The Whispers and The Whines is the second album from the New Orleans-based powerhouse rock group FLYWAY, their first in four years, as well as Volume 2 in their “Decade of Rock and Roll” series. The album release party will be at the Hi Ho Lounge on January 17.
Songwriter Naylor Stone delivers the powerful lead vocals and the underlying rhythm guitar. Three of the finest musicians performing in New Orleans and around the world today make up the rest of the band. Dr. Sick of the Squirrel Nut Zippers plays scorching lead guitar, violin, and produced the record, Aden Paul of the country/punk band Rotten Cores plays bass guitar, and Roy Durand of the Alabama-based Underhill Family Orchestra plays drums.
FLYWAY’s brand of 21st century rock is informed by the full history of popular music filtered through Stone’s one-of-a-kind musical vision and worldview. His lyrics and delivery are best described as punk and the music may seem reminiscent of alternative rock groups from the 1980s and 1990s like the Pixies and Weezer.
However since the group is rooted in New Orleans, the musical palette of the Crescent City seeps into the songs, especially through the song structures and lyrical stylings which are sometimes evocative of the heyday of New Orleans R&B in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The Whispers and The Whines is a super-charged rock ‘n’ roll diary of man vs. world—a lone soul facing down a stone cold, out-of-control world. Stone explains, “The ‘whispers’ are for the wisdom learned and the ‘whines’ are for the things you can’t control.” From the opening song, “A World to Believe In” that satirically sets the terms for us to respect our political leaders, to the last, “Lucifer Played and Sang,” which describes a techno-capitalist dictator in a scorched-earth future, the message of 21st century angst is delivered loud and clear.
Other themes bound to resonate in this post-punk, post-rock world include conversational subtleties and nuances on “Oh Me, Oh My!,” apocalyptic storm fears on “High & Dry in the Flyway,” the necessity of living in the moment on “Bigger than Life,” the travesty of homelessness on “Home,” and the damage from verbal assault on “Please Take My Gun.” The album even includes a 21st century sequel to Hank Williams’ classic lament “Cold, Cold Heart” (“Cold, Cold Breeze”).
A flyway is a bird superhighway—the major bird migration routes that encircle the globe. The inspiration for the name FLYWAY comes from the frequent travel of band members between Lafayette, Louisiana and New Orleans across the Mississippi Flyway.
