Album Notes

Guided by principal singer-songwriter Ben Gmetro’s constantly evolving and ever-improving songwriting, The Dreadful Yawns have undergone numerous transformations in their tenure as a band.

Beginning with their 2003 release Early on Chicago’s Undertow Music, the Dreadful Yawns began drawing heavily on--and gaining glowing comparisons to--folk-pop luminaries such as Nick Drake and Neil Young (PopMatters). Following the critical success of Early, The Dreadful Yawns became the last band to sign to the legendary Bomp! label, and released their beautifully executed self-titled album, The Dreadful Yawns in 2005. This release saw a more psychedelic side of the band, and garnered them critical acclaim from such storied publications as the Wall Street Journal, as well as numerous comparisons to both classic and modern psych-folk bands such as Beachwood Sparks and The Byrds.

The songs contained here on Rest are logical successors to the psych-folk-stylings of The Dreadful Yawns, but at the same time represent a significant aesthetic departure. Gone are the extended atmospherics and aural experimentations which pervaded the previous recording. In its place are lush orchestrations, beautiful pedal steel, finger-picked guitars, and richly layered vocal melodies. Rest finds the band pushing the country influenced rock style to its conceivable limits—and creating a beautiful, timeless, and essential document of the genre in the process.