Colony House (ALL AGES)

Colony House lead singer Caleb Chapman reflects on a conversation with his dad about their new album: he wasn’t sure if it was the best thing they’d ever done or just more of the same. “And wouldn’t that be great...” his dad replies. Colony House’s fifth studio album, 77, is both a sonic departure and a spiritual arrival — a retro-futurist meditation on eternity, nostalgia, and the invisible threads that hold us together. Rooted in the aesthetics of ’90s sound, 77 finds the Franklin, Tennessee–raised four-piece — brothers Caleb and Will Chapman, alongside Scott Mills and Parke Cottrell — reaching beyond what can be seen, touched, or easily explained.

“77, the number, means a lot of things to a lot of people,” Caleb explains. “Biblically, it’s the number of forgiveness. Spiritually, it represents reassurance and provision. For us, it's become a symbol of eternal perspective—a lens to look at love, loss, and life with a little more intention and remind us that we are right where we’re meant to be.”

While their previous record, The Cannonballers, celebrated the rush and recklessness of youth — “A short ride with a couple twists and turns,” as Caleb described it — 77 slows the pace without losing momentum. Where The Cannonballers sprinted through the backroads of Tennessee chasing down freedom, 77 invites listeners on a soul-searching cruise. Sonically, 77 represents a no-nonsense, band-forward approach that mirrors the raw energy of Colony House’s live performance. “We meet people all the time that comment about how our records don’t always fully capture the sound and energy of a Colony House live show,” says guitarist Scott Mills. “So we're trying to close that gap.”

Lyrically the album stays earnest and sincere while avoiding taking itself too seriously. Themes of faith, forgiveness, and the journey through time run like power lines through the record. “It’s about looking backward and forward at the same time,” Caleb adds. The band — known for emotion-driven, heart-on-sleeve rock and roll — calls 77 a natural evolution: maturing and longing without pretending to have all the answers.

Since their 2014 debut When I Was Younger, which featured the breakout single “Silhouettes” (the #1 most-played track on Sirius XM’s Alt Nation for four consecutive months), Colony House has become an influential voice in modern indie rock. Their 2017 follow-up, Only the Lonely, expanded their sonic palette, fusing vintage surf rock with heartfelt storytelling. The standout track “You Know It” became a viral hit on TikTok and Instagram Reels and its inclusion in a global Samsung Mobile campaign helped propel it past 100 million streams.

In February 2020, just before the world changed, Colony House released Leave What’s Lost Behind — a cinematic and ambitious album that culminated in a self-produced feature film, Everybody’s Looking For Some Light, which premiered at two sold-out drive-in events in their hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. The film was an official selection at the Nashville and Knoxville Film Festivals.

Colony House has brought their live sound to major stages and festivals including Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Shaky Knees, Firefly, and WonderBus. National broadcast appearances include The Today Show, MTV Live, VH1’s Morning Buzz, CONAN, and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

For mercury — the project architected by Maddie Kerr — songwriting is a form of survival, a means of finding clarity in an often cruel world. Hailing from the rural outskirts of Franklin, Tennessee, music has been everything she’s known, dating back to the day 22 years ago when Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” blasted as she was born.

The artist’s latest three-track project, comprised of “Born in Early May,” “Special,” and “Crick,” was born from a difficult period of personal hardship. Accompanied by a monumental short film directed by Harrison Shook and set to be unleashed in June 2024, the collection — titled “Together We Are One, You And I,” — wanders through the depths of human suffering and emerges resilient. Infinite black voids, spiritual iconography, and the scarlet glow of embers and flames define the three-part extended music-short film, which follows Kerr and a cast of characters from different walks of life. Through narrative vignettes, contemporary dance, and poetic abstractions, these individuals are connected by grief, pain, and loss.

“Born in Early May” was a personal breakthrough for Kerr, the beginning of chipping through an emotional block. “It was the first time in a while I’ve allowed myself to put my emotions into words and to tell myself that it’s okay, I’m allowed to be hurt,” she says. Recorded in Asheville, North Carolina with Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Snail Mail, Indigo de Souza), this trio of songs pushes Kerr’s fiery rock songwriting toward cathartic new heights. “Born in Early May” is a thrashing opening track where despairing images are elevated by raw, pummeling guitar and Kerr’s riveting vocals.

The second song, “Special,” opens with a scene of surrender: “Removed my clothes / The color left my face / Lowered my body into the water.” Nature and elemental wonder are recurring motifs for Kerr, present in earlier singles “Woolgathering” and “Trying.” In “Special,” she finds solace in underwater depths: “When I think about being in a dark place mentally, it feels like I’m suspended in the deepest part of the ocean with nothing around me.”

If “Born in Early May” looks outward, “Crick” directs its gaze inward. “When I was writing ‘Crick’ I was angry at myself for not being able to say what I meant in moments where I really needed to,” Kerr says. “I was angry at other people for not giving me the opportunity to speak for myself, but part of that was because I had waited too long to get my own words together.” Mounted with towers of guitars, the song hurtles toward a grungy conclusion that acts as a reminder: sometimes noise can convey an inner chaos beyond words.

Writing these songs has been part of a journey of figuring out her emotions and allowing herself to feel and speak about them. Having made early noise with last year’s releases “Trying” and “Woolgathering” — which garnered attention from Nylon, Paste Magazine, Under the Radar, Billboard, and FLOODFM and landed on numerous Spotify and Apple playlists — the full force of mercury’s latest tracks is presented as companionship on the listener’s own journey through despair.

Tracks:
- "Born in Early May"
- "Special"
- "Crick"