Chatham Rabbits Avant-garde Americana Shines on Second Album

“It’s an album that will satisfy folks like us. We love having the modern conveniences of Google Home and Instacart, but also enjoy gardening or making sourdough bread,” explained Sarah McCombie of her and her husband, Austin’s, latest collection.

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The duo, Chatham Rabbits, meets the needs of this demanding generational cross-section with avant-garde Americana. Steeped in regional Bluegrass tradition, a pillar of the Old North State, Austin and Sarah McCombie chronicle the contemporary with old-world instruments. With Sarah on the banjo and Austin on guitar, the two reach back into their histories to define their combined story.  

Austin and Sarah first met at a concert in 2014. They have since married, quit their corporate jobs, moved to the country, and gave up a life of comfort for one on the road filled with music and new friends. Their sophomore album, The Yoke Is Easy, the Burden Is Full, marks this turning point as full-time musicians. Though seemingly idealistic, the two exuberate authenticity with pure-hearted intentions to leave their mark on the world through music. 

 Their debut 2018 album,  All I Want from You, introduced Chatham Rabbits as anecdotists, sharing folktales and familial history within the bounds of their Southern heritage. With a few more notches in their belt on life and love, The Yoke Is Easy, the Burden Is Full is a personal narrative. Written on their eleven-acre farm in rural North Carolina, it merges their two histories into one shared experience. 

The album was produced by Saman Khoujinian and recorded live, lakeside in the mountains of Virginia. “It was freezing cold outside, and it was just me, Austin, and eight other guys,” Sarah recalled of the production. With subtle intentionality, she explained, you can hear the “aliveness” in each track. “If you listen closely like you might hear the squeezing out of a sponge in the sink, because the kitchen was right beside where we recorded, or the tapping of the cast iron skillet.”

Opener track, “Clean Slate,” praises the daily rejuvenation that comes up with the sun every morning. Clear and simple, Austin inventories his ideal morning with a fishing line, muddy boots, a gravel road. Markedly, the song nudges toward a new day in the broader context of their life. 

Sarah highlights growth through relationships with a personal account, “This Year.” Connecting with an audience is what she was born to do. Reaching out reveals progress within. She finds fulfillment in understanding hearts beyond her own. 

“Mike and David” honors two men who influenced Austin from each side of his family. Unknowingly in tandem, both uncles brought invaluable lessons. Both have since passed without ever meeting, but Austin remembers their impact by imagining a world in which they were friends. 

The duo broadens their view with “The Pledge.” Like much of their work, the track pays tribute to their beloved home state but offers a wise perspective. It’s a complicated love story. “There’s no denying the fact that we’re still dealing with a lot of the same issues we’ve always dealt with in terms of racism and the darkness of the South,” explained Austin of North Carolina’s unresolved history. “It’s something that we have a lot of emotion behind.”

“I have sat in the farmhouse, talking with my friends, in a room with only white men,” the two sing. “It’s time to walk in other shoes, untie these white man blues.” These lines acknowledge the need to expand your circle to put the equality you preach into practice. 

Halfway through, Sarah brings the story back home with “Old and Blue.” Stepping back in time, recorded around a single mic, the song portrays an early start at life through the eyes of her grandmother. “At fifteen, I was anything but grown. My wedding dress was blue, and we married in the home,” Sarah sings of her grandmother’s experience pregnant out of wedlock. The lyrics outline hardship through a brighter lens, following suit from the original storyteller. Leaving school and bringing her baby to work on a tobacco farm, Sarah imagines her grandmother’s feelings: “The calling of my youth was tugging at my sleeve.”

“I Grew Up Loving Jesus” explores words of consolation through lost love. Austin’s adaptation of subjective heartbreak and transcendental pondering is exemplary of their strength as storytellers. 

Oxen” is at the heart of this album—a lyrical namesake through modern Biblical interpretation. Initially written for his sister’s wedding ceremony, this timely piece reaches beyond marriage. 

“As I was thinking about being married, I was really thinking a lot bigger than that. Marriage is just one form of a relationship, a very strong one, but then there are family, neighbors, college friends. People think of wedding days in a sugar-coated way, but marriage, like other relationships, is one of the hardest things you could ever do,” Austin explained of the crafting process. 

Austin, who was raised in a religious household, was reminded of a bible verse: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  “We flipped it on its head,” he explained of the album title. “It means that being in a relationship with others might make things easier, but it doesn’t mean that hard times are not going to come.” 

Austin and Sarah took a story they were told and turned it into a meditation on the lingering American guilt of surrounding the Vietnam War with “Mr. Davis.” It balances national pride with inflicted shame in a way that opens up the often hushed conversation.

Closing out the intimate collection, “Hinges,” reverberates freedom. The duo embraces imperfection while manifesting their own story to pass down. Turning into a new chapter, “Hinges” leaves a previous and more secure life behind as Austen and Sarah take on their music full time. Line-by-line, the two grow more confident in their decision. “What good is potential without a force to move?” they harmoniously pose. As the doors of convention slam behind them, the couple carefully opens the next, reassuring each other along the way. “I promise I will show you a world that’s sure to please,” they sing together with certainty. “Cut the ties that hold you back, feel the sweet release.”

Listen to The Yoke Is Easy, the Burden Is Full below. Purchase Chatham Rabbit’s latest album here and follow along as they navigate through this pandemic. 

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