The OaKs: Songs For Waiting

The OaKs from Orlando, Florida, started of as a duo when guitarist Ryan Costello met up with drummer Matthew Antolick. Costello worked had worked in Afghanistan as an agricultural teacher and came back with a head full of rhythm ideas that went down well with Antolick who had been playing in Moroccan band. That led to an album called Song of Our Fathers and The Things They Left Behind. Rave reviews, but they wanted more and they needed more players to play live. These were drafted one by one and with their new band the original duo started exploring their rhythmic abilities set to lyrics telling stories about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran minister who was executed for attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and Afghan war hero Akhmad Shah Masood, who was killed in action in 2002.

They called the result of four months of hard work Songs For Waiting, recording it the hard way with only the natural reverb of Costello's old house, bringing back the days of The Band when they made Songs From The Big Pink. This is an album for analog purists who get a kick out of hearing a Wurlitzer electric piano from 1959. If you thought that traditional American roots music and eastern rhythms don't mix, Songs For Waiting will proof you wrong. In one word? Beautiful.

Buy their songs from their website.

The OaKs:
Matthew Antolick: drums, marimba, vibraphone, percussion, electronics, some keys
Ryan Costello: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, pianica, organs and keyboards, lyrics.
Jeremy Siegel: bass, trombone and some keys, mandolin
Melissa Reyes: vocals, accordian, bells, percussion, some keys
Greg Willson: guitars, saxophone and vocals
Tim Cocking: Wurlitzer electric piano, accordian, synths, organ, bells, trumpet, vocals

Track listing:

1. The Two Calls (of Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
2. Masood
3. Old Bones
4. Pike County
5. After the Fires
6. The Attraction of the Pilgrim
7. Here I Am Again
8. War Changes Everything
9. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
10. Song For Waiting

Tour dates:

• 03/14 SXSW, Team Grizzly Records Party @ Pangea’s Patio, Austin, TX
• 03/15 SXSW Deja Vai Party @ SPIRO’S, Austin, TX
• 04/04 Tampa, CD Release Party @ Crowbar, Tampa, FL
• 04/18 The Atlantic w/ The Northerness, The Deep and Holy Sea, Gainesville, FL
• 05/17 WMNF’s Tropical Heatwave Festival, Tampa, FL

» myspace.com/wearetheoaks