Chattanooga Times Free Press - Feature

By Casey Phillips, Staff Writer

Speaking to Jill Andrews, co-lead singer of Johnson City, Tenn.-based alt-country/folk band the everybodyfields, might surprise fans of her music. She sounds pretty upbeat and even laughs on occasion—both seemingly uncharacteristic qualities for one half of a band known for its sad-sack songs of loss and heartache.

The everybodyfields have come to be identified by the mournful quality of their voices and the melancholy of their lyrics, but if they’re crying, they’ve been drying their tears with pages of critical praise.

“If we are pigeonholed, I think we’re glad to be because we’re doing really well in this hole,” she said, laughing. “To our audiences that are growing, it’s music that, even if it’s sad, they can take something away from with them.”

When asked whether they worry about being unable to deviate from the path they’ve trekked since meeting in 1999 at Wesley Woods Camp in Townsend, Tenn., Sam Quinn, the other tear duct on the band’s public face, said sad times just make better song fodder.

“I have heard, ‘Why are you guys singing such sad songs,’ and I’m like, ‘Do you ever have anything that makes you happy you want to write about?’”he said. “No. Usually, you’re too busy having fun to stop having fun and sit down and write about it.”

“The sad times hover around for a while and aren’t so easy-come-easy-go.”

Fans of their music, or the beauty of melancholy, can expect to be satisfied when the duo make their way to Rhythm & Brews on Wednesday. Although they’ve played Chattanooga many times over the years, including Riverbend 2007, returning fans might notice some things have changed.

Since the 2005 release of their second album, Plague of Dreams, they have been picked up by Ramseur Records, leaving their independent label,Captain Mexico, behind.
    
“The new label has been really great,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of the work cleared away for us now. We’ve never had it this easy, really, and we can focus on writing and playing.”
    
Another significant event was the loss of dobro player David Richey, who helped found the band in 2003. He left in 2006 to pursue bluegrass in Colorado, taking the desire to continue on what had been a primarily acoustic path with him.
    
Their first title with Ramseur will come Aug. 21 with the release of their third album bearing the doublemeaning title, Nothing Is Okay. After three scrapped recording attempts over the course of a year and a half in Nashville’s Rec Room Studios, Nothing marks a bigger deviation from their established sound than ever before.
    
In the wake of Richey¹s departure, additional instrumentation, courtesy of Josh Oliver (keys), Travis Kammeyer (drums), Megan Gregory (fiddle) and Megan McCormick (guitar/lap steel), adds significant oomph to the album’s 12 tracks.
    
Despite their new strength, their focus hasn¹t been lost, and the album is still weepy enough you might feel the need to wring out the case when you take the plastic off. Songs like “Out on the Highway,” the tale of a moonshiner’s tragic run-in with the law, and “Lonely Anywhere,” a siren call to a faded love, prove this newest offering still caries the everybodyfields’ trademark emotional weight.
    
“Our previous albums are melancholy, and the upcoming one is pretty melancholy, but it’s got a lot more power behind it,” Andrews said. “There are a lot of different dynamics happening now.”
    
Despite the change in approach, the heart and soul of the band—their absolutely haunting harmonies—remain untouched.
    
“We know each other very, very well, so I think singing together for us is second nature,” said Andrews, whose sweet, smooth voice intertwines with Quinn’s country ultra-twang. “I think pretty much from the first time we sang together really it¹s just been very magical.”