Road to the Bottle with Shearwater
Shearwater’s road to the Bottle has seen them passing through a multitude of environments and working on their sharing skills. Their road to the Bottle has featured long drives from Austin to Atlanta, and Seattle to Salt Lake City. But their next drive may be the longest of all. See their show at the Bottle Saturday night also serves as a bon voyage party before the band heads to Vienna, Austria. That’s right Shearwater’s last view of America for two months will be all you beautiful people that hang out at here at this place we call the Empty Bottle.
Shearwater is the music of Jonathan Meiburg, who also provided his multi-instrumental talents to a band called Okkervil River (Check out his gorgeous backstage selfie above). Shearwater’s music is like no one else’s while also feeling immediately familiar. Their sound manages to contain a folkiness that feels comfortable, while being much more sonically inventive than any folk artist we can think of. See their cover of the excellent Mountain Goats song, “This Year”. Meiburg remains true to the feeling of the original while effectively adding electronic beeps and a sweet synth line to the melody!
[Oh, yeah! Shearwater did a whole album of wonderful covers of songs by their former tourmates. You should buy it at their show!]
Shearwater’s newer stuff has been far more informed by that genre endearingly called “rock”. Meiburg’s voice wander’s in operatic fashion. This is a man who really knows how to sing. And sing he does, he sings about the likes of snow leopards, golden archipelagos, black rivers and birds. But the driving propulsion of the drums always keep the songs moving forward. The arrangements are lush and full they expand creating beautiful sonic landscapes but never feel like their sole goal is to explore texture (see:put you to sleep). These are well crafted songs, and it’s going to be a delight to see Shearwater pull them off live here!
Just cause Shearwater won’t put you to sleep doesn’t mean they don’t need to catch up on some Zs with all the traveling they do!