String band Into the Fog kisses pandemic good-bye with new album
The early days of genre-defying North Carolina string band Into the Fog were hurried.
The band formed quickly in Wilmington in 2017 to compete in the 2018 Telluride Music Festival, as shown in a documentary by Mason Godwin. Into the Fog then returned home to North Carolina (they’re now based in Raleigh) and reconfigured its membership, recorded a debut album in four days in a tiny mountain cabin, and went on to tour heavily in 2019.
Then, the pandemic. Ultimately, the extended down time helped the band record its second album, “Runnin’ Blind & Chasin’ Time,” without the external pressures of touring.
The band — Brian Stephenson (vocals, guitar), Winston Mitchell (vocals, mandolin, Dobro), Derek Lane (vocals, bass) and Michael Malek (banjo) — have an album release show Saturday, May 22, at The Palm Room in Wrightsville Beach.
“(The first album) was rushed because we wanted something to say who we were as a band. We played the majority of these songs (on the new album) live for over a year,” Stephenson said. “More than anything we had time to do it ourselves and do it right. For that I have to thank the pandemic.”
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Stephenson grew as a musician at open mics at the Goat & Compass on North Fourth Street while attending the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He said relocating to Raleigh was largely based on touring access.
“Ultimately it came from the question of where we could grow the most,” Stephenson said. “I miss Wilmington all the time. I loved living there. I’m by far closer to musicians in the Wilmington scene than Raleigh.”
Into the Fog stayed busy, especially in 2019. Then Covid happened, and they went from a constant travel schedule to sitting idle. More frustrating was losing momentum after landing festivals (including Shakori Hills) and opening slots for Sam Bush and Jon Stickley Trio. (They’re scheduled to play this year at FloydFest in Virginia.)
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Playing live-streamed shows to stay active wasn’t the same as playing for an audience.
“We’d get done with playing a song feeling like we absolutely crushed it to only have silence, an awkward expression of excitement on our end, and then wait for gratification to come on a 30-second comment delay,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson views the new album as an anthology of characters on a journey. Its all done against warm, varied music that includes barn-burners (“Maybe This Old Train”), more somber numbers (“Midnight Wind”) and poetic mini-epics (“Siren Song” or the 10-minute “Darkness and Despair,” about the Trail of Tears).
Song titles reflect movement in varied ways (“Back to Tennessee,” “40 Eastbound Road,” “River Rolls Along”) and Stephenson said moral gray areas and a fondness for history influence his lyrics about spurned lovers, Western travels, the gold rush, bank robbers, hobos, and people existing on the fringes.
“I think music and being a musician or songwriter is about putting something you want to say into the universe,” he said. “What people gain or learn from it is far more important than what I intended to say. Several of the main characters throughout these songs have some very serious flaws, and are not what you would call role models. Nonetheless, there is a story that you can learn from.”
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Want to go?
What: Into the Fog album release show
When: 9 p.m. Saturday, May 22
Where: The Palm Room, 11 E. Salisbury St., Wrightsville Beach
Info: Admission is free.
Details: IntoTheFogMusic.com