Most musicians used the forced isolation of the pandemic for inner reflection, or going back and polishing some partially finished work. Los Angeles-based trio The Furious Seasons instead created a musical documentary of a life-changing period of time, entitled Home All Day, Home All Night. Songwriter and guitarist David Steinhart has a particular gift for lyrically capturing the moment of an event, even when that moment lasts months. Brother Jeff Steinhart builds a musical foundation with bass and then P.A. Nelson adds guitar flourishes that layer on a sound that pushes well past what most people think of as folk music.
7420 is perhaps the flagship song of the album. It’s kind of folk and kind of jazz, and encapsulates so much of what we were all feeling in the telling of what it was like to watch the Independence Day fireworks. Is This Happening is a little more uptempo, with a traveling beat that supports the opening line, “I can’t get used to these empty streets.” Lovely Backyard adds a touch of country twang to a recounting of a moving-back event where best wishes come in the form of a little envy of what’s outside the back door.
A few of the songs on the record stray a bit from the pandemic theme, at least on the surface. We Finally Get Fall perfectly captures the once-a-year experience in much of California when the first rain of the season arrives. The ballad summarizes “when it starts coming down, it’s like being out of town” less as an a-ha moment and more as a slowly dawning realization. We Go Down is a love song, a romance really, wrapped up as a story about going with Rosalee to their favorite spot in a borrowed red Ford van. The trio also does a majestic, but slower version of Bowie’s classic, Changes.
At its core, Home All Day, Home All Night is undoubtedly a folk record. It’s a bunch of stories about ordinary people’s lives put to music. But the intricate arrangements and instrumental interplay create a rich, textured sound that’s as much Mozart as it is Woody Guthrie. If you’re not familiar with the trio, I recommend grabbing a set of quality noise-cancelling headphones and settling in with The Furious Seasons.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.