Crack The Sky Is Back “From The Wood”

A while back, we looked at “the best band you’ve never heard,” namely, Crack The Sky.

Starting out in the 70s, they became a regional sensation in the mid-Atlantic, but bad timing and label problems robbed them of the career push they deserved. Nonetheless, Crack the Sky established a name as one of the most influential prog-rock bands, with albums hailed by Rolling Stone, Billboard, and the New York Times. Plus, they have a deeply devoted fan base.

And they haven’t stopped making music. Their latest release (the 20^th), From The Wood, is just out, and is reflective of the isolation and anxiety we’ve all experienced in the last couple of years. Face it– we’ve all gone through some changes.

The band, decidedly immersed in complex electric sounds, took a very different approach to this project. Lead vocalist John Palumbo noted: “Writing From The Wood was a new, albeit old experience. The last few CTS albums were written on electric guitar, piano, and drum loops. This one was done strictly on acoustic guitar. We initially felt that using all string instruments would be a challenge and change; but ultimately made it an exciting and new process. There was nothing to lean on with doing so and therefore the songs had to hold up on their own – naked of any synthetic or electric painting…The songs are displayed in wonderful landscapes and the freedom of organic expression worked far better than we had hoped for.”

-The CS Team

Photo: Fair Use cover image of From The Wood

PS — While we’re on the topic of Rock History, you might enjoy our YouTube series of daily one-minute nuggets of memorable moments…