The Ground Tyrants at The Sydney, OEAA Summer Showcase, July 16, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So where’s the review of last weekend’s OEAA summer festival and the Speed! Nebraska showcase? You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow’s column, where the reason for the delay will be revealed. Until then, above is a lovely photo from the OEAA’s of The Ground Tyrants playing at The Sydney. Of the bands that I saw on Friday (including Civicminded, After the Fall and Jes Winter), The Ground Tyrants were the clear winner. Too bad they lost to mediocre R&B act Voodoo Method, who will now perform at The MAHA Festival. But I’ll talk more about that decision tomorrow.

Also in Lazy-i this week, look for a MAHA overview/interview with board member Tre Brashear and an extensive feature story/interview with Superchunk. Those stories go online Thursday and Friday.

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Among the spectators at O’Leaver’s worshipping at the alter of Speed! Nebraska Records Saturday night was Cursive’s Tim Kasher, whose solo debut, The Game Of Monogamy, is set for release Oct. 5 on Saddle Creek Records.  Recorded this past January at a rental home in beautiful Whitefish, MT, and also at SnowGhost Music, the album marks the first time Kasher has written, recorded and produced an album under his own name, according to publicist, Cobra Camanda. Sayeth the press release:

The Game Of Monogamy is more of an arranged record than any of Kasher’s past releases, filled with theatrical arrangements and lush instrumentation to create his own blend of classic pop. Ornamented with strings, harp, oboe, flute, and trombone, among other instruments, the songs vary in sound from vibrant and catchy (“Cold Love,” “I’m Afraid I’m Gonna Die Here”) to sweeping and grand (“No Fireworks,” “Monogamy”), and from hushed and spare (“Strays,” “The Prodigal Husband”), to urgent and fraught (“A Grown Man,” “Bad, Bad Dreams”). This moody orchestral pop evokes a 1950s-esque, conservative atmosphere, setting the stage for a dilemma that remains thoroughly modern.  The protagonist’s arc in The Game Of Monogamy spans the wide range of distinctly human emotions tangled up around relationships in a starched shirt society.  Call it the score for our collective sexual plight: expression routinely becomes repression in the name of romance.

If you say so, Amanda. Kasher enlisted Patrick Newbery (trumpet/keys for Cursive; also of Lacona and Head of Femur) to help with the arrangements, the production, and to play on the record. Erin Tate (Minus The Bear) and Matt Maginn (Cursive) also stopped by to add some drum and bass parts, respectively, and members of the Glacier National Symphony were recruited for the classical instrument parts.

The only question I have is: Where’s my promo copy?

* * *

Tonight at O’Leaver’s, it’s  Watching the Trainwreck, The Goodnight Loving, Peace of Shit and The Prairies. $5, 9 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There’s not much going on news-wise.

Saddle Creek today announced that Land of Talk’s sophomore record, Cloak and Cipher, will be released Aug. 28 (They’re playing at Slowdown Sept. 23). Azure Ray’s first new album in seven years, Drawing Down the Moon, will be coming out Sept. 14 on Creek, and Maria and Orenda are headed out on tour, including a gig at Slowdown Nov. 3.

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There’s a longish interview at Wired this week with Tommy Boy founder Tom Silverman (online here), where he talks about the continued downward spiral of the music industry, how the “long-tail” model is bunk, how social media is useless for selling CDs, and his vision for how artists and labels can make money in harmony. His vision:

“The model that looks most promising is to set up an LLC, just like a movie company — they set up an LLC for each movie. Every artist is a business, and has its own corporation under this model, and all of that artist’s creative equity goes into that — not just music, but everything they do. Whether it’s live, or merch, or whatever, their brand goes in there. And the investors who are investing and trying to promote on the other side — they own half. So it’s more like a business. An equity partnership.”

How is that different than the 360-degree record deal, where the label controls publishing, merch, the record, and touring? “The 360 deal is a traditional adversarial record deal of the old fashion,” Silverman said in the interview. “You get 12 points, or 14 points, and we recoup everything. ‘Here’s your check at the beginning — you’re not going to get paid again.’ Everything I said that was wrong with the business is still included with the 360 deal. Plus, they take a grab of 20 to 30 percent of touring and merch.”

Add to that some depressing numbers: “In 2008 there were 17,000 releases that sold one copy,” Silverman said. “Last year, there were 18,000 (that sold one copy), and something like 79,000 releases that sold under 100 copies. Under 100 copies is not a real release — it’s noise, an aberration. In any kind of scientific study, it would be filtered out. It’s like a rounding error. That 79,000 number represents almost 80 percent of all the records released that year.”

Yikes. Read the entire interview here.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Hot shot Saddle Creek Records executive Jason Kulbel is quoted in an article on the Green Shoelace blog that asks the burning question: Is Indie Turning Into Pop? From the article:

Jason Kulbel, label manager for Saddle Creek Records defines the mainstream as somewhat positive. It’s simply “What the majority of people listen to,” he said. “Every band has its own unique circumstances; I am sure it applies to some bands and not others. Each band has different goals and ways they shape their career,” states Kulbel.

As with most indie record labels, Saddle Creek Records leans toward not conforming to the mainstream, yet “[the] mainstream doesn’t always mean ‘bad,’ just that it’s the most popular,” Kulbel said. The general philosophy of Saddle Creek Records is that “the artists must dedicate their lives to the music they love, which represents the band personally and musically.”

The problem with the article’s premise is that it never really defines  “Indie” or “pop.” Pop means popular, right? You could argue that indie “turned into pop” in 1992 when Nevermind broke through and became a nationwide hit. In fact, you could say that any indie band that busts into the Billboard top 20 — such as Bright Eyes — has turned pop. But no matter how you look at it, the premise is absurd.

The real question: Is the artist 1) making music primarily to satisfy himself, or 2) compromising his/her artistic vision in an attempt to write a “hit record.” The former historically has been associated with indie artists; the latter typifies commercial shlubs (many of whom never had any artistic vision to begin with). Jake Bellows, for example, is going keep to writing and recording music no matter who listens to his songs. The only thing keeping him from becoming the next Jack Johnson is a few million dollars in marketing. It has nothing to do with quality (Jake’s music is obviously better than Jack’s). But if one of Jake’s songs ever became a hit, well, he’d be considered a pop star (and is there anyone more deserving?).

If Saddle Creek poured a couple million bucks into marketing the latest Mynabirds album I promise Laura Burhenn’s name would become a household name alongside any other MTV/VH1/CMT diva.

So is marketing the only difference between indie and “pop”? We’ll find out with the new Crystal Castles album cited in the article — something tells me that it would sound the same whether it had been released by Universal or their first label, Canada’s Last Gang Records.

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Two shows on the radar screen tonight:

At Lauritzen Gardens, 100 Bancroft St., Bear Country is playing as part of the garden’s Tempo at Twilight series on the green. Bring your lawn chairs and something to eat. The performance starts at 6 p.m. and runs until 8. Admission is $6 (but free if you’re a Lauritzen member). I saw Brad Hoshaw do a solo set (opening for Orenda Fink) as part of this series last year, and it was a lot of fun, though no one seemed to be paying attention to Brad. The Mynabirds will be playing the series Aug. 17 and Outlaw Con Bandana plays Sept. 14.

Afterward, head on over to the Waiting Room for Dim Light, DJ Kobrakyle and Brave Captain. Get this: It’s some guy named Alex’s birthday — so there’s no cover charge! 9 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Column 271: Comfort Zone

The return of Criteria.

Criteria frontman Stephen Pedersen has a problem that most of us would die for: He’s completely content.

His search for contentment began in 2005 when Pedersen quit a posh job as a lawyer at Omaha’s most prestigious law firm — Kutak Rock — to hit the road with his band Criteria under the proud banner of Saddle Creek Records. But, as the story goes, things didn’t quite work out as planned. And Pedersen returned from the road, put his guitar away, pulled the business suit out of the closet and returned to his leather chair and desk and daily lawyer grind with full knowledge that at least he tried to make it as a rock star. How many of us can say we took an honest stab at following our dreams?

Now, almost four years later Pedersen has no regrets. In fact, he couldn’t be happier. And as any artist or musician can tell you, that can be problem when it comes time to draw from your creative well for new material. What is there to sing about when you’ve got everything? It’s a problem, especially when you’ve got a reunion show coming up — this Saturday to be exact, with pals Ladyfinger at The Waiting Room.

“There are new songs, and we’ll play some of them on Saturday,” Pedersen said from the comfort of his elegant midtown living room, a glass of dark red wine in hand, picking his words judiciously, thoughtfully, as any good lawyer would. “My context has always been based on some kind of frustration or latent aggravation in my life, whether it was politics or a relationship or my career getting in the way of my dream. Now I’m content, and it’s been harder to come up with lyrical content from that emotional place.”

He casts aside the idea that he simply is no longer inspired. “I’m inspired by my group of friends, my wife, things that are hard to articulate. It’s a context that doesn’t lend itself to this. You can only write so many thank you letters in song.”

And despite some precedent-setting tunes such as Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55,” and Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law,” there isn’t much to sing about when it comes to the legal profession. “My job is intellectually stimulating, but it doesn’t lend itself to songwriting,” Pedersen said.

So what’s left to sing about? “Right now, it’s about trying to be happy in the moment,” Pedersen said. “So much of my adult life is spent looking at the future at the next task to accomplish that I have a very difficult time being in the present.”

Maybe he’s not so content after all. And as much as he loves being around his bandmates — drummer Mike Sweeney, bassist A.J. Mogis and guitarist Aaron Druery — Pedersen said he hasn’t exactly pined for the stage. “This is the bizarre thing about being a musician at this stage of my life, I don’t miss it like I would have if I was 25. I have a very full life outside of rock music, but I’m looking forward to the show now that it’s booked, practiced and ready to play.”

He’ll probably only roll out three new songs Saturday in a set that will lean heavily on classics from his two Saddle Creek releases, En Garde (2003) and When We Break (2005). Pedersen said that those old songs have held up over time. “I still see it as modern rock,” he said. “The bands that journalists write about and friends talk about are not rock bands, certainly not in the style of Ladyfinger or Criteria, which play heavy but with a sense of melody based on a verse-chorus-bridge structure. Vampire Weekend is a rock band, but there’s not a lot of distortion in those guitars. There are no bands like Quicksand and Superchunk and Fugazi and Cursive (before the turn of the century) that were making very visceral, full-bodied rock music.”

He says all of this, however, while Thelonious Monk plays in the background from hidden speakers. Something tells me that Pedersen doesn’t listen to much rock music these days, and he never liked going to rock shows. “I treat rock music like sports — I’m not interested in watching it, I’m interested in playing it.”

And he certainly isn’t interested in taking another shot at making a living off of it. Pedersen agreed that the Internet has changed the rules so dramatically that it’s no longer possible to judge a band’s success based on record sales. On the flipside, technology has never made music more accessible. “I believe the positives outweigh what are pretty harsh negatives in that a really talented kid can make an album on his own on his computer and put it onto the Internet, and if it’s great, it’ll find its way into your life. That could not happen seven years ago.

“We are in such a transitional phase between the old system and what will be a new ecosystem rather than a system,” he added. “It’s going to float a lot more boats, but in some respects, it’s more challenging for artists to distinguish themselves from the pack.”

He also wouldn’t want to start a record label now, or be running one. “It’s a difficult business model with which to generate income,” Pedersen said. “The new business model is being the band. As the band, if you have your wits about you, you can manage the distribution and the booking and the recording in a way you couldn’t 10 years ago. Part of that began with Fugazi, but the advent of technology from a recording and distribution standpoint has made it so much easier to untether yourself from labels. If you’re savvy enough, you can find success without leaning on that old model.”

Whether that logic applies to Criteria, however, we’ll likely never know.

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Thursday: The Lepers

I came to see Jeremy Messersmith, the crowd came to see The Mynabirds, but it was So-So Sailors that everyone was talking about after the show Saturday night at Slowdown Jr.

The room was only about half-full when Messersmith took the stage for a solo-acoustic set. In most cases, I’d be bummed about a solo set, especially from someone like Messersmith whose records are some of my favorites and are generally played with a full band. But business is business these days, and it’s expensive to haul a band around with you on tour (especially when no one knows who you are). Messersmith made the most of it, augmenting his guitar and voice with a series of effects pedals that nicely filled out the songs — magical pedals that created the effect of two-, three-, four-part harmony, pedals that provided rhythm tracks and pedals that created loops of vocals and guitar lines, all brought together like a modern-day one-man band. Even when he didn’t use the doo-dads, I enjoyed what I heard. Messersmith is an amazing songwriter who has a gift for creating gorgeous melodies and monster sing-along hooks. He also has a huge, high voice (imagine Ben Gibbard if Ben Gibbard could really sing). In addition to playing tunes off his new album and my favorite, The Silver City (download it now at jeremymessersmith.com), Messersmith did two covers — a Red House Painters-style version of “Norwegian Wood,” and his take on The Replacements’ “Skyway” (which also appears on Silver City). We need to get him back here soon (see photo), but with a full band and big amps to drown out the sea of audience chit-chat.

By the time he was done, the room was near capacity. I have no idea if this show was a sell-out, but it was a crush-mob. Next was the stage debut of So-So Sailors, a local supergroup of sorts, anchored by Chris Machmuller (Ladyfinger) on vocals and piano, Dan McCarthy (McCarthy Trenching) on Wurlitzer, Alex McManus (The Bruces) on guitar, Brendan Greene-Walsh (O’Leaver’s) on bass and the former drummer for Bloodcow (whose name I don’t know (Edit: It’s Dan Kemp)).

With Mach on the front end, I guess I was expecting something harsh, uptempo and loud. Instead we got slow, quiet and pretty. Beautiful at times; edgy and proggy at others.  The faster, louder songs fell in line with the slowest moments of Ladyfinger. It was all very moody for the most part and different than anything that any of these guys have done before. Definitely not what I or probably anyone was expecting.  One thing’s for certain, with this band — and this laid-back style of music — Mach has absolutely nowhere to hide. His voice is fully exposed for all to hear. It’s a cool (if not unsteady) voice that sounds like a sleepy, Midwestern version of Roger Waters on songs that often start with Mach playing piano one-handed only to gradually build to a pounding finish. Quite a debut, and quite a buzz afterward (see really lousy photo).

Finally, there was The Mynabirds. I think I made clear in my interview and in the blog that I really like their album, but I wasn’t sure if it would translate well live. The record is a real hodge-podge of styles made popular by some very familiar indie female artists. One song (“Ways of Looking”) sounds EXACTLY like a Mazzy Star tune, complete with droopy guitar line and morning-after vocals. At other times, Laura Burhenn sounds like Jenny Lewis, other times like Chan Marshall of Cat Power, other times like Maria or Orenda, and so on. So while entertaining, I’m still not quite sure I know who Burhenn really sounds like (despite what Pitchfork says). I’m not convinced that she’s defined her own style, yet. The arrangements on the recording are very, very good, but could they pull them off on stage without horns? And how would Burhenn compare to someone like Jenny Lewis, who owns a stage from entrance to exit? Could Burhenn bring out her inner-diva, or would she just stand behind her keyboard all night.

Well, in the end, she did pull it off, though she never strayed from that tiny spot behind her keyboard stand. Playing as a five piece, the music obviously lost some of the dynamic edge heard on the CD, but what did I expect? Burhenn was in good voice, belting out the hits, and to be honest, sounding more unique and on her own than on the record. She has a different delivery on stage — it’s bluesier, looser, more relaxed and natural. It was distinctly Burhenn (even though the person next to me still compared her to Jenny Lewis). Now if we could only get her to loosen up behind the microphone.

The Box Elder’s new 7-inch on the HOZAC label is finally in stock at the Antiquarium, according to guitarist  Jeremiah McIntyre. Get it while you can. He said the band’s new 12-inch 45 rpm EP will be coming out soon on Captured Tracks out of Brooklyn. It just keeps getting better…

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My download service of choice — Lala.com — announced that it’s shutting down at the end of May. Or, more accurately, Lala is being shut down by Apple, who purchased the company last December. This is likely the first step in creating a “cloud-based” iTunes that would allow you to access your digital library from any web-connected device. If it works like Lala, then you could upload your entire digital collection “to the cloud,” which would mean you would no longer need to worry about your iPhone/iPod/iPad hard-drive limitation — as long as you had a signal (3G or Wifi) you could listen to anything in your collection. Let us pause and think about the implications of this. Again: Upload entire collection once, access from any Wifi/3G-connected device. Hmmm… Details.

* * *

The Digital Leather $15 early-download + vinyl offer continues despite the fact that the band met its $600 goal in less than a day. “We’re putting a cap on the number that we send out,” DL says. “No more than 150 vinyls with special covers will be produced… any additional funds raised will go toward additional recording equipment. Shawn has his eye on a Manley ELOP limiter, which ‘makes songs sound like heroin,’ so we’ll see how close we come to that. If not that, and probably more likely, additional funds will buy our tickets to Europe this September.” You can get in on this offer here.

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Well, it’s finally here — the It’s True CD release party for the band’s debut full-length. Joining the band on the Waiting Room stage are The Haunted Windchimes (Pueblo, CO) and Omaha favorite Bear Country.

According to Jesse Stanek’s piece in The Reader, the CD is being released on Kyle Harvey’s Slo-Fi Records. As much as I like Kyle’s label, I’m disappointed that someone a bit larger didn’t pick it up. Maybe they will. Look what happened to UUVVWWZ. Their debut came out on Darren Keen’s It Are Good label before Saddle Creek committed to the band and rereleased it. What more does a label like Saddle Creek need from an act besides a quality product (though I haven’t actually heard their CD yet) and willingness to tour? It’s True seemingly could provide both.

Also tonight, Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies performs as part of a four-band bill at Slowdown that also includes Satchel Grande. $10, 8 p.m. And Capgun Coup’s Sam Martin headlines an acoustic show at The Hole with Sean Pratt, Brandon Behrens and Allen Schleich of Snake Island –the show is a benefit for the performers upcoming tour of China. $6, 7 p.m.

Tomorrow night is the Mynabirds CD release show with Jeremy Messersmith and The So-So Sailors. This show is in the Slowdown Front Room, which means it could very easily sell out. Get there early (if only to also catch Messersmith’s solo set). $8, 9 p.m. Also Saturday night, Son of 76 and The Watchmen are playing at Harrah’s Stir Lounge — one of the few local bands that I think could actually carry off a three-hour set (When is Harrah’s going to figure out that most indie bands’ sets only last (and only should last) about 35 minutes?) $5, 9 p.m.

An addendum to The Mynabirds feature I posted this morning (read it here, or actually if you’re reading this in the blog, just scroll down): Pitchfork came out with the review of their new album, What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, and gave it an unheard of 8.0 rating — unheard of, that is, for a Saddle Creek Records release. Among the review’s bon mots (which is here):

“The charm of the record isn’t a matter of reinventing familiar sounds so much as working within them with comfort and grace. Nothing sounds overworked. If anything, Burhenn and Swift present the songs in an understated manner, confident in the quality of the material and the strength of her voice.”

Adding to Pitchfork‘s applause, I will say that WWLITFWGITF (how’s that for shorthand?) is the best album Saddle Creek has released since Mama, I’m Swollen, and that The Mynabirds is the first signing since Rilo Kiley with the critical and commercial appeal of the label’s original Big Three (BE/Faint/Cursive). Now it’s just a question of how they market the album — which is a huge riddle in this era of industry decline. Because the fact is, there may not be anything Creek could do to make this record sell well. As an example, I give you Georgie James, a band that (as Burhenn says in the interview) did everything expected of a successful indie rock band, including an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and in the end, that record still only sold just north of 4,000 copies.  It’s not just about quality and touring anymore. It’s about getting one of your songs licensed for a television commercial or prominently used in a critically acclaimed motion picture or television show. It’s about having a video that somehow “goes viral,” or getting mentioned on an A-list celebrity’s twitter feed. It’s about luck. And despite what anyone says, you can only make so much luck on your own.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s Lawrence indie rockers Cowboy Indian Bear with Honey & Darling and Ghosty. CIB brings the rock, and is definitely worth checking out, especially for a mere $5. Show starts at 9.

The Mynabirds: Zen Songs

The existential sounds of Laura Burhenn

by Tim McMahan

Sometimes you just have to let it go.

But before you do, you have to acknowledge the situation — reach a level of acceptance — and then, move on. It’s a very Zen philosophy, and it’s worked for Laura Burhenn, singer/songwriter of The Mynabirds.

She’s applied that existential attitude throughout her career, starting as a solo artist before joining with former Q and Not U frontman John Davis for indie pop act Georgie James in 2006.

Georgie James checked off most of the items on the must-do list for indie rock success. They released an album on a respected label (Saddle Creek Records), toured internationally, had their video played on MTV and performed on a late-night network talk show (Late Night with Conan O’Brien).

“From an outsider’s perspective, you see those benchmarks and check them off and say that the band was really successful,” Burhenn said last week while sipping a Manhattan on the patio at Slowdown.

But less than a year after the October 2007 release of their debut, Places, Burhenn and Davis found themselves trying to communicate through walls, before finally splitting up. “We had different ideas of what we wanted to do musically and where we wanted to go with our lives,” she said. “It made sense to do different projects. I never wanted the band to break up. I figured we might go our separate ways for awhile and come back and do another album, but it wasn’t to be.”

The Mynabirds - What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood

While Georgie James was still in full swing, Burhenn had continued writing and performing as a solo artist in her former hometown of Washington, D.C. “I had been holding back songs for the next record,” she said. “I wanted to write a record about reflective consciousness, something really political and heady. I was trying to mathematically work out this symphony.”

But Burhenn knew after recording demos that the concept was too complicated and wasn’t going to work. Wanting to make a complete break from her Georgie James past, Burhenn was convinced by friend and fellow musician Orenda Fink to move to Omaha in the fall of 2008 and to also join her on tour as a keyboard player and backing vocalist for Fink’s project, O+S.

“That experience was totally life changing,” Burhenn said. “Orenda’s a songwriter that isn’t afraid to approach music as art.”

When Burhenn returned from the tour, she threw out almost everything she had been working on and started over. She took her new material to the Oregon studio of personal musical hero Richard Swift, a singer/songwriter whose 2007 album, Dressed Up for a Let Down, was a huge inspiration. “The first time I met (Saddle Creek label chief) Robb Nansel I said, ‘You have to hear this record. It’s amazing.’ And he kind of laughed and told me that Saddle Creek put it out overseas.”

The label facilitated connecting Burhenn and Swift, and the two finally met at the South by Southwest Festival in 2009, where they agreed to collaborate on her record, with Swift focusing on the arrangements and the two playing almost all the instruments. Joining them on the recording was Fink, musician/engineer/producer AJ Mogis; Tom Hnatow (These United States) on pedal steel; and Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), who arranged the horns.

The result was What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, a 10-song collection of rootsy, gospel-influenced songs about love, loss and resolution that reflects soberly on the past but looks forward with a glass-half-full optimism.

Among the opening numbers is the piano-pounding rocker “Let the Record Show.” With the lines “Let the record show, you gave a real good fight / And let the record show, so did I,” the song is an after-the-fact account of a relationship gone wrong.

"The album is a very simple story about loss and recovery.”

“It’s the most cathartic song on the record,” Burhenn said, acknowledging its thematic connection to Georgie James. “The idea is that it’s not going to help anyone holding onto a terrible experience. It says, ‘I don’t know what happened here, but I’ll figure it out eventually. Let it go.’ It’s about forgiveness.”

That healing theme continues with the dense, gorgeous heart-breaker “Right Place,” that looks back at a failed relationship, and closes with the line “I haven’t changed my mind, God knows I tried.” Burhenn said it was the last song written for the album.

“Until I wrote it, I didn’t think I had a song in this whole story that made peace with anything. That song went there,” she said. “There’s something sad and kind of mean at the end, but resigned. I tried to sing it from my perspective as well as imagining John Davis singing that song. The idea that we tried our best, it didn’t work, and it’s where it needs to be.

“The album is a very simple story about loss and recovery,” Burhenn concluded. “I turn to music to lift me out of dark times.”

With the album in the can, Burhenn said other labels were interested in releasing it, but that she stayed with Saddle Creek Records despite reservations she would be “mixing business with pleasure.”

“I was thinking, ‘These are my friends who I’ve grown to love. Is this healthy?’ But then I thought why wouldn’t I want to put out a record with people I trust and admire? Saddle Creek puts out records that they love or by people that they love. I always admired Saddle Creek because it’s like a found family.”

Burhenn once again looked to Orenda Fink to help put together yet another found family — her touring band The Mynabirds. The group is a who’s who of Omaha talent that includes Johnny Kotchian (drums), Dan McCarthy (bass and vocals), Pearl Lovejoy Boyd (vocals), Ben Brodin (guitars and vocals), and Alex McManus (guitars, horns, and vocals). Plans call for a short northeast tour in early June, followed by a full U.S. tour later in the year.

The Mynabirds play with The So-So Sailors and Jeremy Messersmith, Saturday, May 1, at Slowdown, 729 No. 14th St. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $8. For more information, visit theslowdown.com.