Quality Americana

You seem to get lost in the melody in the new release from Chamomile and Whiskey.

“Friends Are Falling Out” reminds me of those old Doors albums with an Irish tilt. The guitar solo added to the blend of genres with a bit of blues, punk and rockabilly. It all works to take something vintage-inspired and make it feel completely new.

Nelson County

Chamomile and Whiskey is the stage name for Koda Kerl and Marie Borgman. The group is based in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

“We both grew up in Nelson County, which is like the mountains outside of the city,” Kerl said, who picked up the guitar as a teenager. “Marie started playing the fiddle when she was four. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by a lot of musicians, so it made it a lot easier to kind of get the ball rolling.”

Kerl told me about his first band, a group of his high school buddies, who “used to pack this place called the Blue Moon Diner that closed.” It only had room for a few dozen fans, but meant everything to them. 

Chamomile and Whiskey formed just over a decade ago, when Kerl and Borgman were finding their voices as songwriters. 

“We’re the only two people from the original line up,” Kerl said as things have evolved over time. The single was loosely inspired by the dating scene in rural Virginia.  

“We live in a small town, there’s a lot of small-town drama,” Kerl said with a laugh. “Nothing too specific other than just thinking about the fragility of relationships and how complicated things can get. It wasn’t pointed directly at a single person or thing that happened.”

From WNRN to NPR

“Friends Are Falling Out” has a Celtic influence, a style Borgman learned early on and teaches professionally today. They were performing at a studio session for the local independent radio on WNRN and wanted to try their new song.

“It was just the two of us playing it acoustic,” Kerl said. “NPR Music named it like their Song of the Day and reached out to us.”

NPR wanted to share the recorded version of “Friends Are Falling Out,” but it was only a week old at that point. 

“I figured it was a good song and it had something going for it,” Kerl said. “We recorded it not too long after with some friends, it was kind of like this collaborative recording session… one of the first times we had gone in the studio and collaborated with other folks without really much of a plan, but it kind of worked out in the end.”

Country Wide Records

The recording features Bobby St. Ours on fiddle, Drew Kimball on guitar, Brian Gregory on bass, Critter Fuqua on banjo, Jesse Fiske on baritone guitar, Stuart Gunter on drums and was engineered by Rob Evans.

Brian Overby, the founder of Country Wide Records who was essential in putting the sessions together, tragically passed away just after the recording. The group memorialized their friend and collaborator on their Instagram:

“There is no Chamomile & Whiskey without Brian Overby. He made our broke, early twenty-something dreams come true when he asked us to join his record label, County Wide. We signed a deal over margaritas at the downtown Guad and teamed up with Mister Baby, Pantherburn and Bobby St Ours… our heroes. Over many years, from back porches to world class studios he helped us record and release 4 albums and an EP. He was our brother.”

It was one of the highlights of their career to have this session, and Kerl spoke with us more about what that moment meant.

“He signed us when we were pretty young, and was involved in some capacity with every recording we’ve ever made,” Kerl said. “This is kind of like a testament to him. It’s bittersweet because that weekend was kind of like a dream.”

“I think about being a young musician and imagining like all these things that you want to do and that was the exact kind of thing I always dreamt of doing. Getting together with these people who I really admired and looked up to and just like camping out in the studio for a few nights and just making things happen on the fly. In a way it’s great because it’s a great testament to him, because he put all of that together, but it’s also painful because it’s your last time that we ever are going to be able to work with him. We kind of are viewing these songs in honor of him.”

Support the Artist

More information about Chamomile and Whiskey can be found here.

Photo by James Carter.

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