The band's core members - Andy Poliakoff, lead vocals, guitar; Paul Ottinger, keyboards, percussion, guitar, vocals and Jarrett Nicolay, bass, guitar, banjo, vocals – have always delighted fans with their ability to confound expectations. On previous albums, their songs often featured arrangements that veered off in unanticipated directions moving from funk to rock, from go go to soul. “It'‟s good being eclectic,” says Poliakoff, the band's main lyricist and frequent spokesperson. “It keeps you on your toes musically, and it's fun, but we wanted to get back to some serious songwriting. In the past few years, we were writing for the live shows, endless groove things that are far from what we wrote when we were starting out. We wanted to get back to that original creative impulse and focus on our songwriting.”
The band ventured cross country to California and got to work, challenging themselves to find a more emotionally intense means of expression. “There's a value to the time you put into a project,” Poliakoff explains. “We didn‟t allow ourselves to be satisfied with the first, or even third version of a song. We're getting older, and we wanted more than bombast. We wanted to look outside ourselves and find something more reflective, more truthful, more universal, to open a new chapter in the band‟s songwriting history.” For the first time, they collaborated with other songwriters, including Brooklyn folk-rocker Ari Hest, New Orleans-based bluesman Anders Osborne, Maia Sharp who wrote “A Home” for the Dixie Chicks, and the album‟s Producer, Marshall Altman (Marc Broussard, Matt Nathanson).
“Marshall is a phenomenal musician,” Poliakoff says. “His ability to tweak the arrangements and get us deeper into the music and our emotions was outstanding. He was there the whole time, pushing us to do better.” Ottinger adds his praise: “He‟s a strong songwriter and arranger. Every time you'd pick up a guitar and sing, he'd get down to every hook, every chord, every lyric. "Is that a strong emotion?" "Is that what you really want to say?" He helped us blend all our influences into a voice that‟s new, but still reflects our past.”
The songs on Home This Year showcase the band‟s remarkable growth as both musicians and songwriters. The title track is a tale of the loneliness and yearning that haunts the road. “Being on the road away from your family and friends for a long period can be tangibly painful," sites Poliakoff, "'Home This Year' embodies that sentiment and how singing about it can help make you feel closer to home." “Sing Along,” written with Altman, is an uplifting, anthemic song, on which Poliakoff delivers one of his most soulful vocals, both tender and passionate. It is also the first tune they've ever cut with a string section. “It was written with a conscious desire to connect with the audience,” Poliakoff explains. “We play music, but we're not different from our audience. We don‟t want people to idolize us, we want to get people to have a sense of togetherness.”
Long-time Virginia Coalition fans may be surprised by the group's evolution from "spontaneous anything goes" band to introspective, soul-searching songwriters, but it's a change the band welcomes. “We've known each other for 15 years now, and while the music is still getting better, we don't want to keep writing the same song over and over,” Poliakoff states firmly. “I'm proud to be part of a group of three friends who have gone from the basement and garage to maturity and making music that speaks from the heart. It's a struggle to make a great album, but we welcomed the opportunity to reinvent ourselves while staying true to the core of what we do.”
Virginia Coalition started building a buzz in their hometown of Alexandria, Virginia in the late '90s, releasing their first album, The Colors of the Sound, in 1998. But the three principals are life long friends who have known each other since high school, and in the case of Ottinger and Nicolay, since junior high. Ottinger wanted to be in a band since he was five years old, when his mother let him paint his face like Paul Stanley of Kiss and play air guitar with a tennis racket. Poliakoff had a guitar-playing cousin, who inspired him in the 4th grade. When he was 14, his mother was struck with cancer and eventually died; music and singing provided him with an emotional release. Nicolay's father played classical guitar. Although he was intimidated, he‟d sneak away from the family and pick out melodies on his own.
Their 2008 album "Home This Year" was critically well received, including a four-and-a-half star rating from AllMusic. They have not released new music since 2008, but as of 2018 are still actively touring, especially in the Washington DC area.
Mason Dixon
Virginia Coalition Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Take another and have you all the time
And as I'm leaving the distance magnifies
Close my eyes and find you inside
I'm way up downtown
Superstitious
Mason dixon line
like rain on the windshield
I'm moving through the night
Roaming the time zones
Filmed in black and white
You're here in my headphones
Each and every mile
Falling asleep with the lights on all night
"I'm way up downtown"
Superstitious
Mason dixon line
"I'm way up downtown"
Superstitious
Mason dixon line
he's not on time, he's always on time
Turning the deadbolt, stars turn into light
Holding his hand she'll finally sleep now
"I'm way up downtown"
Superstitious
Mason dixon line
"I'm way up downtown"
Superstitious
Mason dixon line
The first verse of Virginia Coalition's "Mason Dixon" is a picturesque representation of how memories work. The singer suggests that he will take a mental picture of a person, and keep it with him always, making the memory fixed in his mind. As he leaves, the distance between the person and him heightens the intensity of the memory, making it feel more significant, and he finds comfort in the memory. The lyric, "Close my eyes and find you inside," suggests that the memory comes alive and joins him on his current path.
The chorus of the song forms the central idea connecting the other verses. The lyrics," I'm way up downtown/ Superstitious/Mason Dixon line," suggest that the singer travels big distances frequently and transcending multiple major cities, and crossing the Mason-Dixon line. In the second verse, he speaks of his physical travels - moving through different time zones and changing landscapes, feeling the mundaneness of the black and white scenery, reminiscent of films. He also mentions finding solace in music, as his favourite tune keeps him company amidst the weariness of the journey.
The final verse of the song speaks of a specific situation of someone waiting for someone. The imagery of 'stars turning into light' suggests the change of time, the arrival of dawn, where the person waiting holds their lover's hand, and she finally finds peace in sleeping. The final repetition of "I'm way up downtown/Superstitious/Mason Dixon line" reinforces the continuity of the journey, as if the end is only a pause before the beginning of another adventure.
Line by Line Meaning
I'll take you picture and hold it in my mind
I will capture your image in my memory
Take another and have you all the time
I want to have multiple images of you with me always
And as I'm leaving the distance magnifies
My distance from you makes you appear bigger and more significant
Close my eyes and find you inside
I can still see you clearly when I close my eyes
like rain on the windshield
I feel like I am being bombarded with thoughts of you
I'm moving through the night
I am journeying through the night
Roaming the time zones
I am traveling through different time zones
Filmed in black and white
My memories of you are colorless
You're here in my headphones
I am listening to music that reminds me of you
Each and every mile
I feel you with me every step of the way, even as I travel farther away
Falling asleep with the lights on all night
I am afraid of being alone in the dark without you
he's not on time, he's always on time
Although he may be physically late, his presence is always timely
Turning the deadbolt, stars turn into light
As I lock the doors, the darkness turns to light and I feel safe with him
Holding his hand she'll finally sleep now
Being with him gives her peace and helps her to sleep
"I'm way up downtown"
Superstitious
Mason dixon line
Feeling both lost and superstitious, I am at the Mason-Dixon line- a symbolic border between two different worlds
"I'm way up downtown"
Superstitious
Mason dixon line
The repetition emphasizes the feeling of being lost and conflicted at this symbolic border
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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