By DAN ARMONAITIS
At the start of the year, Howl in the Valley decided to take a little break.
The folk-rock band — composed of Spartanburg-based musicians Jonathan Stephens, Janeen Scott and Michael Krell — didn’t schedule any concerts for January and February. The idea was to use the time to do some writing and focus on individual music projects before picking things up shortly thereafter.
Howl in the Valley “actually had our first show back planned for March 20 at FR8yard, and it was going to be a pretty big deal,” said Scott, who shares lead vocal duties with Stephens. “We were opening for The Vegabonds, a pretty well-known band out of Nashville, and were putting some energy behind promoting it and really trying to make it a big deal.”
That show ended up being canceled due to social distancing measures related to the coronavirus pandemic and, other than a brief set on March 1 at the Upstate Music Awards in Greenville, the band has yet to play in front of a live audience this year.
“Of course, it’s been tough having to cancel shows from a financial standpoint and just from the perspective of performing,” Scott said. “But, in some ways, this has allowed us time to focus and really get to work on some things that have been on the backburner.”
Howl in the Valley recently released a new digital-only EP, “Rock Candy Sessions,” which features three songs recorded before social distancing was put in effect.
“We launched a Spotify pre-save campaign in early March,” said Stephens, the group’s primary songwriter. “There were two incentives for pre-saving our new release. The first incentive was instant access to the three music videos we shot for the release; the second was the reveal of a secret location where the release show would be held that we would send via email to all who had pre-saved the release.
“And, yes, it was quite disappointing that we were not able to follow through with the second incentive. However, the cancellation has forced us to get even more creative as we plan the release show to accommodate the new world that we are — and will be living in — in the coming months.”
The digital EP includes a Stephens-penned song called “Bear Creek,” an alternate version of “Drive” from the group’s 2019 debut release and a cover of “Appalachian Wine” by pop-punk outfit Eleventyseven, of which Stephens was once a member. Unlike the previous release, which included drums and bass, “Rock Candy Sessions” features just the trio.
“‘Rock Candy Sessions’ felt to me like we were being more honest with what we are striving for musically,” said Krell, who plays lead guitar for Howl in the Valley. “We are proud of our first release but we really didn’t play many shows with full band instrumentation. ‘Rock Candy’ was truer to our sound, and we wanted listeners and future fans to have a realistic expectation to what they might hear when seeing us live.”
Scott, meanwhile, noted that the previous release positioned Howl in the Valley, which formed in 2018, to make fans across multiple genres and perhaps have a little more mainstream appeal.
“We worked really hard, and I think those songs are polished, awesome versions, but we also released that early on in our band’s career before we really had a sound worked out,” she said. “It’s cool that we can do the full band thing, but over a year of playing together we discovered our strengths and have really leaned into them.”
Scott said the new 3-song EP provides a good indication of the direction Howl in the Valley is headed with a full-length album in the not too distant future.
“Lots of harmony, more shared lead vocals, a little more of a folksy acoustic sound overall while still maintaining that energy and enthusiasm that I think our listeners have come to expect and enjoy from our music,” she explained.
The opening track, “Bear Creek,” was written by Stephens before he met Scott and Krell. He said he wrote it while staying at a cabin owned by a friend, who asked him to write a song about the place.
“Of course, I said yes since she was allowing me to spend time in her cabin free of charge,” Stephens said. “I spent the whole day writing the song and thought I was finished. I was getting ready to make a demo of it on my computer when I noticed an 8×10 (photo), on the mantle, of her recently deceased husband. He had passed not even a month before my visit to the cabin; I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times. He had been battling a terminal disease for about 10 years. He passed peacefully in his sleep.
“As I stared at his portrait, I couldn’t help but imagine how much I would hate to leave this world without a chance to tell my loved ones goodbye. That’s when I wrote the third verse — as a tribute to him and hopefully a bit of peace and closure for his family. His wife has the only copy of the original demo of ‘Bear Creek.’ It’s special because, at the end of the song, I took my laptop and mic outside to the back porch and ended the song with a recording of all the night sounds of nature on the mountain.”
As for Howl in the Valley’s version, Stephens said Krell and Scott really helped bring the song to life.
“Even though they don’t know the family, I always feel like they sing it with just as much sincerity as I do,” he said. “I love the recording of that song. There’s a magic that happens when the three of us are performing together, and that’s what the ‘Rock Candy Sessions’ was intended to capture — the magic.”
Krell considers “Bear Creek” one of his favorite songs Stephens has ever written.
“I really like how he ties in his real life experiences about having traveled the world over yet still having a place — metaphoric or literal — that calls him home to reassess and drop the burden the world sometimes puts on our shoulders,” Krell said. “Musically, I enjoy the song as it gives me a chance to play really melodically which is where I’d really like to be moving with my guitar work.”
As for Scott, she was immediately impressed with the song.
“When Jonathan first played it for me, I was thinking through harmony parts in my head and they struck me as so beautiful,” she said. “I also love the diversity of the key where we can take the chorus down an octave and have this really intimate moment with the listener at the end. And stepping back from just the sound of it, the story is really beautiful. I like when songs kind of take on a life of their own, and I think this one really did that.”
The second track on “Rock Candy Sessions” is “Drive,” which appears in a much more jangly form than the original recording that was released in April 2019.
“To the world, the ‘Rock Candy’ version of ‘Drive’ is the new version and the full band version is the original, but that’s not the case,” said Stephens, who explained that the new recording is closer to the way Howl in the Valley played it before transforming it for its debut EP.
“Of all the songs I had written before I met Michael and Janeen, ‘Drive’ was one of the first songs we learned to play as Howl,” he added. “I also think that song in particular is very relatable on a lot of different levels of life. For me, personally, ‘Drive’ is one of the first songs that I ever played in front of people. There was a small group of friends at a party at my house one summer night when my wife grabbed my guitar, shoved it into my arms and told me to play the song I had been writing that morning. Since that night, that song has and always will hold a very special place in my heart.”
Scott said she thinks “Drive” translates in multiple musical settings.
“It works as a high-energy kind of pop/rock song on our first EP and captures that adventurous, devil-may-care attitude; it feels really youthful and really free,” she said. “When we play it live and on the ‘Rock Candy Sessions’ recording of it, there’s still a freedom and a hopefulness to it, but I think it captures the feeling of how excitement and adventures and just trying to make it with the ones you love plays out as you get a little older.”
As for “Appalachian Wine,” which closes out “Rock Candy Sessions,” it’s considerably different from the version originally recorded by Eleventyseven for its 2011 EP, “Attack of the Mountain Medley.” The song was written by that band’s frontman Matt Langston, who owns and operates Rock Candy Recordings in western North Carolina, where Howl and the Valley recorded.
Eleventyseven “released that EP shortly after we had been dropped from our label,” Stephens said. “For the first time in a long time, we didn’t have to follow any rules and we needed music to release to keep our fans entertained while we planned our next move.”
Stephens then added with a laugh, “we had been trained to hide our southern roots, so I feel like that release was our middle finger to the man. Although that release was almost poking fun at our small southern town upbringing, I felt like some of the songs had potential to be delivered by a band that wasn’t confined to the rules and regs of mainstream pop. Howl gave me an outlet to do that song the justice that I thought it deserved.”
Scott said she isn’t sure if she heard Stephens play his solo acoustic cover of “Appalachian Wine” or the original Eleventyseven recording first but that she remembers being struck by the creativity of the lyrics upon being introduced to the song. She likes what Howl in the Valley brought to it in its version.
“My favorite part of it — and maybe this is totally selfish — is the build at the end to a big chorus,” Scott said with a laugh. “That’s not in the original, but it’s an idea that we came up with as we were working on our arrangement. It’s my biggest vocal moment on the EP, and it was a blast to sing. I tend to stick to low harmonies and pretty chill folk melodies, so every once in a while I really like to let loose and just be like, ‘oh yeah, I can do this. Check it out guys.’ Plus I think the instrument dropout and the blend of our voices together works really well. I think it’s probably the most impactful moment on the whole release.”
The only other performance Howl in the Valley has done collectively in 2020, besides the Upstate Music Awards, was a livestream concert that was part of the Stay the Folk Home Fest presented by Campbellsville Folk Fest & the Folk Project. The online event was headlined by such nationally acclaimed artists as John Paul White and Chuck Ragan.
“I have no idea how they heard of us, but I was glad and grateful to play it,” Stephens said. “It was such a big deal that it was the only livestream that Howl has played.”
As enjoyable as that experience was, Krell is looking forward to the opportunity to be back among Howl in the Valley’s growing legion of fans as well as getting to see other local musicians perform.
“The past two years playing with Janeen and Jonathan has given me lots of purpose and something to look forward to every week whether it be playing shows or rehearsing or having a meeting,” Krell said. “Performing live really helps us to see what works with our song arrangements when we can see the reactions of our listeners.
“Spartanburg has a super strong and family-like music community that I’ve really been missing. I’m used to going out to open mics during the week and catching up with other musicians, and playing on the weekends and seeing new and old faces.”
While there’s no word on when Howl in the Valley will perform in public again, Stephens, Scott and Krell all appreciate everyone who has stood by the band through these uncertain times.
“We have some really amazing and supportive fans,” Scott said. “We’ve had people message us to check in and see how they can support us, we’ve had fans circulating playlists with our music and sharing it like crazy, and we’ve been getting a lot of support on social media. Our fans have always overwhelmed us with their passion and support for us, but it means even more now.
“We obviously can’t say what the near future will look like, and we do want to be cautious to care for our fans and not encourage them to come out to any events that wouldn’t be safe, so chances are it’ll still be a little while before we do a live show, but that’s just because we want to do it right. In the meantime, we’re putting together video reels of ‘behind the scenes’ footage we’ve never posted, releasing videos for the songs on our new EP and taking some other measures to stay engaged.
“But yeah, when we can get everyone back together I can only imagine the energy is going to be like nothing we’ve felt before — just a mixture of gratefulness and freedom and creative energy and fun.”
Like what you read? Want to support more coverage of the Upstate SC music community? Please consider becoming a patron of The Music Advocate. Find out how at www.patreon.com/themusicadvocate.