eTown Taping with John Craigie and Olive Klug
About John Craigie:
For over a decade, John Craigie has made music that brings people in. Not with spectacle, but with sincerity and songs that feel like conversations.
I Swam Here, John’s forthcoming studio album is due February 6, 2026 via Zabriskie Point Records. Much of the album, recorded in New Orleans in January 2025, finds John backed by musicians handpicked by Sam Doores of The Deslondes. With him on piano, organ and vocals he brought along Howe Pearson on drums, Max Bien Khan on bass, Jonny Campos on pedal steel and an appearance by Desiree Cannon on vocals on one track. Longtime friend and collaborator, Anna Moss, appears on almost every song. While John served as producer, you can feel the influence and the talents of the New Orleans musicians on seven of the ten tracks that were recorded there. The other three songs were recorded a few months later at the Rope Room up in Astoria, Oregon, with a different band but mirroring the aesthetic of the New Orleans sessions. The cover art, painted by B. Schall, who herself has spent time living in New Orleans, mirrors the style and design of many samba and jazz records of the 50s and 60s.
The record’s first single, “Fire Season,” was engineered by longtime collaborator Bart Budwig. This was one of the first songs written for the project and was recorded in Astoria with Cooper Trail on drums and Nevada Sowle on bass, both returning after working with Craigie on Mermaid Salt. It also has Luke Ydstie on bass (Blind Pilot, Michael Hurley) and Jamie Greenan on pedal steel.
The second single, “Dry Land,” took a different path. They recorded a version in New Orleans, but John didn’t like the pacing, and it had a long, unneeded bridge. It was re-recorded in Astoria a few months later with a different piano line and a bowed upright bass.
The 3rd upcoming single, “Edna Strange” is inspired by the songs of Marty Robbins and other western gunfighter ballads. This is the only song where John plays steel-string acoustic. Max Bien Khan is doing the nylon string guitar leads. One of the few songs to not feature Anna Moss' vocals, instead they opted to reference Marty Robbins with the male trio vocal you can hear in the background,
Following 2024’s Pagan Church — his acclaimed collaboration with TK & The Holy Know-Nothings that spent 6 weeks at #1 on the Americana Albums charts— I Swam Here feels both expansive and intimate, drawing from the musical history of the Gulf Coast and the quiet natural sounds of the Pacific Northwest.
John’s music continues to resonate far beyond the studio. He has packed out solo and band tours across the U.S., Europe and Australia, performed at Newport Folk Festivals, Pickathon, Edmonton Folk Festival, and High Sierra, and shared the stage with Langhorne Slim, Brett Dennen, Sierra Hull, Gregory Alan Isakov, Mason Jennings, Bella White and Jack Johnson. His annual #KeepItWarm Tour donates $1 from every ticket sold to regional nonprofits fighting food insecurity, while his beloved John Craigie On the River trips on the Tuolumne (CA) or Rogue (OR) rivers have become a one-of-a-kind gathering for fans and friends alike.
I Swam Here is another step forward for Craigie. Rooted in place, shaped by collaboration, and guided by his steady hand as a songwriter and producer. It blends the spirit of New Orleans with the stillness of the Pacific Northwest, and shows the quiet confidence of an artist who is still exploring his limits.
About Olive Klug:
While only a relatively short time has passed since the van-dwelling singer-songwriter Olive Klug fully pursued the nontraditional life of a touring musician, their sophomore album Lost Dog finds them contemplating a propensity for adventure no matter what avenue of love and loss it leads down. Although still very young, on Lost Dog Olive artfully addresses “aging as a neurodivergent free spirit” on the road with an unarguably talented ability to fearlessly voice deeply honest emotions through captivating storytelling.
Gentle at the start, album opener “Taking Punches From the Breeze” gets its title from Olive’s self-described nature of “letting the wind take them wherever they’re meant to be.” As more instrumentation fills in alongside fingerpicked guitar and Olive’s soft croon, a shuffling drum beat arrives under lyrical imagery of life’s new direction and the ups and downs of being beholden to the breeze.
Deemed by Olive as “the happiest song you’ll ever hear about unrequited love,” “What to Make of Me” is a “zydeco-inspired romp” so full of life and self-assuredness that there’s hardly room to dwell on anything remotely devastating. Pure unshakeable confidence clocking in at just under three minutes, this tune mirrors the short-term romance that inspired it with the added benefit of being able to listen on repeat.
“No one is their best self in the first few weeks following a big breakup,” explains Olive. “And the song ‘Cold War’ demonstrates how this manifests in our modern world.”
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3434476-0
