chords providing the bedrock for Arellano to trade mandolin solos with Eastburn's banjo. The melodic ideas conjure up a sort of soaring anthem with which the band seems simultaneously comfortable and amused and pleased. "Man that felt pretty good," Arellano says at the conclusion of the warm-up. Everyone affirms the appraisal, but ultimately the extemporaneous flexibility of the band gives way to more efficient concerns. "Let's play something we know," suggests Kalyn. The band kicks into one of its own numbers. The song has a driving momentum, the kind of thing that makes you tap your foot or move your body even if the tune is a lower tempo ballad. The song is the achingly painful 'John Wayne.
' Kalyn sings,
"He must've been born with the world on his shoulders
I don't think he knows any other way
And he's been running his whole life, in the wrong direction
Just chasing those demons away

White lines and whiskey, guitars and petty women
Anything to ease the pain
On a one lane road that leads to nothin'
He's chasing those demons away"
This is for all intents and purposes heavy music; not depressing, but certainly addressing emotion of heartache, faith, the existential existence of life with all it's ups and downs, digging beneath the banality and monotony of life's daily grind. This is music firmly entrenched in the bardic tradition, as ancient as humanity's penchant for telling tales, when minstrels and musicians would weave tales of love and honor and ribaldry around a pub's fire.

The musicianship of this band is well documented. These aren't monotonous singer/songwriter numbers, strumming the same predictable chords in a day and age when every town or city in America has an open mic night, a Sunday afternoon "jam," or in the current time where pop culture has reduced the art of music to a weekly televised contest spectacle. At coffee houses, vineyards and venues throughout the country, singer/songwriters of every age and background wear their heart and soul on sleeve, certainly an expressive and vulnerable place to be. However, the actual instrumental compositions of Cascade Rye stand alongside the lyrical content, and this is an excruciatingly important detail that is often overlooked by so many aspiring songwriters and bands; the instrumentation, key choice, placement of notes and instrumental execution or technique affect the mood and support the storyline of the song, much like lighting, camera angle and set- dressing affects the visual feel of a movie. Rhythmic urgency, mandolin and violin flourishes, guitar chord structures, and multi-harmony vocals executed at just the right moment provide an explicit artistic imagery that seems simply neglected in today's saturated singer/songwriter market.

The song 'John Wayne' concludes and the band begins discussing stage set-ups, potential set-lists and the pros and cons of various live environments in anticipation of the bands forthcoming tour of the southwest, a locale that is no stranger to 3 fourths of the band. Jake and Eastburn moved to Austin, Texas in 2007 to partake in that cities burgeoning music scene and the pair shared the stage or opened for some of the biggest names in country and roots music including Merle Haggard, Pat Green and Kevin Fowler, to name a few. Arellano was born in New Mexico, but eventually resided in Nashville, Tennessee for 8 years where he became involved with the Nashville studio scene recording and touring as guitarist and mandolin player with various artists. Eastburn started his musical adventures playing cello, eventually switching to bass guitar as he got older. His accomplished bass work gained him many gig opportunities with various bands but his passion was always roots music and bluegrass. His focus became absorbed with instruments of those genres: mandolin, banjo, and violin. While Kalyn's tour mileage is not as extensive as her three bandmates, her musical skills far exceed any number of touring musicians who might pride themselves on their road-tested musicianship or album sales; in addition to her proficiency on guitar, vocals, drums and more, she is also a primary songwriter in the band. The songwriting though is a team effort: though Jake and Kalyn write a majority of the material Arellano and Eastburn contribute instrumental and lyrical ideas as well.
Cascade Rye's authenticity is achieved by the depth and conviction of their storytelling and by the quality of the accompanying music. They explore the pantheon of human emotional predicaments, lessons to be learned, love lost and found, the angst and joy of life, all addressed with compelling reality. The music is roots, not genuine country, not specifically pop/rock. It is its own music, the instrumentation and arrangements conjuring the image of dusty and desolate back roads, driving a convertible in the country with the wind rustling your hair and thoughts of lost love haunting your memories.