Travel by Sea – Two States and the Blindness That Follows

I have been following the Travel By Sea “musical project” for a few years now and they have just released their new album “Two States and the Blindness That Follows” yesterday.  When I say project, it is due to the bands original premise/situation of the two founding members, Kyle Kersten and Brian Kraft, creating great music while being located in two very separate areas of the United States.  This is how they recorded the earlier music…completely separate and sending clips, samples, backgrounds back and forth for the other to hear as they couldn’t actually play the music together in the same room.  A very interesting start that worked like gangbusters with two previous releases that are must haves.  They now have transitioned to what has become a full fledged band with the addition of Dan Moore (bass), John Phinney (pedal steel, banjo), Mike Cusick (drums), and Andrew Morrison (guitar) and it is definitely shining through on this next chapter in Travel By Sea.

The new album shows the band is growing, as previously mentioned in members and in what is their folk influenced sound.  Maybe this is due to the additional players, but it definitely is enjoying a bit more of a “full band” (no pun intended) sound.  The album uses this opportunity to flex some more uptempo songs (or ‘rocking out tunes’ as Kyle joked with me) to grow from a more down tempo folk songs to a folk-rock backbone for this album.  There are still the slow burners for current fans, but maybe there is room for more of the alt-country fans to join in (lots of great pedal steel here folks).  Overall a solid album with standout tracks like “Eventually”, “Triumph and Loss”, “The Road” and the great title track.  If you are so inclined, you should swing by their Bandcamp page (digital only) or CD Baby (digital and CD) to pick up a copy.

Listen:

“Eventually” – Travel By Sea, from 2010’s “Two States and the Blindness That Follows”

Also, hear this up-tempo TBS has taken to below:


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Find and purchase Travel By Sea:

~Smansmith