When I think back to how I got hooked to a certain band or music genre, it can usually be pinned to one song. Now, it’s not that I enjoy just that one song and that’s it, nor onceI find a song I like does it guarantee that I’ll love the rest of the band or musician’s work. But if I’m listening to a new album, I typically need something to catch my ear within the first five or so tracks to keep me listening. These are the ones that roped me in.
Fans of the Omaha-based label Saddle Creek might recognize the duo that makes up Big Harp, Chris Senseney and Stefanie Drootin-Senseney. Both preformed in various bands and musicians on the label (Senseny with Art in Manilia, Drootin with The Good Life, Bright Eyes, She & Him, and others), before uniting, in both music and marriage. The song is the sixth track off of the band’s sophomore album, “Chain Letters,” a considerably more developed, electric and ragged sound than their first, “White Hat.”
It might be weird to choose a representative song that isn’t a single off the album, but “No Trouble at All” stuck out considerably during my first, second and third listening. It’s the dark and fuzzy texture, the toe-tapping rhythm, the high electric reverb that first attracted me. But when Senseney’s rich voice dips into the low notes for the chorus melody, that was the moment of “This is good.”
The lyrics are comparatively dark and brooding to Senseney’s voice, discernible enough against the jagged guitar riffs that accompany. Although the lyrics have not yet been posted online, I’ve listened to this song enough to be able to sing along. Really, it’s hard not to.
I’d compare it to: This song in particular reminds me a lot of The Black Keys, although the album as whole veers more towards electric folk.