Side Stage

Spotlighting the best of local music: The Harpeth Trace
by Lesley Bargar

There’s something unbearably sad about Labor Day weekend. Under the smell of burning coals and burgers lurks the foreboding scent of freshly sharpened pencils. Pool party swimmers try to avoid the few dried leaves floating on the water’s surface. There’s a dubious undercurrent to the end-of-summer breeze—the same unspoken doom that pollutes any last hoorah—and the saccharine pop blasting from height-of-summer stereos feels a somewhat inappropriate soundtrack.

The weeks following Labor Day weekend require a different kind of pop, one beginning to dry and crack at the edges, with just a few hours less sunshine and a hint of chill in the air. This is the realm of L.A. trio the Harpeth Trace. Their dreamy pop is timeless—not to say it fits comfortably in any time, but rather their desert folk songs seem to wander detached from time in a sort of psychedelic limbo. Josh Kesselman’s guitar chimes and vintage Brit-pop vocals provide the more summery feel, while underneath it—digging its heels in like a kid on the first day of school—swirls Rob Poynter’s brushed, arrhythmic drums, Barry Poage’s sluggy bass and some warped percussive piano. Their Man and the Cousin EP captures the sound of summer slowing down into fall, and, fittingly, they’ve chosen this time of shifting seasons to hole up in the studio and record their first full-length. Of course, not before they play a show this Wednesday at Little Pedro’s. After all, we need to mourn and celebrate the withering days of summer together.

Go down your final slip and slide of the year when the Harpeth Trace play Wednesday, Sept. 13 at Little Pedro’s.