My Politic are back with a new album and it is a real cracker. Over their previous nine releases this artistic duo have been releasing music of great insight and inspiration and their creative output continues on this impressive addition to their elegant Folk and Roots musings. Kaston Guffey is the creative source behind the songs and he is ably supported in every way by the talents of Nick Pankey. Their music gives pause for breath, a chance to ponder on the grand scheme of things and the passage of time. If you take the sentiment of Woody Guthrie and cross it with the drive of Billy Bragg in seeking social justice, and you throw in the razor sharp observations of John Prine, then you will enjoy what this under-rated duo have to offer. Lonesome Highway caught up with Kaston Guffey recently as he returned from a tour and asked about the new album, the inspiration behind the new songs, and his take on the passage of time.
Congratulations on the release of the new album SIGNS OF LIFE. Have you been happy with the media response so far?
Thank you, Paul. Thanks for giving the album a thorough listen and for the wonderful review of it. I did all the PR myself which is … not my favorite job of the many, many jobs a songwriter has these days. But there have been lots of nice things said about the album and we always appreciate folks giving it a proper listen. It’s a lot of work putting an album together and it’s nice to have people give it a shot. We’ve been writing/performing these songs over the last 2 years and the response has been great. I think folks are excited to have the whole collection out there.
There are thirteen songs included and once again you brought in the talented Josh Washam to engineer. What does he bring to the creative process?
We love working with Josh. He’s been a friend for a long time and this the 3rd album we’ve done at his place. He really sets a nice peaceful, playful tone and can play a ton of instruments just the way we like ‘em played. Nick and I record our parts live together and Josh has a great sense about how to capture that. It’s always a joy to make stuff with Josh! Also want to mention the incredibly talented John Mailander who played strings & Mandolin on the album and Steve Peavey who put some pedal steel, dobro and electric guitar on the album. Super talents, the lot of ‘em!
You write all the songs and they seem to be a natural follow-on from the previous album, MISSOURI FOLKLORE, with a look back at younger days, finding perspective, and moving forward with guarded optimism. Was this apparent to you in the writing?
Yeah, it becomes apparent at some point along the way. The themes start to reveal themselves and with SIGNS OF LIFE it was pretty early on I figured I’d write about moving from Nashville to Pittsburgh. But other themes like exploring “time” in different ways showed themselves pretty early in the writing of this one. The last album, MISSOURI FOLKLORE ended up being very reflective batch of songs and so we centered them around back home in Missouri. This new album ended up being a lot more about the present. I moved to Pittsburgh a couple months before the previous album was released and just started to write about the move and the world that I found myself in. It was pretty clear what track I was on and I just stayed open to all of it. Nick and I sent songs back and forth via this free app called Bandlab and worked them out on the road. We were on the road a lot in ‘23 and ‘24 and would play through the songs as much as we could in the hotels & houses before shows.
You left Nashville a few years back and have relocated to Pittsburgh, PA. How has thetransition been for you?
The move from Pittsburgh to Nashville has been pretty much incredible. We could’ve never guessed how well we would fit in here! My wife started a music education non-profit called “You Be You Inc.” and I’ve been teaching kids and adults guitar when I’m not on the road. We’ve made a whole bunch of friends, joined a baseball league full of awesome folks and we couldn’t be happier! It’s been very inspiring to explore a new place. I am on foot and bike a whole lot more and I’ve been able to spend almost all my time on music in one way or another. We’ve really gotten to know the neighbors and feel very connected to the community here.
I Took All the Pictures Down is a song that suggests these new beginnings?
Yeah, I started that one while we were packing up in Nashville. We lived in this house we called “the Mad Valley Lodge” where we would do house concerts the third Saturday of the month for 8 years before covid shut it down. I was thinking a lot about those times and how they weren’t really possible anymore and that song started to form.
Looking back at your time in Nashville, what are the key take-aways that resonate with you from the music environment that you experienced there?
I think the best thing we ever did there was doing those house concerts and trying to create an organic, genuine sense of community around music, songwriting and storytelling. All that has always been important to me and I think those years really solidified that. We were never spending our time chasing after the typical “Nashville thing.” Just kept trying to get better and stay curious and center the important stuff. Nashville can be a hard place to do that and I think the challenge of it was helpful in keeping our values close.
Your music partner Nick Pankey still lives in Nashville. So, in a way you have a foot in two cities to cover all the bases. Is there a strong music community in Pittsburgh?
It does make things a little easier when it comes to tour planning, being able to leave out of Nashville or Pittsburgh. The last couple years have been kind of strange being in two different places and relatively far from one another but we’ve made it work pretty good and it makes the times we are working on new stuff on the road feel extra special. Pittsburgh has a fantastic music scene. I fell in with a bunch of singer songwriters when we first moved here and it’s been a great time getting to know everyone and their songs. Shout out to Mr. Smalls Monday open-mic’s in the neighborhood! That was huge help in finding music folks in town.
Do the new songs reflect your personal journey over the last few years?
I think so. I’ve always been interested in writing in the space where personal meets universal and I think this album is no different. I think it’s a pretty philosophical set of songs that reflect some of the big questions I’ve been wrestling with about time and how we spend it, what's really important in life, what's at the bottom of all this, the nature of reality. I think there are little glimpses into all that and lots of other thoughts in this batch of songs.
You also recently got married I believe. Has domestic bliss impacted your songwriting?
Yeah, we got married at baseball practice and then ran out and got home plates tattooed on our ring fingers. Whole thing cost $80 and that was mostly for the Quaker marriage certificate. It’s been wonderful to really settle in together here and start building a life.
There is a strong sense of optimism in songs like Who Could Ask For More? and Still Growing Today. Your default is one of hope for the future, and what fuels your optimism these days?
Oh, that’s nice to hear. I don’t always feel that way. I think the songwriting process and the learning process are the things that steer me into the optimistic direction. The inevitability of change is actually a deeply comforting notion to me and trying to stay curious and open to it are things I like to work on. Having teaching become more a part of my life has helped me see this even more clearly. I think I’ve been inspired by all the exploration of this new place and places on the road as well. It’s a tough time for optimism and hope when you look out at the world. So, I kind of feel of two minds a lot of the time about things. I feel really excited that we seem to have found a place we really fit in and about the local community. It feels purposeful. On the other hand, the national/global level feels like a nightmare. It’s hard not to feel helpless in it all.
You give thanks to your bohemian lifestyle on A Funny Place To Find Yourself and pay tribute to your tribe; the fans and friends who sustain you in the creation of your music. Are house concerts your main revenue stream these days when you take to the road?
We love the house shows and the listening rooms we get to play on the road. I started that song after a show DC a couple years ago. We ended up staying at a place in PA we have stayed in a bunch of times over the years and I was reflecting on that very unique bond you get with folks when you play in their house. I had eaten some “special” cookies and the first couple verses just kinda fell out that night. The House Concert/Listening Room circuit is certainly our main focus. It’s what has allowed us to lean into our idiosyncrasies and weird little passions/obsessions because folks really listen and appreciate nuance. So, I wanted to try and capture the uniqueness of those shows and kind of thank all the folks that have welcomed us into their homes and allowed us to be our authentic selves. It feels like we are a part of this underground circuit where we get to meet the most interesting, caring people in town wherever we go. I love talking to folks and getting to know how they feel about the current state of things, how they feel about living where they live, what they do, all that stuff is really interesting.
Other songs, Lonely 21st Century and Living Lean take a look at the disorientation in our lives during these challenging times. A pervasive sense of isolation and having to live within tight budgets. Do you see a widening gap between the privileged and those who struggle to cope with our need to stay ahead of the debt posse?
Oh, without a doubt. The rich get richer and continue to play the extraction game and its feeling like there’s not much left to take from the rest of us. You look at the healthcare industry or the fossil fuel industry and you see a handful of people willing sell out the futures of the poor, working, middle class people so they can keep making money hand over fist. This behavior is rewarded. The internet feels full of hucksters and charlatans doing their selling and messaging to the masses. I just want out from under all that and I want to continue to think for myself and encourage folks to do so through the characters and stories in the songs. In uncertain times I think people tend to gravitate towards certainty and I just don’t trust anyone selling that. Things are complex and messy and uncertain.
You tackle environmental issues and the blinkered denial of greedy capitalists on From the Early Days. You witnessed the gentrification of Nashville and the increasing cost of trying to live there. Do you see the same trends developing in Pittsburgh?
I think it’s happening everywhere in this country. I feel very lucky to live here because there are pockets of community and we want to keep working at that. The greed seems to never end and its tiresome. The systems here reward greed most of the time. And now you’ve this administration taking money out of the hands of people trying to help their communities. They are taking money from scientists doing incredibly important research. It’s fucked up but also not a surprise. Authoritarians tend to spark and inflame anti-intellectual movements. Here we are again. It seems a radical thing to simply keep your wits about you in times like these.
Will We Ever Make It Out Of Heaven Alive? tackles bigotry and inequality with a scathinglook at America today. You sing ‘Everything and everyone’s for sale here, All the time.’ Is there a way out of this swamp?
I really have no idea. I know I want to be around folks that are curious and interested in learning. People interested in empathy and understanding. Community folks that are interested in solutions and relating to each other not trying to convince and force people into thinking/feeling certain ways. Sometimes it feels like we are off-loading the hard work of independent thought and reasoning onto unqualified internet brands, corporations and people who are just walking commercials for whatever bullshit ideas they are selling. I do not feel optimistic about this on a large scale. On the other hand, I certainly feel lucky to live where I do and feel like a part of a community. The house shows around the country are full of good folks to share space with too. Again, a lot of being of two minds about things these days.
The message on No Other Way seems to point at taking everything a day at a time and slowing down that process of overthinking everything. Is this the new philosophy that folks should adopt when looking down the road in America over the coming few year?
I’m in no position to tell anyone what to do/think. I am very proud of how that song turned out and keep telling folks at shows that it’s probably the best thing we’ve ever made. I do think it gets at some of the complexity and uncertainty. It feels like a meditation on acceptance and ultimately celebrating the full spectrum of life’s good parts and bad parts. Trying to stay open to it instead of shutting down or trying to block certain unappealing aspects. That song touches on something I like to explore in the work which is meta-cognition. Thinking about the way we think and trying to write about it in interesting ways.
Both perspective and self-reflection are important aspects in your songwriting and how do you agree that memory and the past is not linear; it’s an integral part in the circle of life that surrounds us daily?
Yeah, that sounds plausible. I think people carry their past with them and you hope you learn things that make the future a little brighter somehow. We are able to pass information from generation to generation and build on it, that’s one thing humans can really do well. I just want to be a good link in that. I want to think hard & deeply about my role in that and try my best not to pass on corrupted material, so to speak. Reflection and perspective feel like important tools in that endeavor.
Is there anything else that you would like to leave with our readers?
I just want to say I really appreciate the thoughtful questions and the fact that you and Lonesome Highway have always championed our little art projects. We really appreciate it and would love to get over to Ireland and do some shows. I really hope that can happen sometime.
Interview by Paul McGee