“My earliest memory with vinyl was being in college and sitting in my friend’s house listening to The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan on some small crappy record player that was sitting in the middle of the floor.”
“The fidelity was, by digital standards, awful, but for some reason it felt right. The sound was warm and intimate. That’s when I realized that sound quality wasn’t necessarily needed for communicating the essence or message of certain kinds of music. In the case of Dylan’s early folk albums, terrible speakers were actually a plus.
That may have been the first time I really got Dylan. So much of his music for me is in his attitude. Around that time I was listening to a lot of technical music, music with lots of notes and crazy chords.
Dylan really opened me up to the idea that intentionality could mean just as much if not more than the notes you chose to play; that a simple open C chord, one of the simplest things you can play on guitar, can mean way more with the right attitude than the most elaborate and technical guitar solo ever could.
That knowing why you chose the notes you chose was more important than which notes you chose. This was a big revelation to me. Dylan’s been a big influence on me ever since then. I mean, hell, we even named the band after a Dylan song!”
—Andrew Grossman
The North Country’s brand new full length release, There is Nothing to Fear arrives in stores on April 20.
