Lomes Oleander, the woman who leads Pigeon Pit, has written songs for as long as she can remember. “My dad bought my mom a guitar, and she passed it on to me,” she says. “I taught myself how to play when I was 12, figuring out how to put together the songs I was hearing in my head. I still play that guitar today.”
Oleander, who grew up in Santa Cruz, played in bands during high school. She started performing her original songs at solo shows. “I did a lot of busking as a teenager, playing on the street in Santa Cruz,” Oleander says. “I traveled around the country playing music, crashing on couches and meeting a lot of different kinds of people, getting by on their generosity.”
She finally settled in Olympia. She played local shows, made some recordings that she put up online and put together Pigeon Pit, the band that accompanies her on Crazy Arms, released last month on the band’s own label.
“I always envisioned the arrangements of the songs being played with a full band,” Oleander says. “I finally found people who were as driven by music as I was. Besides the bass, pedal steel and electric guitar, everyone plays acoustically. We recorded the album directly to analogue tape, all in the same room together. There’s an energy you get when you’re all playing together, making a real, living object.”
The band produced Crazy Arms as a unit, arranging the songs as the session progressed. “I play the songs on acoustic and explain my vision,” Oleander says. “As we work it out and play, the arrangements become collaborative and we bring it to fruition together. If I’m arranging things by myself, it takes about 30 seconds to decide what I want to do. With a group, you have to consider every little thing. It takes a lot longer, but it’s worth it.”
Pigeon Pit describes themselves as a country/punk band, but their sound draws on blues, folk and bluegrass, as well as country and punk rock. “Country is in the spirit of the music, not necessarily the arrangements,” Oleander says. “The country music I listen to, folks like Gram Parsons, Lucina Williams and Townes Van Zant, have that spirit. What we’re doing is just as country as anything coming out these days.”
“Run Your Pockets” opens with Oleander strumming an acoustic guitar and sustained pedal-steel notes by Jim who, along with other band members, prefers to be identified by his first name. It’s the most country sounding tune on the album, with Jim’s steel adding a melancholy touch to Oleander’s tale of dealing with a fading relationship.
Olive’s drums are in overdrive on “Dear Johnny,” another song about the end of a relationship. Oleander sings a tongue-twisting, hyperdrive narrative that calls out all the failings of her ex, punctuated by a brief, shredding guitar solo by Jim.
The band’s banjo player, Maddy, sings “Maddy’s Song,” her own composition, the only piece Oleander didn’t write. She plays banjo, with Bo adding dark fiddle textures. Her quiet vocal describes the ebb and flow of a relationship, as she senses that she must surrender to the inevitable end of things.
“I’ve known Maddy since we were teenagers,” Oleander says. “I think that song’s been growing up that whole time. We’d play it for fun at band practice. I always wished I had music of hers to listen to. It’s so special to have it on the record.”
The album, called Crazy Arms, references a song Oleander heard by the country artist Ray Price. “The song has no logic to it,” she says. “It’s just about how insane it is to be in love with another person. Our whole world right now is an irrational and fucked-up relationship. Trying to hold on to connection and humanity is the most psycho thing you could try to do. That’s what I’m writing about.”
The band is looking forward to their gig at 924 Gilman this Saturday. “I’ve always wanted to play there,” Oleander says. “I drove up there to go to shows, when I was a teen growing up in Santa Cruz. When places are drenched in punk history like that, it’s special.”
Pigeon Pit will play Saturday, March 1, at 8pm at 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. 510.524.8180. 924gilman.org. Foot Ox and Half Calf open the show.
