Hymn for Her turn up the heat with new album

They say a rolling stone gathers no moss, and for the last two years, Wayne Waxing and Lucy Tight, who perform as Hymn for Her, have more or less lived by the motto.

Describing themselves as a band that hails from “anywhere they can park their trailer,” Hymn for Her has spent the last two years recording and touring nonstop in their 16-foot aluminum Airstream trailer with their daughter, Diver, and late black Labrador, Pocahontas, to whom their new album is dedicated.

For the last four months, the Philadelphia natives have hung their proverbial hats in Sarasota, and they say being rooted to one city has been a welcome change.

“This is the first time in years that we’ve spent a decent amount of time in one area,” says Lucy Tight. “We’ve mostly lived on the road. But, it’s been a nice change; we’ve been able to write and start getting things ready for our next album.”

The duo recently released its third album, along with its own signature banana habanero hot sauce: an original Waxing recipe, which he assures can salvage even the cheapest of venue pizzas.

The LP, titled “Lucy and Wayne’s Smokin’ Flames,” is a 12-track hayride to hell, driven by soulful kick drum stomps, blazing cigar-box guitar leads and quirky banjo lines. Lyrical themes include highway solitude, the desert and mortality. On the third track, “Trash the Sun,” the band puts a Lucy-and-Wayne spin on the David Bowie classic, “Space Oddity.”

Their unique blend of roots, punk, blues and rockabilly has evolved since they first started playing together.



“Learning how to be parents, we started playing minimal, folk music with just two acoustic instruments and two vocals,” says Waxing. “Then, we incorporated the kick drum and hi-hat and the cigar-box guitar to lift up the energy.”

Juggling the duties of acoustic guitar, banjo, cigar-box guitar, harmonica and kick drum and hi-hat, the duo belts out a live performance with a deceptively full sound. And, their choice of instruments helps them achieve the primitive roots vibe they strive to produce.

“It’s kind of the beginning — it’s how music began,” says Waxing.

“There’s an energy to it," adds Tight. "People can just feel the basic rhythm. It’s something simple, and I think people are attracted to that.”



After a few months of Sarasota living, Waxing and Tight say they’ve enjoyed being connected to a city and the sense of community they’ve found in friends and local musicians, but the call of the road is never far away. On the heels of their album release and the successful six-month Kickstarter campaign that funded it, Hymn for Her is preparing for another big tour beginning later this month.

“Being in one place for a chunk of time makes us realize how important it is for us to be out there as much as possible,” says Waxing. “It’s important to meet people, befriend people and share music and ideas.”

Visit www.hymnforher.com or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hymnforher3 for more information.