The Greatest Endangered Thing is a British-American indie folk band formed by Samuel James Taylor and Rebecca Van Cleave. While not strangers to these pages, having had both their EPs reviewed as well as Taylor’s solo work and collaboration with Neilson Hubbard, their musical path has not been smooth. Writing has come in bursts, following barren periods when they wondered if it was worth carrying on. But persevere they did, the creative juices flowed and their future now looks a lot brighter.
The Greatest Endangered Thing is not Taylor and Van Cleave’s first collaboration. They met in 2016 when each was performing solo in the US. Taylor’s musical beginnings lie in Sheffield with the band Dead Like Harry after which he pursued various solo avenues. Van Cleave was born in the UK then grew up in Virginia before embarking on acting with roles in Game of Thrones and Star Wars.
Deciding to pool their individual talents they brought ideas from the Gulf of Mexico to David Glover’s Tesla Studios in Sheffield to record under the name Ophelia. The result was very much a mix of English and Americana roots that remains the foundation of their music. Two years before the pandemic struck and realising they were struggling to fit in with the increasingly angry, polarised modern life they headed for the peace of rural England. There, taking inspiration from as diverse sources as the art of Ruskin and Turner and the writing of Mary Oliver, they replaced noise with connection, kindness, love and the beauty of nature. Taylor and Van Cleave took their collective name from a poem by Nikita Gill, ‘Your Soft Heart’.
Their debut came in 2021 with the EP “And You, And Me”. With no pressure from recording contracts Taylor and Van Cleave set themselves no expectations. Only their natural surroundings would determine the pace. “And You, And Me” is firmly grounded in the folk of both sides of the Atlantic with an ethereal quality similar to Gregory Alan Isakov and The Lumineers. The opener ‘Bramble Lane’ sets the scene by asking a question. “Let’s take a walk down to Bramble Lane/ If I closed my eyes, would it feel the same?”. Immediately the haunting harmonies of Taylor and Van Cleaves, the distant strings and persistent acoustic strum pit the vicissitudes of human emotion against the permanence of nature.
Earlier this year they released a second EP “Phosphenes Volume 1″ as a series of singles. “Phosphenes Volume 2″ comes next year and together they will comprise The Greatest Endangered Thing’s first album. As with their previous releases “Phosphenes Volume 1″ was recorded in Tesla Studios where Bellowhead’s Jon Boden joined them with valuable suggestions about arrangements for the violin pieces. If still indie folk, this second EP has a richer more layered sound.
The title refers to the lights and stars you see when rubbing, then peering from closed eyes. The entire record feels very much split into two, the first half is looking back and second half looks forward. Whether vocally, Taylor’s anguished or Van Cleave’s soothing, or their vivid lyrics it is hard to imagine that they suffered creative block. Opening tracks ‘Faith is the Bird’ and ‘Balancing on the Horizon Line’ exude trepidation, as if saying goodbye to a particular stage in life. ‘One Day’ begins the next stage, “I want to meet you by the ocean/ Down by San Francisco Bay” beseeches Taylor. Van Cleave opens ‘Delilah’ with hope as together they harmonise to a crescendo that point to better times ahead.
After not just an album but also a tour more people really will know more about The Greatest Endangered Thing.
