Fishman Artist // Good Old War
The second self-titled album by Pennsylvania indie-rock trio Good Old War is at its lush heart, an album ofimmense growth. A natural evolution from the band's debut Only Way to Be Alone (Sargent House), Good Old War radiates with warmth and vulnerability, both qualities undoubtedly cultivated by the band's hands-on self-production, and the environment of solitude in which the album was created.Holed up in a remote house in the Pocono Mountains through the white winter month of February 2009, Keith Goodwin (vocalist/guitarist), Dan Schwartz (vocalist/guitarist), and Tim Arnold (vocalist/drummer) coalesced into a dynamic harmonious unit, using their time in complete isolation to explore new approaches to their music-making process: they learned new instruments; they wrote about subjects like love, loss, and addiction; they explored musical conventions far outside indie-rock/folk territory. Good Old War's sophomore album doesn't just maintain the intricate vocal harmonies, infectious sing-along melodies, and pop-song writing foundation of Only Way To Be Alone, it expands them. The results are a collection of songs that could translate from a living room to an arena without losing their heartbeat.
In 2010, the band set sail on their first Headline tour, which included a completely sold out Troubadour in Los Angeles and TLA in Philadelphia. Following the headline run, Good Old War embarked out on some incredible support tours for Dr. Dog, Joshua Radin, Brandi Carlisle, Xavier Rudd, and Dashboard Confessional.
This year Good Old War has toured with Guster, Allison Krauss and Gomez, along with a very memorable performance at Coachella Valley Music Festival! Their newest album, Come Back As Rain was released in 2012 and opened with "Over and Over," which embodies the sound that Good Old War has been crafting since their first album: a perfect blend of mind melting, chill inducing melodies with organically driven, rump shaking rhythms. The trio expertly fuses the catchy with the sincere, and remains relevant with subtle variations in their relatively repetitive song structures. Each track is concise, chock full of the simplistic beauty that only Good Old War can pull off.