Cosmic Americana Revival 1 ‘Back at Home’ is an album project put together by Christian Parker and Patrick Cleary as an homage to The International Submarine Band and their 1968 record, Safe at Home. It arrives on June 6th, 2025.
Nearly sixty years after the release, the album Safe At Home continues to yield new discoveries as Gram Parsons’ initial foray into straight Country music. The record was a new direction for the ISB at the time, who had previously been more of a Rock band until Parsons embraced his own roots as a fan of early Rock ‘n’ Roll. The tracks that Parker and Cleary have approached all show a deep love of Country music.
The goal with this album, Parker says, “is to stay true to the music while remaining true to ourselves.” Joining them on this full-length tribute are Safe at Home’s original piano player Earl Poole Ball and pedal steel legend, JayDee Maness.
A second single from the album so far, the track “Knee Deep In The Blues” will arrive on May 2nd, 2025, and we are very pleased to premier it here on Wildfire Music + News today. The original song is surprising in many ways if you consider that Parsons was relatively unknown at the time of writing this album, and was pursuing a combination of Country and Rock. The ways in which he brings those elements together is not via a Rock song with Country accents, but via a Country song with a Rock energy and inflection.
The team behind this new rendition bring out the original energy of the song to an even greater degree, but add an unhurried sweetness to it as well. For a song that’s essentially a sad love song, where the speaker laments being left for another lover, Parker, Cleary, and the others sure bring an almost positive charge to the foreground that’s grounded in the roll of the song and the virtuosity of their individual performances.
There’s also a comfort in the way the song strikes a pose, the pose of the jilted lover, who can use Country and Rock elements to channel their suffering through song, much as musicians do with Blues music. The latter idea is probably an intentional pun in the song’s title. Another surprising thing about the song is just how spare and simple it is in its initial concept and construction, but how rich it is in possibility. Those are the same possibilities that Parker, Cleary, Ball, and Maness bring out in this return to a track that was once lovingly crafted, and now has been revisited with the same care.
The band says about the new track:
“Knee Deep in the Blues” is a song covered by the International Submarine Band on ‘Safe at Home’(1968) and was written by Melvin Endsley and recorded by many, but mostly known for the Marty Robbins version released in 1956. Some of the other cover versions include Tommy Steele (1957), Carl Smith (1968), Del McCoury (1988), The Derailers (1999). Christian Parker takes the lead vocal on this version, and Patrick Cleary offers a faithful rendition while incorporating fresh arrangements and new harmonies.
Christian Parker and Patrick Cleary are artists who have long counted this album along with Sweetheart of the Rodeo as inspirations. With this album, Parker is delving deeper into his exploration of The Byrds and Gram Parsons, following LP-length tributes Change is Now and Sweethearts. Patrick Cleary was born and raised on the West Coast and “feels the music of Gram Parsons speaks to his soul.”
Patrick Cleary says of the album:
This album is unique in that we don’t just have musicians who admire ISB—we have the actual players themselves. JayDee and Earl didn’t just replicate their past work; they brought new energy and creative interpretations to these songs, making them feel fresh while staying true to the original spirit.
Earl Poole Ball told Christian Parker during the recording sessions, “You don’t know how much this means to me that you and Patrick are doing this record. The title makes my heart filled.” This speaks to the importance of the work this group are doing together.
Produced by Christian Parker and Patrick Cleary, Back At Home was recorded at SubCat Studios (Syracuse, NY), Los Angeles, CA, and Austin, TX. The album was mixed by Sean McDonald at Red Medicine Recording Studio (Pittsburgh, PA) and mastered by Larry Lachmann at Kevorkian Mastering (New York, NY).
