On The Road To Pennsylvania

Welcome to Fretland

My spouse and I got together in May of 2015, and as two recent divorcés, we pretty much began playing house, a month into our relationship. July of that year was Casey’s twentieth high school reunion, and I was all about it. Two months into our newly formed relationship, we hopped on the Amtrak and headed out to the “city”of Saint Marys, in Elk County Pennsylvania, in the northwest region of the state. Two months in and I was meeting the whole family. For context Saint Marys is about equidistant to both Pittsburgh PA and Buffalo NY. This trip was the first time I understood the term made popular in Orange is the New Black, Pennsytucky. I was shocked by the sheer amount of confederate flags hoisted on the porches of many houses. I was honestly confused, as the confederacy is south of the Mason Dixon and Pennsylvania is firmly located in the north, the side that won the Civil War. This is before I learned of the Lost Cause, and the spreading of a false narrative behind the war, and resulting years. 

Regardless of the Tennessee battle flag, I fell in love with the region and Casey’s family. My former spouse's people are from Texas, a state I also fell in love with. While Pennsylvania is very different than Texas, it seemed to me that both states shared a love for country music, trucks, and camouflage. Oddly enough, I saw a lot fewer bars and stripes in Texas, as that state favors their own flag as a symbol of supremacy. Driving in Texas gave me a wider country music education, and Pennsylvania kept it going. I don’t know what I expected, having only been to the Poconos, Philly, and Allentown before, but what I found was a very middle American style of living, complete with a “local” Walmart, and Dick’s Sport being the number one seller of apparel. 

Going to Western Pennsylvania annually has made me fall in love with its Mountains, Lakes, and small city-towns. I’ve fallen in love with Greensburg in Westmoreland County, Hiking in Elk County, Thousand Steps in Huntingdon County, Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, Kinzua Bridge in McKean County, Parker Dam in Clearfield County, George’s Sound Shop in Johnstown and many more places.  My real love for the outdoors started before these trips, but it was definitely solidified in Pennsylvania. 

Currently as I type this, we are in a rental Buick Envision, on the Pennsylvania turnpike about 230 miles away from our final destination in Jeanette PA. This trip is about family, but the main attraction is the Westmoreland County Fair, where we’ll be attending the rodeo, tractor pull, demolition derby and monster truck rally. I’ve never been to any of these, and I’m so very excited. I try not to wear jeans in the summertime, but you best believe I got my sharpest pair of Levi’s ready for the rodeo. All this and the new Black Country revolution ushered by Cowboy Carter, I’ve been in a very country state of mind. Inside of the country tent lives Americana. Described as a genre that combines country with American roots like folk, bluegrass, blues and rock “n”roll, Americana is a band made up of friends around a campfire, on a chilly summer night in the mountains. Americana is camping in your in-laws backyard after a night filled of fires, whiskey, burgers, and family. Americana is also New York and Oregon and California and Louisiana and the whole entire United States of America. It’s a genre I often return to when I’m feeling melancholy for a country I didn’t grow up feeling a part of. The acceptance of all Americas housed in the great experiment that is the US of A. But I’m getting a little too kumbaya here. 

At some point a few years ago I subscribed to a record of the month subscription service. Unlike Vinyl Me Please, which I’ve used on and off over the years, this service was more of a mystery box type. I got put onto some great records and some I didn’t really like, but still spin every once in a while, just in case I just need a different mood and mode. My favorite record I got from that service is Fretland’s debut self-titled album Fretland. Fretland is Hillary Grace Fretland, Kenny Bates, Jake Haber & Luke Francis out of Seattle Washington. I don’t know much about the band and I didn’t find much after a few googles, but I know I’ve loved this album from first needle drop. It sometimes feels like it’s a part of a soundtrack of some Little House on the Prairie homesteader fantasy film, with lots of hard working romance and very little sign of racism or genocide. You know, the America we were first taught about through early education and media, before we got a little older and realized this was all built on a foundation of savage colonial conquest. America is all these contradictions and mixed feelings. Knowing that it was built on blood but somehow made of magic and hate and love and music and bullets and cinema, and we keep on building and growing. It’s a romanticized ideal of a nation, but sometimes that’s what music does. Fretland is full of songs of everydays. The lyrics are simple and concise in its poetry, with Hillary’s voice and the bands building musicality at the forefront of the sound. I get a stripped down Florence & The Machine vibe with the build and power of Hillary’s singing. Let’s get into this week’s Sunday Morning Record: Fretland.

Long Haul is about making a commitment with someone. That’s a powerful feeling, the knowing you ride or die, and your partner got your back no matter what. This song is a public exclamation of that commitment. If you read the words in this song on their own, they might not inspire much, or seem simple and vauge, but when you listen to Fretland perform this to glory, it brings it all together and makes each word an incantation, or to quote Boygenius, and Anti-Curse.

Friendly Fire is more of a honky tonk, slight rockabilly tune. It’s all about how we hurt each other in relationships. This song is buttery and bopy. Sweet and tart.

Hands feel a bit more rocky, with a guitar that sounds almost like a organ. I can wear a black leather jacket with a white lace bow in my hair to this song.

Have Another Beer, stick around, don’t go just yet, don’t let me go just yet, have another beer, lets prolong this moment right here. The chorus is song inward and gives me all type of nostalgia. Sometimes its hard to remember the mess I used to be, and sometimes I exaggerate the mess and forget the actual fun and adventure.

—-Garden isn’t on the record but it’s a lovely acoustic guitar song. Soft poetic, and beautifully sung, and then it irrupts into an exquisite crescendo. Goosebumps and chills when it breaks wide open in its last act. Gorgeous.

Must’ve Been Wild is an acoustic and harmony song. No build and crescendo but some keys here and there. The songwriting is strong in this one. Must’ve been wild can and does refer to so much. Think about all the times you can apply “Must’ve been wild” in your life. Or even just last week. Fretland’s lullaby ending side A is a calm cup of chamomile with a drop of honey.

Black & Gold is waltzy tune. A come back home plea. A twangy dance around a love you wish to stay, and love you wont give up on. It’s pretty great.

I Still Care is the third act, climax of the movie. A neo-western with old trucks in a cold prairie. This is a statement song. All the country and rock and roll wrapped up in one song with the voice exploding all over the track, and guitar giving some serious attitude. i heaven’t mentioned the drums much, but they are great throughout, and here they shine real big and bright.

4th of July don’t get more Americana with the hotdogs and fireworks and kissing in the daylight on the beach or the neighborhood playground or your friends backyard, and sometimes that’s where you want to go back to. Sometimes you want all the time to be like that special holiday time, but it wouldn’t be special, and we gotta live each day for what it is, but we can hope can’t we.

Heaven, we need your help. I find myself in a tough position and I could really use some blessings. This song starts all soft, but you better believe the band wants a little more shine before the groove runs out. The band prays to heaven real good, till the sky is filled with sparkling silver dollars just twinkling all over that great big expanse, in this desert over those mountains, over the cactus night. Yeah. This is where the record ends, but if you’re playing at home on the digi-tunes, we got one more for you.

—-Say It Well, come correct. This song is an acoustic harmonic singing track. “Be careful what you say, Say it Well”. It’s a beautiful song and a beautiful addition to this album, but I prefer the way it ends on the record with Heaven. Feels more like the natural ending to the story and vibe the album conveyed.

Hope you enjoyed Fretland and the beginning of my family vacation. As I finish writing this I’m already in bed in a house with three to five humans and six to eight dogs. family and all its barking glory. I hope they enjoyed Fretland as well, because I played the album a few times today, and a little louder while I cooked.

Thanks for joining me for another Sunday Morning Records. Next week you’ll get me at the end of vacation, so lets see what stories I collect along the way. Have a great Sunday. See you next week. Take Care.