[Cover photo credit to Hwa-JeenNa]

Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Indie Rock band The Crane Wives have shared their track and lyric video “Scars”. Their self-produced fifth studio album Beyond Beyond Beyond is due out September 6th, 2024. The band is currently on tour in the Western U.S. and will celebrate the new album on release day with a show in Grand Rapids, MI.

The song “Scars” is “an intimate processing of past trauma and shines a light on the ways one’s life experiences–positive and negative–shape who one becomes.” The track was born from vocalist and guitarist Emilee Petersmark’s own experiences as an adopted child and the hardships that come with it.

The new track recalls an older song of the band’s, also.

Petersmark shares:

I see ‘Scars’ as a companion piece to one of our older songs, ‘Never Love an Anchor’. I wrote both songs from a place of exploring how being adopted has touched my life, in good ways and in hard ways. I think we often forget how much trauma is involved in the process of losing a family, even when you gain another, and this song felt like a big step in accepting that trauma, particularly the painful, ugly ways it manifests and follows you into adulthood.

When you don’t do the work to understand that trauma, it becomes easy to wonder if there’s just something fundamentally wrong with you. Knowing where those feelings come from and accepting all of the good and bad that come with it makes it easier to actually heal.

Beyond Beyond Beyond, is the fifth studio record by The Crane Wives, and explores “the mixture of fear, joy, and deep vulnerability that occurs when a person is on the cusp of changing the course of their life.”

Beyond Beyond Beyond is an electric departure from the Crane Wives’ previous releases, prominently highlighting the lead guitar work of songwriters and singers Kate Pillsbury and Emilee Petersmark. Drummer Dan Rickabus contributes “darker, stormy and dynamic rhythms” to this record, while bassist Ben Zito creates “narrative movement in the songs with his rooting, counter-melodic approach.”

The album is self-produced by the four-piece collaboration, and engineered & mixed by Zito at his studio, Centennial Sound. The band invited guest violinist Samantha Cooper and guest cellist Jordan Hamilton to take part. The album was mastered by Heba Kadry. The band’s longtime collaborator, visual artist Rebecca Green returned to create her fifth piece of album artwork for the project.

The Crane Wives Live Across North America – Summer 2024

08/15 – The Black Sheep – Colorado Springs, CO

08/16 – Washington’s – Fort Collins, CO

08/17 – Gothic Theatre – Denver, CO

08/18 – Strings Pavilion – Steamboat Springs, CO

08/20 – Soundwell SLC – Salt Lake City, UT

08/21 – Treefort Music Hall – Boise, ID

08/23 – Wonder Ball Room – Portland, OR

08/24 – South Sound Block Party – Olympia, WA

08/29 – Sonic Lunch – Ann Arbor, MI

Fall 2024

9/6 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Intersection

10/14 – Oklahoma City, OK – Beer City Music Hall

10/15 – Dallas, TX – Echo Lounge & Music Hall

10/16 – Houston, TX – The Heights Theater

10/18 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger

10/19 – Austin, TX – Mohawk

10/20 – Fort Worth, TX – Tannahill’s

10/24 – Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl

10/25 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park

10/26 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s

10/28 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda

10/29 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory

11/01 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst Club

11/02 – San Francisco – The Fillmore

11/03 – Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades