On ‘Bastion,’ Kentucky Band Wayne Graham Blends Indie, Traditional Genres to Explore Outgrowing Their Hometown

Kentucky band Wayne Graham—formed by brothers Kenny and Hayden Miles—released their newest album, Bastion, on September 6. The album blends genres seamlessly across nine tracks, pulling from indie, jazz, avant-garde improvisation, and Appalachian tradition to create an utterly unique sonic experience. With friends like Tyler Childers and Tommy Prine, and Kentucky contemporaries like S.G. Goodman, Cage the Elephant, and Ian Noe, Wayne Graham are just one band exploring what it means to be a Kentuckian at odds with Kentucky.

As a complete project, Bastion grapples with the question of what happens when you outgrow your small town. The Miles brothers are from Whitesburg, Kentucky, a small mining town in the eastern part of the state. They’ve tapped into feelings of isolation, the inevitable passage of time, familial disagreements, love, loss, changes, outgrowing your roots and eventually coming back to them. Bastion weaves a complex tapestry through the small town human experience, blending the sounds of Appalachia with jazz, punk, noise, and indie. 

“Our music is the way it is because we’re from here,” said Hayden Miles in a press release. “It’s very specifically Kentucky.” However, as Kenny Miles stated when speaking about playing their hometown, “Sometimes Wayne Graham feels like a square peg in a round hole.”

Wayne Graham Release Bastion, Grapples with Being At Odds With Hometown

That simultaneous longing for and disconnect from their hometown is explored throughout Bastion. On one hand, the album celebrates the rich traditions of Kentucky music—there are nods to Protestant hymns and other Appalachian influences. On the other hand, it recognizes how the Miles brothers have grown beyond their small town—featuring the influences of jazz, soul, noise, Wilco, LCD Soundsystem, Loose Fur, and others. 

One of the songs that notably addresses this juxtaposition is “Shoot Me.” If I were to knock on the wrong door would you shoot me, the song asks in a meandering, seemingly endless verse. “We Could’ve Been Friends” also does something similar, stating the title over and over in the chorus—We could’ve been friends / I know / We could’ve been friends. 

Throughout Bastion there are conflicting emotions of urgency, weariness, foreboding, and confusion. Wayne Graham looked around themselves and took note of the state of things, then translated their many different feelings into many different songs. “Shoot Me” tackles racial biases and violence that often occurs in small towns, while “Swinging’ ‘Round” addresses the drag ban in Kentucky. 

“That song comes from a place of frustration,” said Kenny Miles. “I started writing it around the time the drag ban was being talked about in Kentucky and Tennessee, and as I worked on it, it morphed into a song about trying to find a way to communicate with people you disagree with, even if it’s family.”

Featured Image by Hunter Way