Music + Culture

[HOMESPUN]

Putting in the Work

Jack Grelle to release new album If Not Forever while prepping for a European tour

Written by CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

After he released his album Got Dressed Up to Be Let Down, the local singer-songwriter Jack Grelle spent plenty of time on the road performing his mix of rock, folk and honky-tonk music. Much of that time in the van took him and his band across the United States, but in the past few years he’s traveled to Europe on three separate occasions. Sometimes he’d perform solo sets or serve as a warm-up act for Pokey LaFarge’s thousand-seat theater shows; sometimes he’d tour alongside a Spanish krautrock/psych band; and sometimes he’d perform his music with a hodge-podge backing band that traipsed with him around Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

Grelle is a musician who borrows liberally from a few American traditions, from strident political folk ballads to tear-stained country ballads, and the European crowds would respond in various ways to his performances.

“It’s an interesting thing, because it’s a mix, of who comes out and who is into it, country to country,” Grelle says of his overseas gigs. “For lack of a better term there’s almost a fetishization of country music and Americana over there, and people that are super into the retro look — I’ve played at places where they have a cowboy theme night when I play.

“Then there are wonderful shows where it’s a complete mix of ages and what people generally listen to,” he continues. “It’s been really interesting and wonderful to have those opportunities.” Grelle will continue to pursue those opportunities for cross-cultural pollination this spring when he returns to the continent, this time with the support of multi-instrumentalist Sam Golden. On this trip, he’ll have a new batch of songs to play from his

Jack Grelle’s new album uses a country sound to tell stories of working-class struggle on a human level. | NATE BURRELL

forthcoming LP If Not Forever, for which he’ll have a local release show on March 20 at Off Broadway.

But before he put the finishing touches on that album, Grelle took another international trip — one that, by design, had nothing to do with music. He enrolled in a language program in the Mexican state of Chiapas. While there, he led the life of a backpacker with ascetic living conditions and a rigorous program of study.

“I’ve been studying Spanish a lot over the past few years, mainly due to my time in Spain where I got to tour with some buddies in a band called Sufre,” Grelle says. “After that tour I thought, ‘I need to really get back to the grammar if I’m going to improve my language skills.’

“It was maybe the best trip I’ve ever had,” he continues. “It was really cool to have an international trip that wasn’t musical but was educational and cultural, and it was very humbling.” And after years of gigging, he felt liberated from the grind of touring. “It was really, really nice to just have a backpack and not have to worry about gear or a van or wrangling the band or anything like that,” Grelle says.

The trip to Mexico was a reprieve before the official launch of If Not Forever, an album whose songs show Grelle at a time of maturity and transition; in place of raucous honky-tonk sit slower, gentler songs accented with horn charts or suffused with a string quartet. Though Grelle tracked a few elements of the album at two Cherokee Street studios — Native Sound and Yellow Hat — the bulk of the tracking was done at Chicago’s Jamdek Recording Studio, primarily to work with producer Cooper Crain.

“He’s in the band Cave and Bitchin’ Bajas — he’s originally from Columbia, Missouri, and I know him from there,’” Grelle says of Crain. “He’s always been the vibe-guy guru around town and I’ve always wanted to work with him.”

Crain’s bands tend toward the experimental side of things, which made him an atypical producer for an act like Grelle. “This record isn’t a classic honky-tonk record by any means, and I thought it would be fun to work with someone who’s definitely not from that world, to try to get it more evolved in the sound,” says Grelle.

That evolution will be on display at the March 20 album release show, where in addition to Grelle’s usual backing band he’ll be joined by a string quartet, a few of the players from the album’s Chicago sessions and a few local friends. But no matter the setting, Grelle’s songwriting remains at the center of his work. His songs tend to ask questions about social classes and aim for a kind of universal solidarity. The loping “Out Where the Buses Don’t Run” tells of an encounter with an eccentric and generous homeless man, and elsewhere on the album he tackles big issues with a tight focus.

He describes “It Ain’t Working” as a “generational song,” outlining the story of a whole working-class family. “Mom’s working nights, dad’s a union man,” Grelle says. “Kids are crammed sharing a bed. It’s kind of a short story of class stratification.” In the song, Grelle keeps the specifics of the story a bit vague, but in conversation he says that he had the communities of north county and north city in mind — neighborhoods that were formerly populated by lower- and middle-class white families but are now communities of color.

“The idea is about working-class solidarity across racial lines; the whole concept in general is a critique on capitalism,” Grelle says. “Is it working for everybody? I wanted to have a simple song, but I’ve also learned that pointing fingers doesn’t work. If we want to have a conversation we can’t be doing that.” n

The Word Is the Weapon

St. Louis’ Leethal the Poet holds nothing back on new growthcentered spoken word album

Written by YMANI WINCE

It was a stacked Leap Day weekend in St. Louis last month, with more than half a dozen worthy music-related events happening on a Friday night in south city. On social media, it was unclear which shows would generate the most attendees, or how many showcases folks could attend. But it was a generous turnout on Virgina Avenue, where more than two dozen people packed a Victorian-style home to hear the latest from one of St. Louis’ most buzzed poets.

Such an event might conjure imagery of brooding hipsters with cigarettes, or overheard conversations filled with narcissism and condescension. But forget all that. In its stead were the pulsing sounds of trap music and a waft of weed, rotel dip and chicken, incense and everything in between. As people mingled amongst couches, balloons and spiked lemonade mixes, Leethal the Poet surveyed the scene.

“We’re gonna start in five minutes,” she said, motioning around the room with her hand.

Poetry as an art, and more so spoken word as a practice, typically does not elicit listening parties or draw crowds for album drops. Those types of ventures usually feature poetry within a larger body of work — singing and rapping. But Leethal doesn’t see it that way.

“People make it seem like poetry isn’t rap, but the ‘p’ in rap means poetry,” she told her guests.

It’s a belief that has been with Leethal for as long as she’s been a writer. A frequent performer at area spoken-word open mics such as Lyrical Therapy and Poetic Justice, Leethal isn’t new to the talented crop of poets around the city. Her new album, ...Well Damn, is the next chapter and dark side to her previous body of work, Sea Turtle. Born Caylee Hecht, Leethal says she wanted to deliver a different kind of project for her fans this time around. “With Sea Turtle, I was very much so in a bad toxic relationship, and I was in the process of healing myself from that,” Hecht recalls. “With ...Well

It’s unfiltered content — banter between women doing the thing they all do best. At its core, ...Well Damn was created solely by women.

Leethal the Poet’s latest, ...Well Damn, is a darker project than her previous work. | VIA THE ARTIST

Damn, it was me taking control of the situations I had a part to play in. I was also reclaiming my time.” ...Well Damn explores the sort of growing pains and realizations that happen at this stage of adulthood. For the 27-year-old, it was learning the value of herself, and withdrawing from relationships both romantic and platonic that were no longer positive. Hecht’s ability to put complex emotions into simple yet impactful stanzas is why her work has been well received by her fans time and time again. She’s a favorite at open mics, and won a Slumfest award for Best Poet in 2019. A poet with strong feelings about life’s inevitable lessons, her latest focuses on concepts of self-actualization, accountability, confidence and growth. Sea Turtle was the opposite of that. With ...Well Damn, listeners get the opportunity to experience what Leethal calls “the dark side of the moon.” It’s a description that is aptly placed. We get to hear all about letting go, while also drawing closer.

“I was dealing with a lot of manipulation and hollow friendships,” she says. “I was very angry.”

As each track plays, Leethal explains the piece’s concept to her audience, truly honing in on where she was in her life, and how each piece came to be. Every explanation is informal and therapeutic, in a way. While it was her time to shine and celebrate the completion of a body of work, she opted to take her audience deeper into selfexploration and actualization.

“I can own my shit,” she says calmly. “When you own your shit, nobody can call you on it, right?” The audience agrees.

...Well Damn grapples with Leethal being herself completely, as well as mulling over the events that make the album what it is. Each track is preceded by skits, or snippets of conversations in the studio Leethal had with her friends during the production of her album. It’s unfiltered content — banter between women doing the thing they all do best.

And that was intentional. At its core, ...Well Damn was created solely by women. About 98 percent of the tracks were produced by female producer Volume Speaks and engineered entirely by Lexxiiibeatz — both producers who’ve battled and dominated at Fresh Produce, the monthly beat battle in the Grove. Volume and Leethal have been friends for several years, and the latter saw this as an opportunity for Volume to have her beats on a body of work. Likewise, Leethal says Lexxiiibeatz was a friend who’s always believed in her talent.

“This was very important to me,” Hecht says. “I felt that it would be very empowering to have all women, because I don’t think it’s been done before. I was like, ‘Y’all let’s do it!’”

Even if you were to have no knowledge of her abilities as a writer and performer, Leethal has the sort of draw that makes her aura undeniable. She speaks with a soothing, raspy lower register, and her words flow with tranquility, even when she delivers venomous lines. That venom comes from Leethal’s past ways of handling her anger. With this album, she noticed a visible shift in herself.

“This is one of the first times I was actually able to accept that I’m upset and angry, and not have to weaponize it,” she says. “I’m cool with not being friends with certain individuals, just don’t talk to me.”

Like many writers and poets, Leethal says she finds comfort and healing in her writing. She considers her talent to be a blessing to herself, as well as the listeners that feel moved by her words. But, ultimately, she is firm on who her writing is actually for: herself.

“Honestly, it sounds really selfish, and I feel like all artists need to make this honest statement: My poetry is for me first,” she says. “I’m not a role model, I’m the example. I can only give you a blueprint.” n

Wheels of STL

St. Louis skateboarding legend Steve Berra boosts local skate talent

Written by JENNA JONES

St. Louis’ own professional skater Steve Berra first heard about Tyler Peterson on Instagram almost six years ago. Peterson tagged Berra in one of the videos he posted of himself skateboarding. When he watched the video, Berra noticed three things about Peterson. “[The] first thing I noticed was his funny blue helmet, which made him look like a kid. The second thing I noticed was that not even some of the best pros were doing the tricks he was doing so effortlessly,” Berra wrote in the description of the YouTube video. “Third thing I noticed was that he was from St. Louis and being from St. Louis myself,

Tyler Peterson skates through St. Louis in “Never Stop Pushing.” | SCREENGRAB VIA YOUTUBE

I paid extra special attention because I saw a lot of me in Tyler.”

Peterson and Berra do have a lot of the same qualities. The two moved at the ages of seventeen and eighteen, respectively, to California to kickstart their professional careers. Both skaters married young — Berra married Juliette Lewis, film icon of the ’90s, at the age of 26. (They’ve since divorced.) Peterson married his high school sweetheart at the age of twenty. Both are fathers. Both still have their passion for skating.

Now, the professional skaters teamed up for a new mission to make their own video series titled “Never Stop Pushing.” Peterson stars in the inaugural five-minute clip. The two have spent the last three months recording the video on and off. It digs into Peterson’s life as a skater in St. Louis.

“Everything is based in St. Louis for me,” Peterson says in the video.

As the 21-year-old is seen skating through the streets of St. Louis with the Arch behind him, the story goes deeper. Peterson lost his dad at the age of twenty and then became one himself just three months later. His son, Azai, was born prematurely after a routine checkup went south for his now-wife Maryah.

These tragedies never stopped Peterson, though. He had his father in mind as he recounted the lessons he had learned in the video — how to take care of his family, how to be kind to others, how to be a good person, and perhaps the most important one. “He always told me, ‘Never stop pushing,’” Peterson said.

Berra posted the teaser to the video to his Instagram account in late February. In the caption, Berra describes Peterson as a humble young skater.

“I’m so proud of him and could’ve spent hours telling his story. However, these five minutes will have to suffice for now,” Berra wrote.

The “Never Stop Pushing” video is the first of many, according to the Instagram post. You can watch the videos yourself on The Berrics’ YouTube channel. n

RESEARCH PARTICIPATION OPPORTUNITY We are recruiting adults for a study examining stress and cognition at Saint Louis University. Compensation is provided upon study completion.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: • Ages 45 and older • No history of heart attack or stroke • Not diagnosed with dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or Cushing’s Disease • Not a current tobacco user • No current psychiatric condition • Not currently taking corticosteroids, psychiatric, or neurological medications

WHAT WILL YOU BE ASKED TO DO? • Participate in one 2-hour research session • Complete speach and math tasks • Complete decision making tasks • Provide saliva samples and heart rate measures

IF YOU ARE 45 YEARS OR OLDER, PLEASE CONTACT SARA MCMULLIN AT 314-977-2296 | SMCMULL1@SLU.EDU