It all comes down to being comfortable in your own skin and in the presence of those you love — at least, to hear Great Grandpa tell it. After five years away, occupied with various side-projects and monumental life changes, the band comes back together to create their most mature and seasoned collection of songs, though their mischievous impulses are still alive and well. Patience, Moonbeam is due out March 28 and finds them finding solace in one another’s company. They developed a more inclusive atmosphere for collaboration, one that focused on individual voices integrated into a coherent musical statement of intent.
Great Grandpa’s new single “Junior” moves with the fluid emotionality of later-era Bright Eyes or the casual fragility of Soccer Mommy’s earlier work. It functions as a low evening hymn, one that carries with it the kinetic energy of afternoons engaged in less than legal endeavors and finding ways to stay out well after dark. There’s a countrified yearning here, of days spent in endless circles of small-town work accompanied by the sound of friends and loved ones. Hints of banjo and moments of subtle string ornamentation keep the track loose but weighted. Everything rises together, ending in a walloping heartstring-rending catharsis of remembered summers and forgotten loves.
Listen below.
Patience, Moonbeam is due out March 28 via Run for Cover Records. You can pre-order the album here. Follow the band on X and Instagram.
