It’s really hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since the release of our fifth recording “IN THIS TOWN”!
For so many reasons this was a transitional album. Everything from what was happening in our personal lives to our professional lives influenced the songwriting and this album received the kind of support and recognition that we hadn’t experienced before.
The title track was written long before we moved to what is now our home town of Chelsea, but we ultimately finished the album after we moved. In the midst of recording the album we were suffering from a lack of confidence and feelings of uncertainty about where we were heading with our music. We were still struggling with trying to redefine ourselves in the acoustic/folk/singer/songwriter world after a long history of rock bands and bars! It was more than just the songwriting. It was a mindset. We had to convince ourselves that we fit in. So we called on artist consultant Kari Estrin who put us through a rigorous soul-searching exercise and reinforced our sense of direction. The original title of the album was going to be “Grey” but Kari wisely talked us out of that. She helped us paint the picture we wanted, promoted our album to radio and we watched in awe as 100’s of Folk Djs around the world started playing our music. The album made it to #11 on the folk radio charts and doors started opening for us. We had attended several folk music conferences in anonymity before but now people actually knew who we were. They offered us showcases and gigs and we started actually touring outside of Michigan.
Two years later we released “My Blue Garden” which Kari also promoted and it was even more well-received, making it all the way to #2 and our song “Serenity Road” made it to #1! But we’ll talk more about that in a couple years when we celebrate its 10 year anniversary. :-)
Our career has ebbed and flowed as life allowed over the past 10 years but we will always feel that “In This Town” helped take our little music career out of a rut and sent us on the path where we belonged.
We’ve grown exponentially as artists over the years so rather than recreate the songs exactly as they were recorded we’ve chosen to perform them as we would now with our phenomenal band Jason Dennie and Ozzie Andrews along with special guest drummer/percussionist extraordinaire, Mike Shimmin. I’ll likely change a lyric or two and we’ll surely modify some of the arrangements as well.
I hope you come help us celebrate!
http://theark.org/shows-events/2017/jun/02/annie-rod-capps
