Live Music with Jeezum Crow at Maine Craft Distilling
Hat hung low, hands wrapped around a well-worn acoustic guitar, Griffin William Sherry shares stories equally worthy of a dusty old novel, campfire congregation, or outdoor summer festival. For as much as the Maine singer, songwriter, and guitarist wrestles with big questions about life and love in his songs, he also celebrates the magic of spending his days living in a small town. His powerhouse vocal delivery, no-frills instrumentation, unabashed honesty, and eloquent songcraft might just make you appreciate the moment a little bit more.
After eleven years fronting The Ghost of Paul Revere, he offers up his story as a solo artist for the first time on his 2024 full-length debut album, Hundred Mile Wilderness.
“I’ve always found a lot of joy and pride in songwriting. I love writing earnest and witty lyrics, and songs that can tell a story,” he says. “I think fans of the Ghost (of Paul Revere) will find a familiar voice in this new record, but also a new direction. The songs on Hundred Mile Wilderness are built on that simple foundation of me and my guitar, singing at the top of my lungs with all my heart. That’s what I’ve been doing since day one. I feel like I’ve been given a great opportunity to continue making music and, for what feels like the first time, telling my story with my own voice.”
This level of integrity has thoroughly defined his artistry. He reached impressive heights at the helm of The Ghost of Paul Revere, sharing stages with everyone from The Avett Brothers, The Revivalists, and Old Crow Medicine Show to The Infamous Stringdusters and Trampled By Turtles . A slew of acclaimed releases also incited the applause of Billboard, Boston Globe, The Boot, and more. In 2014, the band even launched their own successful festival, Ghostland, headlining and hosting eight iterations to date. The festival regularly drew thousands of fans from across the country to their hometown of Portland, Maine and served as their final show in 2022. In 2019, Griffin’s song “The Ballad of the 20th Maine” became the official Maine State Ballad, after being unanimously passed by the House and Senate before being signed into law by Governor Janet Mills The song tells the story of the 20th Maine Regiment’s key role in victory at The Battle of Gettysburg, forever changing the course of U.S. history.
When The Ghost of Paul Revere amicably parted ways in 2022, Griffin continued on his own. Armed with a catalog of all new songs, he retreated to Nashville, TN and recorded Hundred Mile Wilderness with producer Eddie Spear.
The title nodded to both his home state and the genesis of this next creative chapter.
“The ‘Hundred Mile Wilderness’ ,” he notes. “Is an untouched stretch-of-wilderness at the northernmost end of the Appalachian Trail. To me, the journey to make this record paralleled getting lost and exploring the vast Maine woods. You know deep down there’s going to be an end to it, but you don’t know when you’ll reach it or what you’re going to experience along the way.”
He initially teased this era with the harmonica-buzzed and choir-backed “Reflections.” Regarding the song, he reveals “‘Reflections’ is a song about confronting big changes in your life and having to stare down the idea of who you were in order to discover who you want to be. ’ A couple days after the band decided to call it, I felt rudderless, looking for a clearer picture of who I was on my own for the first time in a long while. One morning, I started humming what would become the melody to the chorus and before I knew it, I had written the whole song.”
On “Roll Down Slow,” wildly unrestrained fiddle wails over gently strummed chords. Written after a particularly harrowing night, Griffin says the song came after a bit of a wake up call. “It’s about looking yourself in the mirror and coming to terms with whatever choices you’ve made”. With clarity and catharsis, his vocals boom, “I’m in love with the pain of moving at the speed of sound”
Then, there’s “Juliet.”
“It’s a love song I’d been working on for a few years,” he notes. “I enjoy writing ‘sad love songs’. They seem to live in a deeper well than stories of found love and happily ever-afters”. Soundtracked by worn hands meandering across a fretboard, it’s more a song of loss than love. One where Romeo never found Juliet, but could never bring himself to stop his search. His lamentations cut deep as he exhales, “When I opened up my eyes, she wasn’t mine. My Juliet seems to be the only thing I’ll never all of my days”
Brash, heavy-handed piano set “Our Town” in motion, and his voice simmers over the swaying and swaggering rhythm. “Some say that the sun’s gone down in our town. But baby, come on, we know better than that”.
“I wanted to write a song that captured the feeling of where I’m from and also comments on the rough shape it’s in,” he says. “It’s really two vignettes of people who live in a small town. They’re sad and a little desperate, but I’m not sure they know it. Rural towns have their own specific problems and maybe none of us are exactly where we thought we’d be, but we still stand tall. That very Maine and New England sentiment is the heartbeat of Our Town.”
Ultimately, Griffin’s telling the story he’s meant to.
“I’m ready for a new chapter,” he says. “I don’t have a choice but to keep going; I have to make music. I had to make this record. Ultimately, Hundred Mile WIlderness is both deeply personal and reflects where I call home, with all its failings and all its charm. I hope I’m always curious, just as I hope I’m always proud of where I’ve been and where I can go. And I hope that I never lose that drive to tell all the stories I find in myself”.