Americana Duo The Storm Windows Release Debut LP
Above: ‘The Storm Windows’ album artwork
AMERICANA DUO
THE STORM WINDOWS
RELEASE SELF-TITLED DEBUT LP
THE STORM WINDOWS
NASHVILLE, TN (February 25, 2022) — The Storm Windows, the seasoned New York-based Americana duo, have released their debut self-titled album. The 10-track The Storm Windows — available on all streaming platforms — encompasses original sonics, as well as renditions of “should-be-classics” throughout.
Listen via Apple Music here
Listen via Spotify here
Americana Highways recently commented that “The Storm Windows’ music merges a cathartic element and a soothing element, with shuffley rhythms.”
The album’s first single, “Life is a Railroad,” is currently featured on a plethora of Spotify playlists and continues to receive strong streaming numbers.
Composed of Rob and Don Mathews, this band of brothers opened up to VENTS Magazine about their unique band name, saying: “we chose the name ‘The Storm Windows’ part in tribute to one of our musical heroes, John Prine, who wrote a song by that name, and part as an appropriate description of some veteran musicians who have weathered a few storms but are still standing and singing about it. And it wasn’t taken. We thought the same thing for the album title.”
The debut album, The Storm Windows, “surveys the American landscape, like a cross-country adventure (including up through Canada) in a VW bus,” they explain.
After taking a hiatus from their Greenwich Village residency at The Back Fence and frequent gigs around New York City due to other personal and professional responsibilities, “the lure of the 3:00 a.m. Friday night's late set at The Back Fence remained, like a fish hook caught on the lower lip, and slowly reeled us back in,” admit the Mathews brothers.
Rob currently resides in London for part of the year in which he can view the American experience — for better or for worse — through an objective lens. “The songs chosen for this are mostly focused on the opportunity of the ongoing experiment, rather than its challenges, which we've saved for the second album,” discloses Rob.
The Storm Windows are proficient in performing both as an original band and cover band. On The Storm Windows they chose songs from both categories to showcase their strengths. Rob and Don Mathews provide the core sound, along with some friends and hired hands to help out on drums and the occasional pedal steel. The album was recorded using Logic Pro and a Mac laptop, “wherever and whenever there was an electrical outlet and some inspiration to commemorate,” they share.
The selective choices for the renditions on The Storm Windows were “picked from some of our less-than-mainstream favorites and reimagined in other contexts,” reveals Rob. “For example, ‘The Telling Takes Me Home’ by Utah Phillips channels Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer,’ ‘Bells of Norwich’ by Sydney Carter reflects the early Byrds, and ‘A Sailor's Prayer’ by Rod McDonald recalls vintage Fleetwood Mac.”
The Mathews brothers conclude that “on one level the album is just a bunch of songs we like to listen to and perform, and half of which we wrote.” But it’s also a travelogue: part road trip; part nostalgia for something lost; part optimism for something coming. Not in any order. We hope people tune into that.”
The Storm Windows Track Listing:
“Life is a Railroad”
“Time to Start Building a Boat”
“The Telling Takes Me Home”
“Northwest Passage”
“Love is Like a Spy”
“The Wayward Wind”
“Hey Step-Sister”
“Bells of Norwich”
“I Am Part Wind”
“A Sailor’s Prayer”
Above: Rob and Don Mathews; The Storm Windows