Check out the new single from Cabin Dogs, a Philadelphia duo comprised of twin brothers Rich and Rob Kwait, who have been performing together since the early 2000s. The multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist brothers are a gifted pair. Rich supplies vocals, guitar, harmonica, percussion, piano and organ, alongside Rob, who delivers vocals, bass, banjo and percussion. On ‘Creekside Woman’, the timeless blend of guitar and banjo transports the listener to the creek the song is based upon while harmonica seems to drift in on the breeze. The video finds the brothers creekside, lost in their music together in natural, rural locations, a fitting accompaniment to the song. Rich says of ‘Creekside Woman’: “Ironically, when I listen to this song now, I don’t think it’s about a woman at all. For me it’s about the creek itself and how you might love it and it loves you back when you come see her. It wasn’t written with that in mind but sometimes, another meaning reveals itself later.”
The song is taken from the duo’s forthcoming album ‘On the Creek’, due for release on 12th May 2023. It’s their sixth full-length record and finds the brothers in a reflective frame of mind. Rob says of the new collection: “The songs on this record have a bittersweet quality. There’s darkness, but never a loss of hope. There’s also a theme of keeping it simple… that life might be tough, but you just gotta get home for supper time. Usually, we need to get away to create as we find that it not only helps us focus, and hash things out in our own way, but it also solidifies the batch of songs. We feel invested in the songs, as they embody the experience of leaving our day to day lives. There’s a mind-trick at play. For the time we are away, we can think of ourselves as different people or different versions of ourselves. It helps us create and inhabit the characters of the songs.” Putting that distance between everyday life and their songwriting is an important part of their creative process. All the songs were written in a cabin between Lake Cayuga and Lake Seneca where they immersed themselves in their songs every six months or so over a three-year period and that sense of isolation informs the music. Rob continues: “There is a lot of underlying sentiments of loneliness and yearning and time slipping away in these songs… of mortality and do-over. Mid-life themes where you are looking back but still looking forward, kind of caught in the middle. We try to dress the songs in pleasant sounds and colors, but there’s some darkness and dread mixed in.” If you’re looking for quality music with a 1970s singer-songwriter vibe, check this out.
