The Accidentals - Eastern Standard Time (Official Video)
Eastern Standard Time was co-written with one of our favorite writers, Peter Mulvey, over zoom. A Wisconsin native, Peter is known for riding his bike across the country with his guitar on his back, sharing stories and provocative wisdom in song form. We met Peter at Frederik Meijer Gardens during a Tuesday’s with Ralston Bowles and friends concert, (we were the “and friends”). After watching Peter’s set we added “writing a song with him” to our bucket list. A couple years later we played a “songwriters in the round” show with Peter at Folk Alliance International and agreed then, we would someday write a song together..
One day, out of the blue, Peter called. He said, “I gave my patrons (on Patreon) a prompt to write a song with a friend, I thought this would be a good time for us to make good on that promise."
We found about five minutes into the co-write that we were both avid nature lovers, and we spent most of the call talking about fungi. Eventually we got around to talking about how our home states were connected, Peter being from WI and us being from MI, and how we both purposefully plan tours in the Upper Peninsula when the leaves are changing.
With Peter’s guitar melody and refrain of “Eastern Standard Time” we started writing. The line, “Three fires burn from the old bloodlines,” pays homage to the Three Fires Council and the lineage of Native Americana that inhabited Mackinac Island dating back to 796 AD, later known as the Great Lakes Confederacy. The descriptions of northern beauty are underscored by thin cracks in the visage - the dangerous oil pipeline threatening our remaining freshwater resources; the long-lasting effects of colonization on indigenous people, and climate change as it affects us all. These are all things we were thinking about as we wrote Eastern Standard Time.
The TIME OUT project is a collection of EPs featuring co-writes with songwriters that inspired and influenced us. Katie and I had never written a song with anyone before this project; our first co-write was set up by Sharon Corbitt, with Hall of Fame writer, Beth Nielsen Chapman. We were terrified.
That co-write became “Circling Round” off of the Time Out Session #2 EP and working with Beth gave us the courage to try a second co-write. Again, Sharon reached out to Maia Sharp and "Just A Town" became the second song on Time Out Session #2.
Maia and Beth are such great writers and just great people. They’ve got hit songs with so many artists yet there was no expectation or ego, just great conversation as we found a common we could all write about.
As we were diving into co-writing we made a list of all the artists we would like to write with that have inspired and influenced us as writers. Among our early influences are writers such as Tom Paxton, Dar Williams, Gretchen Peters, Kim Richey, Gary Burr, Mary Gauthier, Peter Mulvey, and more.
Rolling Stone called TIME OUT Session #1, "the anthem for uniting a busted America," and Wildfire, co-written with Kim Richey, was the #1 song at Folk Radio for the year. Time Out Session #1 was the #13 Album and All Shall Be Well, co-written with Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris, was #23 on the Folk Charts.
Recorded in Nashville TN at our very own Crooked Moon Studios, the self-produced Time Out Session #2 EP featuring Beth Nielsen Chapman, Gretchen Peters, Gary Burr, Georgia Middleman, Maia Sharp, Peter Mulvey and Tom Paxton is set to release March 4th. Eastern Standard Time is the first single from the Time Out Session #2 EP.
Our goal with Time Out Session #2 is to write songs that build bridges, celebrate our differences, find gratitude in grief, and remind us we are connected in our humanness.
Director, Producer, and Editor: Elijah Allen
Special thanks to our lifetime patrons for their support: Matthew Filla, John Luesing, Charlie Barron, Virgil Poma, Jim Johnson, Bob Smith, Vic and Peg Dubrowski, Alfred Skerpan, Bruce Humphrey, Anthony and Janet Barclay, Jason Sledd, Cheryl Jankovic, James Elliott, and Jake Ryan
