Soundpost Sessions SPOTLIGHT: The Cross-Eyed Possum w/ Travis McNamara

The Cross Eyed Possum

The Cross-Eyed Possum is an identical twin led Americana/Newgrass band that plays with the energy of a folk-rock band through the lens of intimacy created as an acoustic trio. Their music is an amalgamation of their collective love for passionate rock ‘n’ roll, their experience with the free and honest feeling found in acoustic/bluegrass festivals, and their time spent dedicated to the adventurous tendencies of jazz and classical music composition while attending universities. The band is currently celebrating their second studio album “Out On My Own.”

Travis McNamara

Created during the unprecedented isolation of the pandemic - and recorded solo in a 375 sq. ft carriage house - MOON CALENDAR is the lush and adventurous debut release of multi-instrumentalist Travis McNamara. When eight months of touring with his Telluride-winning band Trout Steak Revival was wiped out overnight, he turned to recording, taking his folk writing into much wider electric and electronic territory. No fewer than 15 instruments show up across its tracks; all played by McNamara himself. Inspired by the sounds of Adrianne Lenker, Bon Iver, The Books, and Denver’s own Nat Tate, he pursued a new way of writing, creating, and self-recording. In a moving pastiche of layered recordings, McNamara speaks directly to and about the people he loves and gives us an intimate window into the life of a Denver experimental songwriter. 

In fact, monthly songwriting challenges with an online group of local musicians, dubbed ‘Beaver Moon’, was one of the things that helped him digest all the changes to his touring lifestyle after the pandemic struck. In recording this album, he describes nightly walks under the moon, unlocking the puzzle of a new instrument, and tracking and hunting the secret animal hearts of these new songs. As always, McNamara makes generous use of his most dynamic themes; expansiveness and adventure, balanced with isolation and freedom, and of course the perennial search for love.

Host or Publisher Soundpost Acoustics