Screw the Partridge Family. Hymn For Her is redefining the family band.
The whole 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, and the little one crisscross this great nation of ours.
It's a dream come true for the nomadically inclined. And probably as far as that comparison to the Partridges is going to get us. Because Hymn For Her probably have more in common with The Flying Wallendas.
Only the family patriarch, one 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 Hymn For Her tours from Tennessee to Tiburon. It's a band of two. But it's is also a family of four, including Lucy and Wayne's toddler and the family dog.
Hymn For Her lies somewhere between country, bluegrass, alternative and rock. "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. It's a stripped-down swamp stomp driven both 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. "Definitely, 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 just a campy, swampy sound. Honest and personal, the album was inspired by "the road and traveling and family," the matriarch says. "Traveling with family on the road. And just the difference of that versus how we might have travelled before, without a family.
"You know, we're free," Lucy insists. "We started travelling with her as a baby. Neither one of us knew anything about kids. But we just figured out how to make life work with this little, wild, rabid person."
Hymn For Her. Tuesday, May 17. The Stage, 170 NE 38th St., Miami. The show starts at 10 p.m. Visit thestagemiami.com.
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