On June 18—the ninth anniversary of the Sofa Super Store fire that killed nine local firefighters—Americana band The Travelin‘ Kine released its first album, Change In The Wind, with a concert at the Pour House. It was a date that singer and guitarist Slaton Glover would never have selected; a firefighter himself, he lost close friends in the tragedy. But it was what the venue offered, and Glover decided to take it, with 100 percent of the night’s album sales going to the MUSC Burned Children’s Fund. “It seemed like a good opportunity to honor those guys in the best way I know,” he says. The sold-out show was a huge success.
Interestingly, the album’s title track also made the best of a bad situation: Glover wrote it the day his divorce was finalized in 2013, having recently quit firefighting to take up music full-time. The song starts with Glover lamenting the bad weather that’s enveloping his life, but then, in a classic “you can’t keep a good man down” musical moment, he self-prescribes change as a cure for what ails him.
Other album highlights include “For The Road,” the kind of song you’d hear blaring from a honky-tonk jukebox, and “I’m Not As Smart As You Look,” which transcends its clever title and sticks with you long after the last mandolin and slide guitar notes fade. Hear them all at thetravelinkine.com, or live on August 5 at The Windjammer.
