In recent weeks we’ve covered a few singles from LUCKY, a Bay Area supergroup featuring Half Stack‘s Peter Kegler (guitar, bass, backing vocals) and Andrew St James (lead vocals, guitar) alongside Marika Christine and Zach Elsasser of Affectionately on drums. First ‘Traveler‘, a song “full of backward looking despite its forward motion,” as we put it, “resulting in a mood at once wistful and affirming,” then later ‘Falling Through‘. “A lesson in the value of intra-band chemistry which imbues its country rock sound with equal parts laidback swagger and earnest emotion,” is how we described the latter. “A track earthy and immediate but not without a certain wry self-awareness, especially in the near-spoken sections of the verses.”
With the promise of an album on the horizon, LUCKY have now returned with brand new single, ‘Friends’. Produced and mixed by Joe Santarpia (Mac DeMarco), mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk (Kevin Morby, Woods, Rose City Band) and again released via Royal Oakie Records, the song taps into a buoyant rhythm to bring to life a sense of fondness suitable for its title. St James’s vocals harness this energy to great effect, their affirming spirit shaded by a slightly wistful quality too, as though aware that good times are always on the verge of ending but determined to hold on for as long as possible. But when the chorus comes around and the full swagger of the sound kicks in, such concerns are left by the wayside, the listener swept up along with everything else by LUCKY’s unadulterated joy.
Artwork by Alexandra Bowman, photo by Scott Padden