We’re a little late to be doing a 2023 wrap up, but that’s par for the course in our band. 2023 has been our most fun year yet, and we thought we’d share some memories from the year, as well as goals and things we’re excited for in 2024! Here is what each band member had to say.
Molly:
There were a lot of fun memories with the band this year, it's hard to actually just pick one. Our trip to Galax was definitely near the top but I feel like my actual favorite experiences were all the little moments we had hanging out together and becoming closer friends. Like picking wild flowers from the side of the road to bring to whatever gigs we were on the way to or splitting free dessert after we packed up our sound equipment. I'm really grateful to get to play with Madeline and Danielle. They have encouraged me to start writing and their own talent has pushed me to try and become a better musician. I think my favorite song this year may have been Danielle’s “Whippoorwill” and my favorite tune is Madeline's “Gm Tune.” It's been wonderful to see this band start getting really cool gigs, even though many of our favorites have been the smallest. I'm really looking to our first album releasing and hope for a busy 2024!
Danielle:
Oh boy haha, a favorite memory is hard. Molly’s right, exploring a little and just the breaks we take between playing are good times for us. I would say - we took a fun little tubing trip after playing for a camp this summer. It was a beautiful place, we saw a good many rainbow trout, and fell off in the river plenty of times. But there’s so many other good memories too. I think my favorite song right now is Grandpa’s Coat. It has a distinct mountain sound, and the melody changes in a way that takes you on a new, and old adventure through the mountains. It really gets to the root of our upbringing. The song sort of reflects on parents & grandparents who’ve passed down the coolest of traditions around here. Madeline wrote it, but I think a lot of people will feel like it’s their story too. I think my favorite tune is Myriam’s Dream. As a band, it’s so fun to jam D tunes; we get on this telepathy kinda kick when we play stuff like that. It’s so fun. Myriam’s Dream has this really sweet twist in it that is just beautiful and I love playing it. As for goals, I should probably narrow down my goals haha I want to do everything. As a band I’m looking forward to what we have lined up this year. I think getting as tight on our original songs as we are on fiddle tunes, and just musically getting locked in is always a priority. Nothing is quite as fun as a fiddle tune though, haha. For our album release, I want to get our music in the hands of people who resonate with it. I’m proud of the collection of songs we have! Of course, being the cough cough, crazy band mate, I hope we get to do more cool stuff together. Maybe some places we play will let us ride their horses or take us fly fishing or something. One more serious note, it’d be fun to play The Station Inn as a band. So people with connections, feel free to act on that hahaha. Looking forward to seeing old friends out there & meeting new ones this year!
Madeline:
My favorite memory of 2023 has to be our band retreat to Galax, Va. We spent a long weekend camping on the banks of the New River, where we did some swimming and river exploring, and a certain band member I won’t name did some accidental flailing around in the mud. We had fires at night and made s’mores, and we spent hours each day playing new material. We even worked up three new songs that have been lots of fun since then: “Pilgrim”, an old hymn that we sing acapella; “Lawn Mowing Crows,” an original celtic tune; and “Whipoorwill,” an original song that will be on our upcoming album. Danielle and Molly also surprised me with a birthday gift and we explored a coffee shop with lots of coffee related puns in Sparta, NC. My favorite song of 2023 was “Stronger,” a really lovely waltz Molly wrote about growing and changing that has always really spoken to me. It also features a fun fiddle kick and a nice harmony that I love singing, and Molly rips a 3-finger solo in the middle. My favorite tune was probably the “Gm tune.” We had so much fun arranging this, and I got to watch it slowly morph from a slower celtic tune into an uptempo, full-on bluegrass one. When we met with our producer, Ryan, to work it up for the album, Danielle had the last minute idea to put an interlude in the middle of the tune where we trade off breaks, and it sounds great live and recorded. It’s always magical to have a tune and take it to the band and see it turn into something that really sounds like music! My practical goal for 2024 is to focus in on releasing our album and make sure we do the best rollout that we can pull off. On the more fun side, I want to spend 2024 diving more deeply into arranging and writing songs that are specifically written for the Wilder Flower to play. We’ve been slowly honing in on a collective sound in our arranging and to some extent, our songwriting, and I want to continue that process. I also want to spend more time practicing, start taking voice lessons, and make sure we have plenty of time to hangout outside of gigs!
Thanks for following along! We’re booking for 2024 now and would love to play in your city/state/home/event this year! If you’re interesting in hiring us, or have a venue or festival to recommend, please send us an email wilderflowermusic@gmail.com or contact us through our website. We hope your 2024 is off to a great start, and that we get to see you at a show soon!