With storm clouds looming over the horizon only a few days before their scheduled performance, the East and the Crow’s frontmen worry that their return to the Bay Jammin’ Summer Concert Series will look more like their first year than the second.
“This year is technically our third year playing Bay Jammin’, but we got rained out our first year,” said Lee Dykes, the group’s self-proclaimed multifaceted backbone. “We just hope that doesn’t happen again this year because we are really looking forward to getting out there again, in front of a ton of people and just giving it our everything.”
Dykes, Brian Wright and former band member Wade Capps founded the first iteration of the East and the Crow back in 2018. Now, six years and a worldwide pandemic later, the lineup and sound of the group has changed with the times. Veteran fans can still expect to see Dykes juggling between bass and keys alongside Wright’s fuzzy rock vocals. However, with new strings from Ralph Tobias and Dr. George Woods bringing a country-punk blend of acoustic and electric guitar–plus the addition of Peter G’s masterful cacophony of reggae-inspired drums–the folk found in their first two singles has since transformed into more rock than country.
“For a while, we were branding ourselves as alt-country, because that’s the only original music that plays on Texas radio,” Dykes explained. “There are several artists in Texas who, on the radio, are a country band. At their live shows, they’re a rock band. So we struggled in finding that balance.”
“Now I feel like we finally found our sound and what we’re supposed to be doing. We do sad lyrics to upbeat rock music, that’s the high energy the band and the crowds love,” he continued.
Unlike the usual local indie rock groups composed of 20-something-year-old, freshly graduated youth, the East and the Crow spawned from fully developed brains. Wright said joining a band later in his life granted him the ability and mutual support needed to fix his unstable relationship with alcohol after years of playing at local bars.
Wright and Dykes explained how, with every roadblock they faced together, the group’s connection only grew. It’s become a family first, brothers in tandem with the music type of operation. This dedication to each other bleeds into their compositions, as Wright describes the immense collaboration between the artists as, “best friends who all want to show each other the cool thing they wrote.”
“Embers in the Sea,” written outside the hospital where Wright’s premature daughter fought for her life in the NICU, reignited the band during their pandemic blues. Stitched together at the height of quarantine, each member’s hard work paid off in an almost six-minute-long emotional ballad that has now become their highest-streamed song. Most importantly, the song also spoke to experiences many don’t usually find within a local show.
“We played [Embers] at the end of our first set at Brewster Street one night,” Wright remembered. “When we got off stage, this guy came up to me crying. He starts telling me about his son who was also [premature], and how he remembered that feeling of being scared and praying to God while I was singing that song.”
“We connected on that and it was super powerful. It’s easy to write about broken hearts, but to write about something like that really resonates with people,” he said.
A few months since the release of the “Embers in the Sea” EP, the East and the Crow find themselves ready for a new year of Bay Jammin’ with the debut of their brand-new stage show. Even those who frequent the Crow’s concerts can expect to find something new, be it from the band’s freshly renovated performance or a setlist predominantly made up of unreleased music.
Luckily for the band, this year’s stormy forecast won’t be one to stop this rock-country powerhouse from celebrating the summer solstice the right way. Shield yourself from the thunderstorm with an electrifying indoor performance by the East and the Crow and the Palacio Brothers on Thursday night at House of Rock in lieu of the typical Cole Park Amphitheatre location.
The annual Bay Jammin’ Summer Concert Series fully books Cole Park Amphitheater from 7:30 – 10 p.m. every Thursday for free concerts throughout the summer months. In an effort to encourage community support of our incredible local talent, The Bend will choose one artist for a monthly spotlight from each June, July and August lineup. Keep an eye out for this limited-time monthly series!
