Then Came the Morning, the second album by the Southern-born, Brooklyn-based indie-folk trio the Lone Bellow, opens with a crest of churchly piano, a patter of drums, and a fanfare of voices harmonizing like a sunrise. It’s a powerful introduction, enormous and overwhelming, as Zach Williams, Brian Elmquist, and Kanene Pipkin testify mightily to life’s great struggles and joys, heralding the morning that dispels the dark night: “Then came the morning! It was bright, like the light that you kept from your smile!” Working with producer Aaron Dessner of the National, the Lone Bellow has created a sound that mixes folk sincerity, gospel fervor, even heavy metal thunder, but the heart of the band is harmony: three voices united in a lone bellow.
"The feeling I get singing with Zach and Brian is completely natural and wholly electrifying,” says Kanene. “Our voices feel like they were made to sing together."
Long before they combined their voices, the three members of the Lone Bellow were singing on their own. Brian had been writing and recording as a solo artist for more than a decade, with three albums under his own name. Kanene and her husband Jason were living in Beijing, China, hosting open mic nights, playing at local clubs and teaching music lessons. Zach began writing songs in the wake of a family tragedy: After his wife was thrown from a horse, he spent days in the hospital at her bedside, bracing for the worst news. The journal he kept during this period would eventually become his first batch of songs as a solo artist. Happily, his wife made a full recovery.
When Kanene’s brother asked her and Zach to sing “O Happy Day” together at his wedding, they discovered their voices fit together beautifully, but starting a band together seemed impossible when they lived on opposite sides of the world. Brian soon relocated to New York and Kanene moved there to attend culinary school a couple years later. The three got together in their new hometown to work on a few songs of Zach’s, he’d been chipping away at the scene as a solo artist for awhile by then. After hitting those first harmonies did they decide to abandon all other pursuits. Soon the trio was playing all over the city, although they considered Rockwood Music Hall on the Lower East Side to be their home. They opened for the Civil Wars, Dwight Yokam, Brandi Carlile and the Avett Brothers, and their self-titled debut, produced by Nashville’s Charlie Peacock (the Civil Wars, Holly Williams) and released in January 2013, established them as one of the boldest new acts in the Americana movement.
After two hard years of constant touring, the band was exhausted but excited. By 2014, they had written nearly 40 songs on the road and were eager to get them down on tape. After putting together a list of dream producers, they reached out to their first choice, the National guitarist Aaron Dessner, who has helmed albums by the L.A. indie-rock group Local Natives and New York singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten.
“It occurred to me that it would be fun to get together and make music with them,” says Aaron. “My main interest in producing records is community and friendship more than making money. I already do a lot of traveling and working with the National, so when I have to time to work with other artists, it should be fun and meaningful.”
“Aaron is just so kind,” Zach says. “And he has surrounded himself with all these incredibly talented people, like Jonathan Low, the engineer. His brother Bryce [Dessner, also a guitarist for the National] wrote these amazing brass and string arrangements, and he got some of his friends to play with us.”
Dessner and the Lone Bellow spent two weeks recording at Dreamland in upstate New York, a nineteenth-century church that had been converted into a homey studio. The singers found the space to inspire the emotional gravity necessary for the material and the acoustics they were looking for. (For Kanene, Dreamland had one other bonus: “I’m a big Muppets fan, and it looks exactly like the church where Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem lived.”)
Aaron set them up in a circle in what had once been the sanctuary, with microphones hanging in the rafters to capture the sound of their voices bleeding together. Most of the vocals were recorded in single takes, a tactic that adds urgency to songs like “Heaven Don’t Call Me Home” and “If You Don’t Love Me.” “There were a couple of times when somebody sang the wrong word or hit a bad note, and we just had to keep going,” says Zach, who says that recording “Marietta” in particular was daunting—especially the moment near the end when he hits an anguished high note, bends it even higher, and holds it for an impossibly long time. It’s a startling display of vocal range, but it’s also almost unbearably raw in its emotional honesty.
“‘Marietta’ is probably the darkest song on the whole record,” Zach explains, “and it’s based on something that happened between my wife and me. The band was getting ready to record that song when all of a sudden my wife showed up with our youngest baby. It was a great surprise, a beautiful moment. So I was able to go out and sing that song, knowing she was there to help me carry the moment.”
“These are true stories,” says Brian. “These aren’t things we made up. We tried to write some songs that had nothing to do with our personal stories, but we just didn’t respond to them. But we’re best buds, so we know each others’ personal stuff and trust each other to figure out what needs to be said and how to say it.” Case in point: Brian wrote “Call to War” about his own struggles during his twenties, but gave the song to Kanene to sing. “The content is painful and brutal,” she says, “but the imagery, the vocals, they build something delicate and ethereal. That kind of contrast illuminates the true beauty and power of a song.”
Says Brian, “We do this one thing together, and we carry each other. Hopefully that makes the listener want to be a part of it. It becomes a communal thing, which means that there’s never a sad song to sing. It’s more a celebration of the light and the dark.”
-Descendant Records
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If You Don't Love Me
The Lone Bellow Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Keep my heart and take it where you go
You never came close, a million miles from my soul
So just move along, move along
If you don't love me, if you don't love me
Leave me and let me go
Leave me and let me go
Fallen embers from a flamin' sky
Spinnin' red, make a way out into the night
I could be out in the daytime huntin' out a passerby
When you're howlin' at the moon, howlin' at the moon
If you don't love me, if you don't love me
If you don't love me, if you don't love me
Leave me and let me go
Leave me and let me go
Can you tell me how a heart can move on
Can you break what binds me, whatever it was
From the lifeless ashes, what we've become
Can you tell me, tell me, tell me
If you don't love me, if you don't love me
If you don't love me, if you don't love me
Leave me and let me go
Leave me and let me go
The Lone Bellow's "If You Don't Love Me" is a song about wanting to move on from a one-sided love. The "fallen embers from a flamin’ rose" refer to the remnants of a love that once burned bright but has now faded. The singer wants to be released from the unrequited love and asks the person who doesn't reciprocate their feelings to leave them and let them go. The repetitive chorus emphasizes the need for closure and acceptance of the situation.
The second verse compares the fiery remnants of a love to a "flamin' sky" that spins red and creates a path out into the night. The singer contemplates the idea of finding someone else ("hunting out a passerby") but is reminded of the one who doesn't love them through the imagery of howling at the moon. The song's bridge addresses the difficulty of moving on from someone who once held a tight grip on their heart - "Can you tell me how a heart can move on? Can you break what binds me, whatever it was? From the lifeless ashes, what we've become, can you tell me, tell me, tell me?"
Overall, "If You Don't Love Me" is a poignant and relatable portrayal of unbalanced love and the desire to move on from it.
Line by Line Meaning
Fallen embers from a flamin' rose
The remnants of a love that has died are the only thing that remain
Keep my heart and take it where you go
Take my heart with you, even if you don't love me back
You never came close, a million miles from my soul
You were never close to my heart, far away in distance and emotion
So just move along, move along
Just go and leave me be
If you don't love me, if you don't love me
If you don't love me back
Leave me and let me go
Just leave me alone and let me move on
Fallen embers from a flamin' sky
The remnants of a once passionate relationship are still present
Spinnin' red, make a way out into the night
The passion has turned into a dangerous and destructive force
I could be out in the daytime huntin' out a passerby
Searching for someone who will love me back
When you're howlin' at the moon, howlin' at the moon
When you're lost in your own world with no room for me
Can you tell me how a heart can move on
Is it possible to let go of the past and move on?
Can you break what binds me, whatever it was
Can you release me from the hold you have on me?
From the lifeless ashes, what we've become
We've become nothing but the remains of a broken relationship
If you don't love me, if you don't love me
If you don't love me back
Leave me and let me go
Just go and leave me be
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: JACK WILLIAMS, HENRY COOPER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind