Work-life balance is a difficult struggle to capture in an album, much less a soaring classic. Phil Cramer of Steele Creek is more than up to the challenge on a superb sophomore outing that regularly uses nature to explain complex ideas. It’s a beautiful piece that declares that challenges and the grind worth enduring, but not at the cost of missing the rest of life.
There’s a strange duality about life that “Ridgeline” manages to capture with a unique scene featuring a man pushing a rock up the hill. It’s emblematic of the complex mediations on work, domestic, and mental health topics Cramer explores through metaphor and deep thought on Toward The Light. On the one hand, there are “hard forevers” we have to deal with. Work. Chores. Other obligations. It takes up most of our time pushing that rock up the hill and breaking the momentum for a little inner peace can make it all the harder to continue on our way. But the view is breathtaking. Family is much more important. Cramer is perfectly happy to let that stone roll down the hill in exchange for time with his son or a chance to rest and take it all in.
“It’s not a linear path,” Cramer said. “The stone’s gonna keep rolling down that hill. But if we want to get over the mountain and see the other side, we gotta keep pushing it up there.”
“Ridgeline” doesn’t just set the tone for the album ahead. The imagery of pushing a boulder up a hill and the views worth resting for conjure a strong image that’s timeless, clear, and gorgeous. And to compare something that big with a kid playing in the park is an effective way to establish the value of family life.
“Yes, we can pursue whatever’s on the other side of the mountain, or even that sense of peace, but it it’s coming at the detriment of of spending time with family, that’s when it starts to become a concern,” Cramer said, noting his family that includes three young children. “Helping them on their journey is the most important thing.”
“Marrow” continues to explore this topic. Its lyrics of missing family while away from them are a bit simpler than the opening song, but the melody is catchier and gives Cramer a better chance to flex his vocal might. “Resurrection Fern” is a metaphor for a relationship as it ages and is based on a New Orleans plant non-natives might not be familiar with. Galleries of hanging ferns there can look dead after a period of drought but spring back to life when the rains return. It’s hard work, according to Cramer.
“It’s in a place where you have to find each other again and again,” Cramer said of a maturing love. He explained that at that point, love isn’t so much a promise but something that actively needs to be nurtured. “The point is how I’m going to show up today for you. I’m gonna keep trying.”
A standout line in the song flashes back to when Cramer was “young enough to make plans as the universe unravels.”
“I think it’s a blessing that each new generation comes with its fresh energy and wants to reinvent the world anew,” Cramer said. “You make lots of big plans then, but it does get harder and more complicated as you have more responsibilities.”
Another highlight on the album is “Tidewaters,” a song that sees an older person wade into the ocean and contemplate relaxing, something they haven’t done much of in their life. Cramer feels it’s quite important to relax a little, as well as find some form of wholeness. He chose the ocean setting for the way it makes him feel.
“If there’s any place that’s gonna put you in touch with the rhythms of the Earth and some kind of divine spirit it’s sitting out there watching the waves crash in both powerfully and indifferently,” Cramer said. “It’s one of the vastness of the universe moments for me. It becomes a moment when I’m most centered and rooted.”
The character in the song either seems ready to enter retirement or is already there and struggling to adjust.
“It could be someone dealing with the wreckage of having worked so hard for so long and trying to find what’s left at the end of that,” Cramer said. “Culturally, we make it pretty hard for ourselves.”
There are plenty of other strong tracks on the album, including the incredibly relatable “Serpent’s Prayer” that talks about racing thoughts haunting us in the night. “Towards the Light” has perhaps the most compelling line in the album, where Cramer says he’d “lay down like a stone inside the stream” to give his children a chance to walk across him safely.
Cramer explained he wrote the line “having had my own struggles with mental health and anxiety in particular and then looking at my son and first of all hoping that he doesn’t face those same problems, but also knowing those problems will come because we’re human and we’re all dealing with our own struggles.”
“I want him to be able to learn from what I’ve been through. At the very least wanting him to grow from the point where I left off.”
Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Phil Cramer and the songs we discussed, starting with Ridgeline, which turns work-life balance into an epic struggle on a mountain through metaphor. The interview begins with the second video in the playlist. You can hear the show live every Monday at 11am on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://steelecreekband.com for more.
Country Pocket 