The members of The Builders and the Butchers had already made recording together something of a challenge – the band members are all originally from Alaska but are now more dispersed. Justin Baeir (drums) bought a home in Colorado and makes Gin and Whiskey for a living. Willy kunkle (bass/guitar/banjo) has been a captain on a ship based in Malta for the past couple of years. Harvey Tumbleson (mandolin/banjo/guitar) lives with his family in Washington state and Ryan Sollee (vocals/guitar) and Ray Rude (drums/piano/clarinet) reside in Portland, Oregon. So getting together to record would have been a challenge even without a pandemic. With a pandemic – well, just more so.
‘Stop the Rain‘ drives along at a breakneck speed in its appeal for a return to a time when things were less bad – and you can fill in the blanks yourself as to which bad – or bads – the band might be alluding to. It’s taken from the new album by The Builders and the Butchers, their seventh release entitled ‘Hell & High Water‘ which is out on May 6th.