Wild Sweet Orange

My wife, Julianna, and I went to see the band Wild Sweet Orange perform at Stubbs the other night.  I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a couple of members of the band over the last few years, because Julianna knows them from her hometown of Birmingham, AL.  Julianna was bubbling with excitement about the concert and couldn’t wait to bring as many people as possible to spread the “good news” of Wild Sweet Orange’s music.  I, on the other hand, wasn’t as enthusiastic.  While I had really enjoyed getting to know the guys in the band (and have loved hanging out with them), I wasn’t too excited about standing in a smoke-filled lounge and elbowing my way toward a decent view of the show, especially at 10:30 on a Sunday evening.

Julianna was nevertheless able to pull me out of my front seat
viewing of the Olympics to go and support her old friends – and I’m glad that she did.  What I assumed would just
be a decent show turned into an emotional outpouring of truth in the
form of both music and lyrics.  It has been a while since I have heard
any “alternative” music that seemed to fit the lyrics of the songs –
either the lyrics are too simple and the band relies too heavily on the
catchy tune of the song, or the lyrics are complex and the music
cacophonous.  My musical tastes have shifted from alternative to an
acoustic/folk sound, but I think I may have been reconverted. Wild Sweet Orange seems to encapsulate in a few songs certain emotional tensions that I feel toward spiritual topics.

Their newly released album is called We Have Cause to be Uneasy. It is written almost entirely by the lead singer, Preston Lovinggood,
and it is a brilliant commentary on the problems that we as citizens in
the suburban United States face today.  One of the most profound songs
is called “Land of No Return.”  The song discusses the difficulties of
trying to leave the problems and sin of this world for the beautiful
white picket fence of the ‘burbs.  The song points out sin in all areas
of life.  Although songs like this typically promote a move back to
the city approach, Wild Sweet Orange’s final prescription is to change our hearts, because our hearts are where the problems lie – not the city or the suburbs.

Here are the lyrics to the “Land of No Return”:

There’s a sunrise every morning that you miss ’cause you’re asleep.
There’s a sunset every evening, you miss in your car leaving to wherever it is that you’re going.
You’re not pulled but led.
‘Cause its not for who you’re going, but what they give you instead.

So when you go, tell me where are you going.
‘Cause there’s no place you can run to, forget all your longing.
So forget where you’re going.

Its been a long time for you darling, running from that house in the hills.
Where your parents still lay obsessing over the dust on the ceiling fans.
And did they do the same to you, child?
Did they lock you behind you door?
When they whispered their darkest secrets, saying, "I don’t love you anymore."

So when you go, tell me where are you going.
‘Cause there’s no place you can run to, forget all your longing.
So forget where you’re going.

Is it true, is it true what they say?
In these woods there’s something real strange, you can walk for what seems like days.
Is this the land of no returning?
Is it true, is it true what they say?
In these woods there’s something real strange.
You can walk for what seems like days and the trees all start to take face,
hold as you’re running in place,
and then they all start to scream, "This is the land of no returning!"

Oh, when will you start believing that there are monsters beneath your bed?
And those voices of self-destruction could never begin in your head.
Oh and love is no illusion sometimes I can see it in your eyes.
And hear it moan and tumble down the hill when the traffic dies (?)

So when you go, tell me where are you going.
‘Cause there’s no place you can run to, forget all your longing.
So forget where you’re going.

Tell me what you think of the band.  Also, what music do you know of that we might benefit from hearing?

Taylor