NATHAN BOWLES TRIO - Are Possible

The Nathan Bowles Trio's Are Possible is a
spark-throwing, undulating fusion of styles played

(mainly) on banjo, upright bass and drums. The indi-
vidual perspectives of Nathan, double-bassist Casey

Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) and drummer
Rex McMurry (CAVE) work together in an easy-rolling
manner, but one that contains an expansive, ass-shaking confabulation of ideas.
Music's been dubbed "time remembered"-YES, but it's also vital to recognize
that this world of music, arts and the literal social politic existing beyond (or below,
or wherever you find it) is in never-ending flux. Spiraling through encounters with the
past is a means of bringing the old collectives into our future present, for the necessity
of creating something new. Nathan's solo music-making explorations with the banjo
are evidence of the range of possible places to go in the world while still in contact
with one's roots: clawhammer boogie, strummed, bowed and percussive techniques,

original compositions and traditional tunes, all cutting a path between old-time Appa-
lachian music and its long-lost cousin, ecstatic minimal drone. In conversation with

Rex and Casey's own conceptions, with guitar, bass, mellowtone, keyboards, drums
and percussion aboard, he continues to ride toward new vistas.
It's been a long six years since these three players first appeared on Nathan's
2018 album, Plainly Mistaken, a stretch made weird by the period of time in which
social music couldn't be played socially. But again, nothing ever really dies: the time

since, experienced as individuals and as a band, informs everything about Are Pos-
sible's multitudinous group sound. The details along the road that the band traveled

to get here, where where one riff blossomed into ten, then melted back down, and
parts were added and subtracted and became each other in moments of new collective
understanding, lent a unique prog-nosticafication to the possibilities of Are Possible
before they'd even recorded a note.
Music is time in redux: Are Possible's many moments in time carry details from
all over the place. Rex brought a rhythm to the table after drumming on buckets at
work, Casey provided a bassline that redirected a previous jam, Nathan brought in
a song he'd been fucking with forever and they figured it out together. Their diversity
of sources moves easily within the arrangements, rendering a far-ranging set of feels,
from transcendental to new country funk to good ol' jazz and the folk-rock, even-all
of it drawn out exquisitely when they mixed at Electrical Audio in Chicago with the
delicate hands of Cooper Crain upon the faders.
The Nathan Bowles Trio have done their due diligence, passing their music
through time and space on their way to now; now, the real trip begins, as Are Possible
travels on, through you.

Vinyl release of Nathan Bowles Trio - Are Possible. Released through DRAG CITY and available on LP.