#MoneyMusicMonday: The cuttingly deep appeal of CAAMP's "By and By" and some similar favorites
Few songs have captured me the way CAAMP's By and By did earlier this year after going under the radar in 2019. Often, a single song will throw me into a trance, and this one has its own orbit.
Our second #MoneyMusicMonday is about the band CAAMP. Their flagship song, “By and By”, hasn’t left my rotation since I found it earlier this year. Last.fm tells me I have 145 listens on the year, but I don’t think that counts the entire days I’ve had it on repeat. You can listen here:
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For CAAMP, the simplest serenades are often the sweetest
The trio of Taylor Meier, Evan Westfall, and Matt Vinson started CAAMP in 2013, and use their talents to explore serious themes like aging and falling in and out of love with the world in wry, but heartwrenching fashion. When I hear them, I can’t help but think of ZZ Top’s famous missive: “Same three guys, same three chords.” Success, and more importantly great music, doesn’t require an orchestra or ensemble of production talent. In CAAMP’s case, it needs heartfelt intent and some awesome banjo and electric guitar interplay. The past, present, and future are laid bare lyrically and instrumentally for the listener.
American Songwriter kindly published a deep dive on this record roughly a year ago, so I won’t cover trodden ground. Meier describes a familiar genesis for “By and By”: lost love. His experience comes “out on the road,” and in near-magical fashion, we’re dropped into a world unfamiliar to many Extremely Online denizens: America’s scorned, forgotten interior.
CAAMP’s emphasis on quippy lyrics tying their music to place and feeling gives them a concrete identity many artists lack
With a simple guitar melody and 23 words, Meier sets the listener up for a slam dunk.
Driving through West Virginia
And I’ve seldom been thinner
With that chip on my shoulder
This past year I got so much older
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have NOT seldom been thinner. In fact, I’m big as hell right now. I have also never driven through West Virginia. But that doesn’t really blunt the intoxicating imagery CAAMP serves up unless you’ve internalized the media’s hype of the ongoing opioid crisis and think there actually are entire states blanketed by white people shambling around in drug-induced catatonia.
I immediately think of Bob Seger’s missive about being a little too tall, needing a few pounds off “Night Moves”, and his penchant for describing how fucking sweet a motorcycle ride through America’s heartland is. Meier needs the same catharsis and is ready to go running for it, but at a bit of a slower clip.
No great musical retrospective on love is complete without — Catch-22 here — a personal retrospective on love. CAAMP gives this in spades, buttering us up with a few chords before diving headfirst into a second verse now-awesome-banjo-backed musings. A good banjo ditty is America at its finest, and I profusely thank Black and Caribbean culture for bringing that to us. From here,
Unifying themes that go beyond just scratching the surface despite their tight delivery breathe life into the increasingly popular indie folk genre
A lot of the lyrics on “By and By” are easy to visualize, and it’s because some of us live them far more often than we’d probably like to admit.
Drinkin’ coffee black as iron
And I couldn’t be much higher
Without fallin’ out of my chair
Been so numb for so many years(chorus ↓)
Now I’m thinkin’ about her everyday
On my mind atypical way
Are you a life force?
Thinking about her everyday
On my mind atypical way
Are you a life force?
I am not a coffee drinker, but I do typically take it black as iron. Small lyrical details like this ground (haha, coffee puns) the track in a broad context, while leaving room for Meier to personify his suffering in visceral terms. Coming to terms with his loss means reevaluating his very reasons for existence: they’re a life force, damn it! Not just a temporary partner, not even the love of your life. Someone you’re physically dependent on, like a drug for the soul.
Again, not a wholly unusual trope, particularly in folk, but CAAMP hits their stride with ease from here.
And it's so easy
To be blinded by the light
To feel lonely in the night
This blowing in the breeze babe
I got dust in my eyes
And rust in my mind
I'll be home come next spring
Won't you say you love me later, by and by
This is the modern-day fourth card, or Turn if we’re playing Texas Hold’em. Meier’s hand comes into view with a quick, near-falsetto jab, lyrics rolling off the tongue like ice melting into the proverbial spring he mentions. Rarely do you get so deft a combination of regret and optimism, but they work together here perfectly.
CAAMP remains true to themselves and their genre while incorporating new sounds and appealing to a whole lot of folks who gag at the idea of coming near places like West Virginia
Folk is not necessarily super fun. Country gets most of the love nowadays, as far as “old music” goes. It’s more upbeat, geared towards having a good time, and easily accessible. A lot of successful folk artists come from the country realm or incorporate other genres to realize widespread success. Taylor Swift’s Folklore is a great example of the former, and Mumford & Sons’ “diversification” into more electronic-driven instrumentation on albums like Wilder Mind is the latter. CAAMP builds on a legacy of new and old without really leaning too hard into either. The result is a “poppy” indie folk sound that manages to stay distinct in a satured marketplace.
The locational specifics in “By and By” I promised above are admittedly a little scant. West Virginia getting a mention is enough to set me off, because it’s already about as rare as it gets in today’s music world.
The last verse, before fading out into banjo-driven bliss, gives us a little more to reflect on.
Two fingers and a tight line
Keep my head above the alpine
Just wish I'd spent more time
Listenin’ to her speak her mind
Meier switches from his earlier verse, from “speak your mind” to “speak her mind”, indicating a change in his perspective. His healing process moves into the past, and he may still lament some of his decisions, but he gives us a positive note to end on. His reference to the alpine is a new take on keeping your head above water, and tugs you at just the right moment, for the right audience.
Sometimes colder weather prevails, but you have what it takes to go the distance.
I won’t tell you this record is “groundbreaking”. It doesn’t have the lyrical invention of Justin Vernon or sweeping, orchestral instrumentation of other indie acts like Typhoon. But it doesn’t need to be, even though CAAMP proves on other songs they can go there.
Instead, “By and By” delivers to us a distilled respect for rock, rhythm, and understated emotion. In a world prone to sensory overload, that’s bound to be enough.
Song Recommendations based on CAAMP’s “By and By”
This is a relatively easy one for me. There are a lot of bands occupying this space, but few who do it as well. Here’s a quick playlist of similar songs on Spotify.
Thanks for reading, and be on the lookout for more later this week, plus future #MoneyMusicMondays!