Biography

Baltimore, Maryland—June Star, formed in 1998 by songwriter Andrew Grimm, started out as a straightforward Americana band tapping into rusty, weary sounds that echoed the more rural roughneck perspectives of life. Over the years though, Grimm's songwriting and the band's sound have evolved, widening their scope and sensibilities. Through the course of 18 releases, Arrival being the latest, listeners can trace the growth from simple alt country songs to more layered, textured compositions blending the familiar warmth of that country sound with challenging and surprising musical moments. Arrival at first sounds like a stripped-down folk-based record that includes the Americana hallmark instrumentation of pedal steel, mandolin, and baritone guitar, but these sounds serve more as a vehicle for Grimm's meditations on domestic disappointment, premature death, and the sudden self-awareness of aging. These songs were the pressure cooker product of the COVID pandemic where Grimm, like most people, found themselves with a lot of time to think. As things began to open back up, Grimm and longtime collaborator and pedal steel virtuoso Dave Hadley traveled out to Royal Oak, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) to record these songs with Bunky Hunt (Whistlepig Records owner) mixing, Chuck Bartels on bass (Sturgill Simpson) and Todd Glass (Robert Gordon) on drums

 

Their five tracks EP " Arrival"  is freely available on Bandcamp