Local Band Travelin’ Kine live up to their name as they hit the road in support of debut album
By Miranda S. Steadman | Contributing Writer
After years of playing together, local all-Americana outfit, The Travelin’ Kine, is receiving well-deserved praise for their debut album titled, Change In The Wind. Voted 2014 & 2015 City Paper Americana Artist of the Year, The Travelin’ Kine’s members have strong Folly roots and recently held their album listening party at Drop-In Deli.
Self-described as a “red dirt/Americana band,” The Travelin’ Kine offers a mingled blend of rock, blues, and folk. The band first began playing together at The Thirsty Fish on Edisto Island. Although the bar has since closed, what unfolded at The Thirsty Fish during the summer of 2013 sparked something that has continued to grow in the last three years.
Firefighter-turned-rock star, Slaton Glover fronts the band on guitar and vocals, and is the primary songwriter. Many know Glover by day as the burly-but-friendly bartender at Loggerhead’s Beach Grill. A driven songwriter, Slaton wrote all of the songs on Change In The Wind, save one song written by Blake Christiana from the Brooklyn roots band Yarn titled, “Bad Bad Man.”
Glover first started playing live with local mandolin player David Vaughan in December of 2012. He left The Charleston Fire Department four months later to pursue a career in music. That summer, The Travelin’ Kine played their first shows in Charleston at Seanachai Social Club on John’s Island. They would continue playing out at The Roost in West Ashley and Loggerhead’s and Surf Bar on Folly Beach.
Now a seasoned six-piece outfit, which in addition to Glover and Vaughan, includes local musicians Jim Donnelly on drums, Mark Davis on harmonica, Brent Poulson on bass, and Scottie Frier on guitar. They’re playing a lot these days and are continually adding more dates in support of Change in the Wind. They’re scheduled to play the Charleston Music Hall July 15 opening for the legendary Junior Brown. Then they play Smith’s Old Bar in Atlanta the following day. The band returns to Folly to play Surf Bar on Aug. 13, and are scheduled to play the Music Farm in Columbia with Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ on Oct. 7. “We’re finally living up to the name, and looking to do more and more of it,” Glover says.
The Travelin’ Kine sold out The Charleston Pour House for their album release party on June 18. The date also marked the nine-year anniversary of the Sofa Super Store fire in which nine Charleston firefighters lost their lives. As a former firefighter himself, Glover and the band donated all proceeds from album sales at the event to the MUSC Children’s Hospital Burned Children’s Fund.
Sponsored by The Bridge 105.5, The Charleston Pour House, and Channel 4 Lowcountry Live, the album release party for Change In The Wind broke the standing records for both ticket and bar sales at The Charleston Pour House. Local band Whiskey Diablo kicked off the night inside, following Dallas Baker & friends on the Pour House deck. Throughout the night, the band was joined onstage by several guest musicians, including vocalist Danielle Howle, guitarist and fellow Folly resident Mike Sivilli from Dangermuffin, Campbell Brown from Gaslight Street, Ryan Bonner from Sideshow Americans, and Charlie Thompson on steel guitar.
On Change In The Wind, Glover pours his heart into each song. “I wanted it to be conceptual, not just thrown together,” says Glover, who gives credit to his bandmates for helping give feeling to his lyrics and music. “The album would not have happened had it not been for Jim and Dave (Vaughan).” Drummer Jim Donnelly also runs Plowground Studio on Johns Island, where the band recorded Change In The Wind.
The title track, “Change In The Wind” was voted 2015 City Paper Music Award’s Song of the Year. With a foot stomping rhythm, the song gives the feeling of embarking on a soul-searching expedition with the lyrics, “Don’t know where I am or where I’m bound.” Appropriate for a band that calls itself The Travelin’ Kine.
On the track “One More Night” Glover asks the question, “How can I be living wrong when I’m living the best I can?” It’s this kind of thoughtful introspection that you wouldn’t expect from a brawny former firefighter. But Glover is full of surprises and introspection and heartache. On “Before I Ask”, the album’s final track, he writes, “It’s those you love the most who lie to you.” Then on the song “Don’t Go Away” Slaton compares himself to “A blank canvas in a painter’s hands … anything I want to be I can.” It’s a hopeful message for a positive future. And if the response they’ve received from their debut album is any indication, a positive future is just what The Travelin’ Kine has coming their way.
For more information and a complete list of tour dates visit www.thetravelinkine.com.
