Edison

Edison’s “Open Road” is an upbeat piece of acoustically-inclined folk, all harmonicas and handclaps and good cheer. It’s stylistically similar to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, especially their smash hit “Home”. You’ve got the obvious—“home is wherever our feet go” vs. “home is wherever I’m with you”; the invocation of the South, Edison’s Phoenix and Tennessee contrasted with the Zeros’ Alabama and Arkansas—but the main similarity is the tone of the two pieces. They’re both unbreakably positive, male-female harmonies heartily extolling the virtues of the open road, all peace and friendship and the power of wandering. And if we lose that sort of enthusiastic idealism in our music, then where will we be?

“A little over a year ago we made the decision to leave our jobs, move out of our apartments and hit the road pursuing music full time,” says the band. “We’ve done 50k+ miles with Van Morrison and Trailer Swift [the band’s touring vehicles] so far. ‘Open Road’ was written at the beginning of our travels and is a celebration of making the decision to go for it and not look back.”

- Will Rivitz - Pop Matters

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and call this right now: The song “Open Road” by Edison is going to get licensed like crazy this year. If not, well, then, soundtrack supervisors everywhere are slipping something fierce. Seriously, the tantalizing tune is warm and bright, like sunlight streaming in first thing in the morning. I'd buy anything it was selling.

The song, which occupies a similar space as songs like "Home" by Phillip Phillips and adds in all the buoyancy of the best Churchill songs, is taken from the band’s forthcoming full-length, Familiar Spirit, which is due out on Friday, September 16 on Rhyme and Reason Records (also home to the illustrious Sufferers). It's one of those tracks that, the instant you hear it, you just know that it’s going to be a smash. In fact, I fully expect the single to take the trio to the next level.

Hell, I dug it so much that after hearing it just once this past weekend on Chris K's Colorado Playlist on the Colorado Sound, I immediately wanted to hear it again (and again, and again...). So I pulled up iTunes and purchased a copy, and it’s been on repeat ever since. (If you pre-order the album right now on iTunes, you get three tracks instantly, “Open Road,” "The Good Fight," and "Civil War.")

Now, Edison is a band that’s been buzzing for a while, evidently, but the threesome escaped my notice until now, mostly because the act—which initially started as a duo featuring Sarah Slaton and Dustin Morris of Brave Song Circle—arrived around the time that I was heading out. And being gone from Denver for more than a year, the three-piece just wasn’t on my radar.

Although, from the sounds of it, the outfit has spent as much time on the road as it has in town, so I don't feel to terribly bad for being late to the party on this one—especially when I discovered that the band's made up of Slaton, Morris and Maxwell Hughes, all songwriters whose work I appreciate. Really, it was just a matter of time before Edison grabbed my attention.

All seasoned songwriters, the three have made music on their own that's plenty captivating. Together, they're even more enchanting as Edison. While I'm looking forward to seeing the group live, it looks like I'm going to have to wait a few weeks. The band is in the midst of its fall tour with Jared & the Mill and not slated to return home until next month for a pair of local dates, one in Boulder followed by one in Denver, and then two more in October in Greeley and Fort Collins.

-Dave Herrera - The Trusted Ear

“Thomas Edison’s last words were “It’s very beautiful over there”. I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.” – John Green, “Looking for Alaska”

This quote by renowned author John Green is the line offered, as a sort of greeting, to newcomers in the world of Denver, CO based, alternative folk trio, Edison. It’s remarkable how the unspecified location referred to by Green fits the trio just so perfectly, as Edison’s past, present and future involve exploration of new places and hopeful aspirations amidst uncertainty.

There’s a beauty with which Green’s words simultaneously reflect Edison on a literal, emotional and musical level. Less than a year into their time as a band, the trio have journeyed to and from several states for shows –traveling as far east as New York City for this year’s CMJ Music Marathon. New emotional territory is something with which Slaton has continually dealt since her mother’s passing – a significant point of inspiration represented on the band’s debut EP, “Ghosts” – and now, the band face the transition to new song frontiers with the release of the single, “Civil War.”

Set apart from the overarching life story that makes Edison a band, “Civil War” is, like the trio’s previous repertoire, genuine and true to their folk based songwriting aesthetic. Instrumentation alone draws one’s ear, as an exposed mandolin starts off a friendly four note hook to the three and a half-minute track. Lower guitar notes drop in almost immediately, like a steadily beating heart underneath, followed not long after by Slaton’s gentle but seasoned voice – hanging with a faint trace of longing on the ends of her words – setting scenes that might require more than a couple of play throughs before the intricacy of “Civil War’s” imagery really forms in the mind’s eye.


“There’s a river that flows
from your brain down to your chest
and a sinking ship
with no safety vests.”


The song’s chorus is lyrically uncomplicated (“My head, my heart, are raging a civil war”) and while the dynamics vacillate between softer and louder with verse and chorus respectively, nowhere is there a sudden introduction of anything dramatically jarring. No addition of seven overdubbed parts or attention-grabbing breakdowns to shake up the patterns “Civil War” established at the start. This shouldn’t be mistaken for deficit though.

The use of a classic “call and response” structure, tossed back and forth between the vocals, strummed guitar and pulsing floor tom/rim hits, makes “Civil War” an ideal song for crowd participation, which will logically fill any of the openness left in the arrangement when performed live. Moreover, decisions regarding instruments and note length at key sections of the track provide an extra layer of sophistication and subtle support for the song’s titular theme, in a way that doesn’t bombard listeners or mock their intelligence.

One of the most eloquent displays of this subtlety is through the combination of lyrics and instrumentation during the pre-chorus. The guitar and mandolin are boosted by more prominently played floor toms, sonically enhancing a description of “lines…drawn / cannons locked and raised arms.” Here, the feeling of a classic march is momentarily evoked; as though one could picture Slaton, Morris and Hughes pacing through an open field to battle and playing their instruments in time to the click of a locking barrel.

It’s also worth noting how Edison opt for the simplicity of singing things like harmonized perfect intervals in order to augment their sound, again, without becoming overbearing or breaking the mood of the song. Ironically, the apex of the track’s intensity shines through at one of its most bare points: Morris’s nearly a capella recitation of the chorus, complete with his own injection of vulnerability and legato style delivery. Each of these components blended with a moderate reverb effect gives “Civil War” an all-around stark quality that enhances the line it walks between conveying the fierce and the delicate.

Described on a more macro and conceptual level, (hence the immediate need for more than one listen,) the scenarios elicited through “Civil War” are vastly different from one another. (A doomed ship, a tempestuous battlefield and one’s inner spirit.) Yet, each are linked by the underlying existence of deep passions, struggle and a fear of failure. The ease with which one can arrive at this conclusion, despite superficial variation in lyrics, shows how adept Edison are at aligning their desired message without reliance on a single route of symbolism. Ultimately, the number of ways listeners may find themselves connecting with “Civil War” – outside its fundamental meaning – reveals its true strength as a song and serves as a great reminder to composers about the importance of the phrase, “sometimes less is more.” -

Denver trio Edison is releasing a story-filled EP this Friday at the Larimer Lounge. Called Ghost, the four-track album is an ode to songwriter Sarah Slaton's mother, who passed away five years ago after a year-long battle with cancer. It's a story that is so ingrained in the music that it is only fitting that the album cover is a picture of a her, studying at Louisiana State University in 1971. Slaton recreates the image on the back cover. "Our journey was a full circle," she says. "When I was born she took care of me — bathed me, fed me, everything. And I did that for her at the end of her life — I feed her, showered her, took care of her. It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me, but she was there for my first breath and I was there for her last."

The trio, comprising Slaton, Morris and Chris Cash, performed its first official show as Edison in July. Before that, Slaton and Morris were acquaintances with musical chemistry, mutual respect and similar goals. Slaton and Morris actually met while touring with each other — Slaton was the opening act for Morris's former project. "We were in a compact car together and we got through it," says Slaton. Although they had gear fall off of the top of the car, and had to nap using equipment as pillows, they created a bond jamming out together late into the night in hotel rooms after they finished their scheduled sets.

The bond was formed, and they soon turned it into a band, adding Cash to finish out their progressive folk sound (think City and Colour). In Edison's eight month history, it has been on three tours, and has another one planned for May. "We just make time for touring. Early on, we sat down and made a strategic year plan. We plan out what we want in the next four, six and twelve months and make deadlines," says Slaton. Maybe the band members' dedication is part of the reason why their first show was sold-out, but their success also has to do with the off-stage experience of the band—Slaton is a professional production manager and band agent, while Morris has been a singer/songwriter for decades. Together, they create a radiant, pure sound featuring Slaton's brilliant lyrics and Morris and Cash's mandolin and piano accompaniment. - Westword (Village Voice Media)