Hold The Door For Strangers

Labrador is...
Pat King - Vocals, Guitar, Songs
Kris Hayes - Lead Guitar, Vocals
Saysha Heinzman - Bass, Vocals
Chris Arena - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Grace Kim - Violin

Extra keys performed by Kyle Gilbride 

Produced by Kyle Gilbride and Labrador
Mixed and Engineered by Kyle Gilbride

Mastered by Amy Dragon at Telegraph Mastering

Recorded in the Spring of 2022 at Maple Ridge Studios in Cambridge, NY.


Release date: 1/13/2023. All songs published by Hat Guy Songs (ASCAP)

No Way Of Knowing Records: 0002

_________________________________________________________________

When the going gets tough, Labrador are there to lift you up. On their sophomore album, Hold the Door for Strangers – produced by Kyle Gilbride (Swearin’, Waxahatchee) – the tenderly bruised alt-country quintet have crafted a collection of compassionate story songs. Patching together ragged indie rock performances with stately strings and electrified solos, the introspective narrators of the band’s cowboy ballads wear emotional scars like a sheriff’s gold star. 

“A lot of these songs focus on hard-worn lessons dealing with empathy, or discovering the capacity to be considerate,” explains Labrador’s lead singer and guitarist Pat King. “There’s a lyric in the title track that says ‘we’re all standing tall without a leg to stand on.’ That’s basically the thesis statement of the record. No matter what you’re going through, someone is going through something worse.”

To prove this point, King shares how Labrador began in the wake of an accident. In 2017, while cycling through his former home of Brooklyn, the guitarist crashed and severely injured his elbow. Fearing that he may never play again, King began physical therapy to regain the strength in his left arm. “After weeks of rehabbing, I walked to a Guitar Center,” he recalls. “It was sleeting out and the terrible weather felt prophetic. I decided to take control of my life again, so I bought a nylon string guitar and started writing songs in that style.” 

Labrador’s first two releases, the 2018 album A Safe Distance From A Visit and the 2020 EP A Car That Works, were primarily solo affairs with contributions from guitarist Kris Hayes. He and King have played together for nearly 15 years, joined by drummer Chris Arena in their previous group Simpler Times. As members drifted apart during the pandemic, King moved to Philadelphia and Hayes to North Carolina, making Hold the Door for Strangers’ recording sessions feel like a reunion. The five-piece was fleshed out by bassist Saysha Heinzman of Field Mouse, plus violinist Grace Kim.

King looks back fondly on his childhood in the “one stoplight town” of Cambridge, New York. For this album’s recording, he invited Labrador and their producer to his rural stomping grounds, transforming a family friend’s barn into a makeshift studio. “We spent a couple of years not seeing each other or feeling like a band, which is something we all desperately needed,” says King. “It was just so refreshing to get together with a purpose in mind and not have any distractions.”

Hold the Door for Strangers’ sundry cast of characters includes cult survivors (“Dog Chorus”), the spouse of a serial killer (“A Runner’s Body”), and an overloaded miracle working desperately trying to process every prayer that comes into heaven (“Guy With A Job (That Nobody Wants)”). The latter song stands out with its shuffling Los Lobos-inspired groove, growing more intense as King’s vocal melodies trace its central riff. The unfussy sound of Neil Young’s ‘Ditch Trilogy’ and emotional the resonance of Magnolia Electric Co. are other key influences, yet it’s the lyricism of John Prine that looms largest of all. “Hearing him in my parents’ record collection felt like the blueprint for writing a perfect song was laid out,” says King. “Prine’s lyrics can be the most brutal thing you’ve ever heard, but you can always tell there’s a big heart behind it.”

On the album’s closing title track, Labrador strips back to its core sound of nylon guitar strings and King’s rich, quivering voice. As he asks himself “if believing is the lesson,” the sincerity comes through strong and clear.  “No one has it all figured out,” says King. “In fact, we’re all far from it. I wanted this to be a healing record in a time when empathy is really needed. Why not lend a hand?”

- Jesse Locke

Singer/Songwriter from Western MA by way of Florida

I write words about music on swimintothesound.com

Relief Map Records
hear to help
est. 2021

Relief Map Records is following