Videos by American Songwriter
The artist: Los Angeles-based folk-rock nonet The Walcotts
The song: “Helping Hand (Austin, 4am)”, off the band’s debut album, which drops September 16 on Local Hero Records
Fun fact: The group takes its name from the The Band’s 1970 song “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show,” a tune that was inspired by the medicine shows Levon Helm saw as a kid in Arkansas
Songwriter says: “Helping Hand (Austin, 4am) is a story all about Devin (violinist/member of The Walcotts) – the whole musical concept too. It is the first song we ever wrote together. The vibe came from his love of The Meters, Little Feat and funky violin riffs he’s always messing around with. The story itself is actually all true as well.
I wrote the lyrics based on actual events that happened to Devin on/surrounding this trip (some of which I was present for, and others I was not). The story is, Devin and I were meeting up in Austin, TX for SXSW a few years back. He had been really down about losing his job and I was going to SXSW for work, to cheer him up I invited him out, and told him that if he could meet me there he could stay in my extra bed and that you can basically eat and drink for free while there if you map it out right, so you don’t have to worry about any other expenses.
So he hitched a ride from Craigslist, he found about $400 on the ground around 4am his first night there, got heavily flirted while in a pedi-cab at a red light by girls dancing on the street (I was there for that) and later he got a job that allowed him to travel around the country a lot. He added the goal of seeing all 50 state capitals (he’s almost there, he was at about 30 when I wrote the lyrics).
He came away from that trip happier than I’d ever seen him, he’ll tell you that too. He was really bummed out about a lot things before that trip, he just needed a little push in a direction, a little help (like we all do sometimes) … I think it was a big self-awareness moment for him when we were there and everything just fell into place right there in Austin.”
-Tom Cusimano (co-writer/singer/guitarist of The Walcotts)
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