Laura Kerry
For the past decade, Will Graefe has been on the road touring with different bands, including Star Rover, Okkervil River, Petra Haden, Jesse Harris, and Landlady. In his first solo album, North America, Graefe pares way down. Shedding other group members and stepping into the forefront for the first time, the artist gets personal. Much of the LP comes from his observations and feelings from the road, an experience that reflects in the album’s bucolic folk guitar and sad, reflective vocal melodies. In North America, Graefe says, he explores “deceit, folly, addiction, wanderlust, and persistent yearning,” but underneath the somber and restless notes is a “defiant optimism.”
Both strains are visible in Graefe’s new single, “Boys.” With a light wash of mellotron, a simple acoustic picking pattern on guitar, and subdued vocals that at times resemble Elliott Smith, the first impression is somber and solitary, bringing to mind a man alone on a road under a wide sky. Underneath “Boys,” though, is a warm and comforting glow that makes it inviting.
Though intimate, the song is not completely internal. “Please don’t speak / ‘Cause we’ve had too much to drink / ...Please don’t speak and I’ll hear you,” Graefe sings on the chorus, welcoming communication without words from the one he addresses throughout the song. About connections and disconnections on the road, “Boys” is good companionship on any roads you happen down this summer.