Screw the Partridges. Hymn for Her is redefining the family band.
The entire brood hits the road, taking its music to the masses the old-fashioned way — one hard-earned mile at a time, covering blacktop and kicking up highway dust as Mom, Dad, the little one, and the pooch crisscross this great nation in a vintage 1961 Airstream Bambi that's home, recording studio, and tour bus.
It's a dream come true for the nomadically inclined. And that's about as far as the comparison to the Partridges goes. Because Hymn for Her probably has more in common with the Flying Wallendas.
Only the patriarch, Wayne Waxing (vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo, dobro, harp, and percussion), and the matriarch, who goes by the handle Lucy Tight (vocals and three-stringed broom-handle cigar-box guitar), actually take the stage as this Philly-based outfit tours from Tennessee to Tiburon. It's a band of two. But it's also a family of four, including Lucy and Wayne's toddler daughter and dog.
"The sound is tight and small and round and live," says Lucy, referring specifically to the duo's latest record, Lucy & Wayne and the Amairican Stream.
Hymn for Her lies somewhere between country, bluegrass, alternative, and rock. It's a stripped-down swamp stomp driven by Wayne's ability to multitask and Lucy's use of a cigar-box guitar, a gift they received from a friend who crafts these unique, old-timey instruments.
"I definitely see the cigar-box guitar as a part of our sound," Lucy says. "The cigar-box guitar is a part of our sound for good."
But there's a lot more to Lucy & Wayne and the Amairican Stream than a campy, swampy sound. Honest and personal, the album was inspired by "the road and traveling and family," she says. "Traveling with family on the road, and just the difference of that versus how we might have traveled before, without a family.
"You know, we're free," Lucy insists. "We started traveling with her as a baby. Neither one of us knew anything about kids. But we just figured out how to make life [on the road] work with this little, wild, rabid person."
