Bastion – Cover Art On Bastion, Wayne Graham tapped into feelings of isolation, the inevitable passage of time, familial disagreements, love, loss, changes, outgrowing your roots and eventually coming back to them (American Songwriter). Highlights include ‘A Silent Prayer’, featuring a sophisticated touch of atonality and a sprinkle of psychedelia throughout courtesy of Moog, organs, and squalling guitars. It blossoms into a refined, ethereal rocker full of lush harmonies that only brothers can conjure. ‘The Patsy’ is a jazz instrumental that sounds like Brubeck taking five deep in Appalachia, while ‘Shoot Me’ is a slow meditation opened with a discordant piano riff and is a weary-yet-tense examination of racial attitudes in small town America. Inspired by the drag ban, the subtly charged ‘Swingin’ Round’ has the humble melody of a Protestant hymn. “That song comes from a place of frustration,” he says. “I started writing it around the time the drag ban was being talked about in Kentucky and Tennessee, and as I worked on it, it morphed into a song about trying to find a way to communicate with people you disagree with, even if it’s family.” “Our music is the way it is because we’re from here,” says Hayden Miles “It’s very specifically Kentucky.” As adults, however, they find themselves increasingly alienated from the culture and values of the place, a small town not unlike so many other small towns in America. “I feel very fortunate to be able to say we’re from here, and it’s inspiring to watch other people from this region find success,” says Kenny, who lives two hours away in Lexington, Kentucky. “At the same time it can be very isolating. It feels strange to play our hometown, because our music isn’t what people are looking for here. Sometimes Wayne Graham feels like a square peg in a round hole.” |