The Album
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The Music
The Story
One October, a man and a woman cashed in their savings, packed up their apartment in Oakland, and drove to their new home 100 miles east, 2800’ higher, and twenty minutes out a decrepit one-and-a-half lane road into the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada foothills. Through it all, he played his songs.
They spent autumn nights drinking wine on the back deck, staring up at the pine trees that stood in the yard and willing their nascent marriage to grow with the same permanence. As they swayed, he wrote “Evergreen” and looked to the future.
The nights got cold. They hiked through the snow, discovered how unreliable “rural internet” can be, and learned the secrets of their finicky wood stove. They brought in logs overnight and placed them on the hearth, then woke to find strange, stinging, red insects buzzing around the living room. He wrote “Wasps” and fancied himself an amateur entomologist.
Snow turned to rain, and flooding made him ford a creek on his daily drive to town. The skies were stormy and the news was dark; he considered how the world was changing, as was what he wanted from it. He learned, he grew, and he wrote “The Good” for the person he had been.
The rains cleared, and he walked Forest Service roads with his dog. He saw the way ruts had filled with murky, muddy pools, and fear of stagnancy began to fill him. Remembering that they met while he travelled the nation playing his songs, he wrote “Standing Water” to fend off doubt.
They gathered with old friends, one in particular who’d sought a love like the one they shared and come up short. He wrote “Parallel” as his heart broke, reminded how fortunate they were.
Their daughter was born, and as he contemplated the father he wanted to be he encountered parents overwhelmed by struggle. He wrote “The Archives” for them and for himself.
The skies cleared but the news remained dark, and one particular day brought fire to the north, evil to the south, death to both. A dear friend wrote a powerful song calling people to rise together, yet he wrote “On Comfort” admitting that he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Through it all, he played his songs. She supported him as he travelled when he could and played at home when he couldn’t. People listened, danced, and sang along, and when he went home to his family he knew he was exactly where he wanted to be. One day, a world-famous band came to town, and he was asked to open. Not just any band, but the band who wrote the first song he’d ever learned to play. Sure, their lead singer-songwriter had long since departed with acrimony, but that didn’t matter. He stood on the biggest stage in his hometown and had the best gig of his life.
A few weeks later, he drove twenty minutes down a decrepit one-and-a-half lane road out of the wilderness, then 100 miles west, descending 2800’ to play a small stage in a small bar on the bay. Before he loaded in his gear, he wrote “Frontman” in the parking lot. He swore that he had not yet reached his peak.
The Performers
The Lampoliers are…
Marshall Henry – Guitars, Organ
Anthony Delaney – Bass
Josh Certo – Drums
With Special Guests…
Jimbo Scott (of Poor Man’s Whiskey)
Vocals – Evergreen & Wasps
Austin Broder (of The Risky Biscuits)
Fiddle – The Good, Evergreen, & The Archives
Kiel Williams (of The Risky Biscuits)
Pedal Steel – Parallel & Frontman
Electric Guitar – Wasps
Joshua Swank (Grover’s 14 year old nephew)
Cello – The Archives
Nate Nathan
Piano – Wasps
Nathan Semprebon (of The Risky Biscuits)
Vocals – Evergreen
Chelsea Sue
Vocals – Standing Water
The Reviews
Album Review: Grover Anderson – The Frontman
by Abby Jeffers
The story behind the record alone should give some indication of the effort and passion poured into The Frontman, but if that is not enough, even just one listen makes it apparent how much Anderson puts into his music. Every sound is perfectly nestled into the overall landscape of the record, a feat that requires meticulous care.
Grover Anderson, Storyteller Extraordinaire
by Lisa Whealy
Grover Anderson and The Lampoliers bring eight songs to life with lush, majestic beauty. The backing band craft the foundation of this storyteller’s saga of life and love, while an array of guests color tracks shifting through folk, country and Americana.
Californian Grover Anderson balances teaching, family life, and country gigs to deliver The Frontman
by Karen Loves Country
“The Archives [is] a reflective folk-infused tune. He gives his baby daughter a word about life while reminding himself to take time with her. In a way, it reminds me of Sturgill Simpson’s Welcome to Earth (Pollywog) from A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.”
PREMIERE: Grover Anderson – “Evergreen”
by Rachel Cholst
Anderson sells the tender love song with the strength of his performance; this isn’t the kind of love that’s passive. On “Evergreen,” Anderson is making more than a promise — he’s renewing his steadfast commitment to the people and the places who are committed to him.
The Lyrics
The Good
One day, the ocean’s gonna rise up and drown everybody in New York and California
One day, the left and the right are gonna start another civil war
One day, the sun’s gonna increase in size til it swallows the earth
So what’s the good in worrying about her?
One, the flowers you bought will decay inside a landfill
The tree you carved your names into will burn down into ash
In time, your memories at Yellowstone will be a volcanic crater
So what’s the good in worrying about that?
If she says she’s gone then she’s gone
Good luck trying to change a woman’s mind
You may think yourself strong
But what’s your heartache to time?
What if the tectonic plate you live on becomes an island
Then an electromagnetic pulse puts the planes and ships to ground?
You’d waste your life on a raft praying currents took you to her
So what’s the good in wasting it now?
If she says she’s gone then she’s gone
Good luck trying to change a woman’s mind
You may think yourself strong
But what’s your heartache to time?
One day, you’re gonna feel the fool for this mighty depth of feeling
But even the sharpest pain hold a little bit of worth
In time, every mistake will have only made you better
And there’s the good in worrying about her
Standing Water
Amy never waits for me the way I’d like her to
She runs off in all directions as I’d never think to do
Even when the pathways clear and compass’s pointing true
She runs off in all directions
In spite of my frustration, I keep running down the line
There are dreams we planned to summit and hope we swore to mine
Tired though I am of traveling this beaten path alone
There are places that I gotta go
And I’m sick like standing water, choked with insect eggs and mud
My heart’s is like a desert, hard and dry until the flood
And the air is thick and heavy with a lonesome melody
Set to words she often put to me
Go, go, there’s nothing for you in this town
You’ve seen all there is to see
I want you to stay, stay, and you’d love to stick around
But I can’t let you burn out here with me
I won’t let you burn out here with me
And I’m sick like standing water, capped with iridescent oil
My instincts have gone barren, lost a dust bowl’s worth of soil
And the air is thick and heavy with a lonesome melody
Set to words she often put to me
Go, go, there’s nothing for you in this town
You’ve seen all there is to see
I want you to stay, stay, and you’d love to stick around
But I won’t let you burn out here with me
And if you won’t come along, then there’s nothing left to do
And someone else will have to write a song for you
I don’t mind the city, but I prefer the road
Where I’m writing from my stomach, instead of writing for my soul
And when I need a little respite from this rank uncertainty
An vicious psalm is always chasing me
Go, go, there’s nothing for you in this town
You’ve seen all there is to see
I want you to stay, stay, and you’d love to settle down
But I can’t let you burn out here with me
And if you won’t come along, then there’s nothing left to do
And someone else is gonna write a song for you
And he’ll probably be a better singer too
Parallel
It feels a little late to still be trying on
If I were shoes you long would have returned me
The day’s too long of tooth to still be dreaming of the dawn
So if you will, I’d like to have a word please
I won’t waste no more of your time
Always saw your path running parallel to mine
But though they go together, they never intertwine
No use tryin’ making you believe
I guess I’ll leave you, cause I don’t need you
Talking yourself into me
In seven years I shoulda seen it coming
But I still ain’t sure what there was to see
We ran out of clever ways to say “we’re doing nothing”
And we ran out of fear of being free
So I won’t waste no more of your time
Always saw your path running parallel to mine
But though they go together, they never intertwine
No use tryin’ making you believe
I guess I’ll leave you, cause I don’t need you
Talking yourself into me
Now you’re browsing the departures and I can’t help but believe
If I tried a little harder we could find a way to be
But I’m gonna leave you, cause I don’t need you
Talking yourself into me
I’m guess I’ll leave you, cause Lord knows I don’t need you
Talking yourself into me
Evergreen
I’ve crawled, hands and knees, through brush and brambles
I’ve scaled the rocks of the vast barren hills
The thorns of the desert, such a pain to handle
I’ve cut up the oaks that have lost their wills
Prospering fickly through insecure seasons
Running from strife when the skies are no good
But you, you’re evergreen, and standing right beside me
Through the good days and the cold, quiet night
Yeah you, you’re evergreen, til the mountain it crumbles you’ll be
You’ll be up there reaching for the light
But you’re already shining so bright
I’ve lost love to snakes and to lions and to other climbers
Sometimes the path went to places they won’t
Some I chased down the hill then I pushed on higher
Cause up past that tree line’s a loving home
With you, you’re evergreen, and standing right beside me
Through the, the good days and the cold quiet night
Yeah you, you’re evergreen, til the mountain it crumbles you’ll be
You’ll be up there reaching for the light
But you’re already shining so bright
I’ll sit in your shelter your arms are my eaves
I’ll nourish your body and play in your leaves
I can’t stop the fires but I’ll plant our seeds
And we’ll build our home in the shade of this tree
You’re evergreen, and standing right beside me
Through the good days and the cold, quiet night
Yeah you, you’re Evergreen, til the mountain it crumbles
You’ll be, you’ll be up there reaching for the light
But you’re already shining so bright
You’re evergreen
On Comfort
As you try to settle in, to settle down, to settle skin
It occurs never again might you feel settled
So you try to empathize, you never can, but hey, you tried
The greedy win, innocent die, and the scales stay level
And your phoenix songs, they all sound so beautiful
But there’s 80 people gone, and I want heads to roll
Shame on me, for thinking we’d be better
When it comes to comfort, denial is the key
Shame on me, in a week we’ll all forget
Add it to the stack of tragedy
As you try to take a break, settle down, to shake a leg
It occurs to scope out cover and the exits
Any vet would say that’s smart, but is this war or is it art?
School and Syria and Country found a nexus
And your good guy with a gun had best be white and best not run
And we average one a day and I want heads to roll
Shame on me, for thinking we’d be better
When it comes to comfort, denial is the key
Shame on me, in a week we’ll all forget
Add it to the stack of tragedy
The Archives
With desire to do the things you need to do
And the attitude to take the time to try
In the off chance the struggles just succumb to you
The effort’s often better than goodbye
In the archives of your heart aches there’s a litany
Of opportunities taken to run
Lay them out and blow the dust off, find them each to be
A record of the damage done
Don’t believe all you see
All that you see
It moves swift and it hits hard
And it won’t come easily
When imagining the breadth of all scenarios
The worst can seize the forefront of your mind
As you steel yourself for just how far the pain can go
Don’t forget to stop the light from slipping by
In the archives of your heartache there’s discrepancy
Between the choices that you’ve made and things you’ve known
Lay them out and blow the dust off, count out all the ways
The heart and mind together grow
Don’t believe all you see
All that you see
It moves swift and it hits hard
And it won’t come easily
And then one day it’ll strike you
Like the bricks you’ve laid to wall away your heart
And you’ll tremble and you’ll marvel
At the vigor of a true love’s start
A true love’s start
In the archives of your heartache there’s a vacancy
Adorned with statues made of old love’s bones
Lay them out and blow the dust off, count out all the ways
Two hearts and minds together grow
Let your hearts and minds together grow
Wasps
We got wasps in the woodpile
And I don’t like my work
The shower faucet’s leaking
And the garden’s only dirt
The internet works sometimes
And the basement’s fit to flood
We got a hundred things to tend to
We’ll ignore them all because
There’s a Jeep and a dirt road
And the dogs in the backseat
There’s a rock beside a river
To sit and dip our feet
It there’s a chance we’re gonna take it
If there’s trouble learn to shake it
If there’s a backyard, guitar
As long as we can see the stars
We’re gonna make it
We got wasps in the woodpile
And isn’t it a shame
That we can’t heat our home for comfort
Without risking stinging pain
And there’s a metaphor there that we’re
Too lazy to find
But I got your love around me
And I’m giving you all mine
One day, we’ll earn a little money and we’re gonna be just fine
We’ll host parties with more than records and cheap wine
One day, we’re gonna turn this house into a hive
But for now let’s take a ride
We got a Jeep and a dirt road
And the dogs in the backseat
We got a rock beside a river
To sit and dip our feet
It there’s a chance we’re gonna take it
If there’s trouble learn to shake it
If there’s a backyard, guitar
As long as we can see the stars
We’re gonna make it
Frontman
Driving six hours on a Saturday
To play for fifty in a bar across the state
No one in the room will know ya
But for two hours you sing
Louder than the forks hitting plates
Keep the expectations humble
Sing your favorite line and someone cracks a
smile and you’re embarrassingly proud
Don’t they know that you’re the frontman
Of the second biggest band in your small town?
On the weekdays you teach high school
Students troll you with your videos online
And you play at all the wineries
Which really means you drink far too much wine
But goddamn do you feel special
When a stranger wants to know when
Your next album’s coming out
Just the perks of being frontman
Of the second biggest band in your small town
As you thank people for coming
Someone grabs you by the hand
Says you need to find a publisher,
An agent, and a brand
And you smile and nod politely
Pack up t-shirts and cds
Knowing full well that the only way
To make it is to leave
It’s been one hell of a summer
Made good money and the guys all got along
Opened up for a famous classic rock band
Minus the singer who wrote all of their songs
Now people are asking was that the big break that
Carries your songs all the world around
And your answer’s optimistic
But you’re just the thirtysomething frontman
Of the second biggest band in your small town
You thank god for local radio
And community that cares
When a tourist from the city says
“You’re putting yourself out there”
Sometimes your dreams wander
When you’re up drinking alone
But really all you’ve ever wanted was
This baby, wife, and home
So you burden your odometer
Load & unload gear more times than you can count
And you love being the frontman
Of the second biggest band in your small town
We post all our shows on Facebook
We’re the second biggest band in your small town
Add my songs to all your playlists
I’m the thirtysomething dad-bod-rockin acoustic guitar playing eponymous frontman
of the second biggest band in your small town
The Credits
All songs by Grover Anderson (ASCAP)
Mixed & Mastered by Michael Clebanoff
Recorded in Murphys, CA, with additional recording in Lodi, CA, Sonora, CA, & Fairbanks, AK
Jacket design by Grover Anderson • Artwork by Benjamin Albright
Special thanks to Katie, Joelle, Mom, Dad, Hattie, Lexi, the Hoops, the Swanks, the Schluntz/Eastlands, Chris Stevens, Diana Toste, Jessica Delaney, Jacinda Henry, Stevenot Winery, Newsome Harlow, Marisa Scott-Lopez, Isabel Moncada, Ron Schaner, Mike Dawson, Mark Truppner, Bridgette Fanucchi, Joe Marshall, Owen Ridings, Rayshaun Grimes, Shelby French, Claimstake Brewing, Daniel Kushnir, Steve Key, David Duggan, Verne & Melissa Johnson, & the inexhaustibly supportive community of Calaveras County
Copyright 2019