The Ghost of Paul Revere has released their final album aptly named Goodbye. Released on the tastemaker label Americana Vibes, and featuring the band’s—Griffin Sherry [guitar, vocals], Max Davis [banjo, vocals], Sean McCarthy [bass, vocals], and Chuck Gagne [drums, vocals]—signature blend of folk, bluegrass, rock, country, and Americana rooted in ponderous lyricism and raucous energy, Goodbye is both an offering of gratitude to fans and a celebration.
Sherry talked about the new album and the news of ending the band by saying, “I hope listeners love the songs and want to keep listening to them for as long as they’ve got ears.” He continues with “I do think it is a good moment in time for us. I hope the whole body of work shows you the journey we’ve been on from where we started to how we got here. We took a lot of chances and integrated different types of music and instruments, but the core has been there since 2011. That core is we care about the songs, their quality, and singing on them with as much passion as possible.
I hope Goodbye shows that a group of friends can go out in the world, sing those songs, and be rewarded for it. Maybe it inspires other people to take a chance and realize creating can be a really wonderful thing to do. It has been for us.”
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The friendship between musicians that Sherry speaks of is, no doubt, at the core of this release. The foursome met in Maine, formed the band in 2011 and went on to release three full-length albums before Goodbye including Believe [2014], Monarch [2017], and Good At Losing Everything [2020]—followed by the EP series Field Notes, Vol. 1-3. In their decade of banddom, they’ve shared the stage with The Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Revivalists, Trampled By Turtles, and The Infamous Stringdusters. Through the course of their career, they rose to headliner status and played over 1,200 shows. And their song “Ballad of the 20th Maine” was ratified as the official State Ballad of Maine by Governor Janet Mills. They launch their own destination experience and one of the Northeast’s most popular independent festivals, Ghostland now in its eighth year. To close out the new album and their final tribute, the band made their final descent onto Ghostland, for their final show this past September 3.
Looking back at their career McCarthy says, “The most prevalent emotion is gratitude,” and Sherry added, “We were able to build the band by creating what we wanted to create, writing what we wanted to write, and performing the way we wanted to perform. We have a brotherhood that will hopefully endure forever, even as it changes shape. Hopefully, the songs last too.”
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The collection of songs on Goodbye feel a bit like a victory lap, one in which the band is enjoying the natural end to all good things and inviting fans to attend a rowdy, joyful curtain closing of sorts. The album’s origins are much like the band’s, beginning by decamping to a family cabin to reunite and write in late 2020. 48-hours of writing in ‘20 fueled the creativity to continue writing into ‘21. By the time they hit the studio with co-producer and engineer Dan Cardinal, they had decided the overall direction and opted to primarily record live.
This energy underlines the first single “Letters From The War Of Love And Loss.” Delicate acoustic guitar entwine with a soulful vocal performance and a jazz-y piano solo. Still, their boisterous knack for a sing-a-long refrain takes the spotlight. “It’s a communal song that we hope the audience would want to join in and sing along with us. This is our party tune,” says Shery.
Photo Credit: Nicole Wolf
On the other end of the musical and emotional spectrum, “Knuckle” rustles up airy guitar rife with western soundtrack-style tension as the beat simmers in the background beneath hypnotic harmonies which is an “an exploration of the idea you need an audience as an artist,” reveals Davis. “A lot of my favorite painters revered solitude and the space within the studio. You’re creating the whole opus to escape from everybody, including yourself. It’s an opportunity to get out of your own way and channel something else.”
Then, there’s “In Deep.” Max’s deftly plucked banjo rings out through this dyed-in-the-wool love letter sent straight from the heart, a song written for McCarthy’s soon-to-be-wife with the band’s combined hearts and energy.
“Vivid Dream” hinges on a head-nodding groove before a bluesy electric guitar lick kicks in, embracing the band’s rock ‘n’ roll inclinations wholeheartedly.
“The record ebbs and flows between soft songs that are more akin to what we used to do and more rocking songs with pretty good grit to them,” says Sherry.
For Ghost of Paul Revere’s final release along with their back catalog, the band has signed with Americana Vibes. Underlining the importance of this release, the label co-founder Ivory Daniel comments, “Everything that we strive for here at Americana Vibes is embodied within the music, art, and humanity behind this album, Goodbye. We’re excited to welcome the Ghosts to our family, and even more so to release this body of work while amplifying the importance of the Ghosts catalog across the globe.”
The band’s final offering, Goodbye, plays homage to the more-than-a-decade of music-making with friends. “How does one write an obituary of a ghost?” the band asked on social media when announcing their departure from the scene. The answer, of course, is hidden in the 12 songs of Goodbye.
Goodbye track listing:
At Least I Know It’s True
In My Yard
Gratefully Here
In Deep
JTE
Letters From the War of Love and Loss
Me and My Shadow
Rider
Vivid Dream
Older Lately
Knuckle
Goodbye
For more information, please visit ghostofpaulrevere.com and americanavibes.com.
By The Pier