Over and Over Again Lyrics Greensky Bluegrass
"Nosotros've been pushing the boundaries and testing the limits of what bluegrass instruments or a bluegrass ensemble tin can do with facts, with attitude, [and] subject thing," Paul Hoffman tells American Songwriter.
Hoffman is one-fifth of the Michigan-formed band, Greensky Bluegrass, which has fourth dimension and time over again garnered critical acclaim after its genesis in 2000. Every bit a founding member, Hoffman deftly plays the mandolin and sings vocals for the band alongside members Anders Beck (dobro), Michael Arlen Bont (banjo/vocals), Dave Bruzza (guitar/vocals), and Mike Devol (upright bass/vocals). Together, as their tongue-in-cheek proper name hints at, they create bluegrass music with their own rock-n-curlicue-break-the-rules attitude.
To outset with, the group isn't agape to play for a few minutes beyond the two-minute-and-alter mold of pop music. When GSBG wants to tell their story, they're going to tell all of it—banjo and dobro solos included. Hoffman recalls a single off of the band's 2011 album, titled "Don't Lie," that embodies the group's approach.
"We decided that information technology was important to convey that feeling of a long song on the record, only in a curtailed way," Hoffman explains. "And being the free spirits we are, we didn't want to e'er feel edited or confined past the quote-unquote stigma of short songs."
Determined to stay true to themselves, GSBG continued to evolve with each new sonic offering. In January of 2022, the quintet released its eighth studio album titled Stress Dreams via 30 Tigers. The record is an endearing and gritty 13-song cruise through the band'southward uptempo musical experiments. Yet, like many performing artists, Stress Dreams was likewise constructed under the influence of the pandemic.
"We all just started writing remotely," Hoffman says. "I started finishing a lot of ideas and songs that I had already previously started. Our bass player in July dropped 5 demos on united states that were unreal. He had learned how to use GarageBand at home and brand demos with multiple basses.
"When nosotros got together to play the music," he continues, "we were in such a unlike identify than we've ever been before making a tape. We were stoked to be together playing music. Information technology didn't matter if anyone else was in the room anymore."
In the midst of their reunion, Hoffman realized just how much Stress Dreams differed from GSBG'due south previous records. They had been patient and diligent when composing the songs under quarantine, and they listened to their intuition.
"We would question whether or not nosotros should get farther or change information technology or add a special play tricks or something," Hoffman says of the band'southward creative process early in their career. "And with this record [Stress Dreams], nosotros found ourselves in a lot of situations but accepting that [the music] sounded like united states and that that was okay.
"At some point," he continues, "if you really want to hone your creative arts and crafts you have to encompass it equally a arts and crafts, and you have to have that. Not every idea comes from a broken heart or anxious day or something like that. You have to but create and be a creator."
On this record, "Grow Together," is a track inspired by Hoffman stepping into fatherhood for the commencement time. "In the studio, I was overwhelmed with emotion in a way that I never have been in the studio before," Hoffman says. These brimming feelings of beloved and hope for his expanding family play out across each verse as Hoffman sings to his little girl and married woman. Without a breath to spare/ I'll give more than I can bear to/ Because what you lot accept given me/ Reveals the man I promise to exist, he sings on the track.
In dissimilarity with "Grow Together," another rails on the album, "Cut a Tooth," is "fast as hell" and brutally honest. "That's a tough song. I'm kind of afraid to play it, to exist honest," Hoffman says. "I was dabbling in the protest songs with that piece."
The lyrics on "Cut a Tooth" speak to the pain of recent cultural unrest and struggles. "There's this office of me that believes that our music can unite people with unlike ideals and that they tin can find common ground with music and [our concerts]," he says. "But then there's another part of me that feels responsible for using my platform for things that I intendance about.
"Hopefully, it means something to someone, and that people can relate to the frustration I was feeling in one manner or another," he concludes.
Overall, though, Hoffman deems that this version of Greensky Bluegrass is "loud, rowdy, and pitiful."
"Well, we're not really that sad, just that contrast between rowdy and sad… that dichotomy of emotions is I recall, what fuels our ring and the experience," Hoffman says. "It's the most important part of our music to me. It can be fun and rowdy and far out, only also serious and insightful and profound and cathartic all at one time. So it's like a safe identify to confront your fright and hurting while having a great fourth dimension."
Photo by Dylan Langille
Source: https://americansongwriter.com/greensky-bluegrass-loud-rowdy-slightly-sad/