"Meet You There" by Augustana, Saturday, February 19, 2022
Best known for their hit, "Boston," Augustana is a band whose members met at Greenville University in Illinois, where bands Jars of Clay and Paper Route also formed. Following up their debut album, All the Stars and Boulevards, the band released Can't Love, Can't Hurt in April of 2008. The lead single, "Sweet and Low" didn't chart as high as "Boston," and the band started fading into obscurity. The band's next album, their self-titled, was praised by American Songwriter, but by their fourth record, Life Imitating Life, only lead singer Dan Layus remained in the band.
I'LL DRIVE ALL NIGHT. There's an energy to "Meet You There with Me" that made me think for years that it's all sunshine and roadtrips with the one you love. But the Americana pop-rock song talks more about the ups and downs of a relationship between people who love each other, but ultimately can't understand each other. The hope is that the singer will "meet [his partner] there someday." The song could also be about the hardships of keeping a stable relationship between a man in a touring band and a girl back home. When Layus sings, "You probably only know my voice from a goddam microphone," listeners may hear a hint of sarcasm. Because of the touring schedule of a band with a few radio hits, the closest that friends and a girlfriend can get to the band is by hearing them on the radio. Having written about music for three years and having been listening to the stories of touring bands for many more years than that the theme that Layus sings about is quite common. It causes the breaking up of many bands. It may have been the reason that Layus is now the only member of Augustana, and the fact that they don't put out much music anymore.
IT'S A BACKSTABBING WORLD, HONEY. After their radio hit season, Augustana toured, mostly opening for groups slightly out of their genre. They opened for The [Dixie] Chicks and One Direction. Laysus, like many career band members, seems to have found a balance, and that solution spelled out the end of Augustana as a collaborative project. There haven’t been any Augustana records since Life Imitating Life, though they released the single "Remedy" earlier this year. Laysus settled down, marrying and having four daughters. After Augustana's hiatus, Laysus began a country music career, which is pretty common for career rock musicians who settle down around Nashville. Similar to Andrew McMahon, Laysus seemed to outgrow the Augustana moniker and simply became a solo artist, at least for a while. But with a little over 1,000 monthly listeners on Spotify for Laysus's solo project and with nearly 700,000 monthly Augustana listeners, it seems to make more sense for Laysus to draw on the support from Augustana fans. What that will sound like is really up to Laysus.
Comments
Post a Comment