Music / The Crane Wives

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The Crane Wives are an indie folk band from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Their musical style is a strange mix of Indie Rock and Folk Rock, with heavy use of unusual instruments and vocal harmonies.

Their name is a Shout-Out to a Decemberists album, which is what lead to their fame; while being interviewed by NPR, Colin Meloy noticed a copy of their debut album and its band name, and took a photo with it, leading to a huge surge in interest in their music.

Members

• Emilee Petersmark (guitar/vocals)
• Kate Pillsbury (guitar/vocals)
• Dan Rickabus (drums/vocals)
• Ben Zito (bass)
• Tom Gunnells (banjo; left in 2015)

Studio Discography

• Safe Ship, Harbored (2011)
• The Fool in Her Wedding Gown (2012)
• Coyote Stories (2015)
• Foxlore (2016)
• Beyond Beyond Beyond (2024)

Live Discography

• Live from River City Studios
• Here I Am: Live from the Listening Room (2020)
• dogtownstudio recordings (2023)

The Crane Wives' music contains examples of:

• Album Title Drop:
  • In "Shallow River":
    May the whole sky fall
    May it all come down
    Waste it all for the truth
    For the fool in her wedding gown
  • In "Arcturus Beaming":
    Do you wonder who's looking back?
    Another life-form on some undiscovered planet
    A mirror image of us here, but they're pointing up at our Sun and
    Asking themselves
    What exists beyond, beyond, beyond, beyond?
• Animal Motifs: The singer of the "The Hand That Feeds" compares herself to an abused dog.
• Beneath the Mask: In "Bitter Medicine", the singer puts up a façade of being mentally put together, and disparages those around them who don't see through the façade.
  Are you ashamed of me, or did you buy what I'm selling?
  It won't last you long, it'll disappear
• Bonding Through Shared Earbuds: In the first half of the music video for "Arcturus Beaming", the two lead characters meet for the first time after first getting to know each other in an Internet chatroom, and have a Stargazing Scene listening to a CD of the titular song together through shared earbuds.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: "Never Love An Anchor" is a interesting example of this; its self-loathing protagonist loved someone, but believed they would be too bad of a person to have a healthy relationship, so drove them away on purpose.^note Certain lines about "sooth[ing] your fevers" and "[tying] your shoes", among others, imply that the singer is a mother giving her young child up for adoption.
• Break-Up Song:
  • "The Glacier House" is about someone who left their ex-partner after they started becoming cold and distant.
    Bundle up, darling, you're on your own now
    Seasons change as they do
    Maybe I'll see you
    When your shivering is through
  • One romantic interpretation of "The Moon Will Sing" is that the singer is lamenting the "ten years of dust and neglect" they spent with their toxic ex.
    I wanna feel the fire that you kept from me
• Broken Ace: Possibly for "Bitter Medicine", where the singer discourages those around them from admiring them because they're much more dysfunctional Beneath the Mask.
  Don't look up to me, I'm not as tall as you think
  You see, I talk a big game but it's bullshit
• Broken Bird: "Pretty Little Things" is sung from the perspective of a jaded lover who refuses to trust her new love interest until they've earned it after being mistreated by her exes.
  Maybe you're right and maybe I have been used up
  By another man's hungry hands
  And maybe you're right and maybe I have been ruined
  By another man after him
  And maybe I'm the one who's right
  Maybe you will prove why
  Women like me never fall for pretty little things
• Brutal Honesty: "Higher Ground" appears to be about a person regretting being brutally honest in the aftermath of telling the harsh truth, with the outcome and the waves they created in the status quo being compared to an earthquake.
  …I gave up the truth and now I can't take it back
  And I can feel the earth shaking underneath me
  Feel those tectonic plates shifting
  And I'm afraid of what I'll find in the rubble when it's done
  I didn't wanna hurt anyone
• Canary in a Coal Mine: "Canary in a Coal Mine" is built on this — it's sung from the point of view of the canary, begging the miners to not forget how she saved their lives at the cost of her own.
  Feed me promises, keep my heart well
  I'll sing you songs until the darkness does recede
  But if in the end I lose my voice
  Will you forget about your love for me?
• Capitalism Is Bad:
  • The message of "The Hand That Feeds" is that capitalism promises workers "the great American ruse" while exploiting them in turn, until they are too tired to fight the system and become cogs in the machine, and the workers have nothing left to lose by taking care of and standing up for themselves.
    I've seen good men spoiled, chained to their jobs like hounds
    They work and sleep and work again, in the darkest nights, they howl
    Their cries are a warning to everyone following
    No man should stand to work all of his days and have nothing at the end of them
  • "Mad Dog" similarly follows a protagonist who chases after money in an attempt to reach happiness, despite it not being sustainable.
    Pace yourself
    You've got a long way to go before you get to lie down
    You're stuffing coins in your mouth
    Hoping happiness will fall out
• Careful with That Axe: An impressive example from "The Garden":
  My darling, THE DEVIL KNOWS MY NAME!
• Changing Chorus:
  • In "Safe Ship, Harbored", the singer discusses how their Safety in Indifference worldview came about through a chorus that changes towards the end of the song.
    I wasn't born a safe ship
    Something wore me down
    […]
    I wasn't born a safe ship
    Someone wore me down
  • "Black Hole Fantasy" changes its chorus every time it's sung, beginning with "the days blur together", turning to "the weeks blur together", and ending on "the months blur together", as more and more time goes by and the narrator is worn down by the daily grind. The final chorus, however, changes it up even further.
    The days blur together
    I watch the ceiling buckle
    The walls are closing in
    There's a black hole in the living room floor
    I keep trying to ignore
    But it's growing
    […]
    The months blur together
    I watch the ceiling buckle
    I wonder when it's caving in
    There's a black hole in the living room floor
    I keep standing on the edge
    And looking in
• Chronic Self-Deprecation: "Never Love An Anchor" revolves around the singer's self-loathing having forced her to sabotage a possible relationship.
  On some level, I think I always understood
  That these hands of mine were clumsy, not clever
  […]
  And you'll never see the reasons I had
  For keeping my claws away when they were close enough to hurt you
  I am selfish, I am broken, I am cruel
• Counting Sheep: Discussed in "Counting Sheep", where the singer comments that those who don't show Blind Obedience to the totalitarian leaders can stop doing this while trying to sleep at night, "'cause you'll get your fill of [sheep] during the daytime".
• Cynicism Catalyst: The singer of "Safe Ship, Harbored" describes that their Safety in Indifference attitude was caused by past trauma, in that "something", or rather, "someone wore [them] down".
• Daddy's Girl: The singer of "The Hand That Feeds" idolises her father, who taught her the anti-capitalist ideals the song revolves around.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The titular black hole in "Black Hole Fantasy", while seemingly ominous, is heavily implied to represent the singer's yearning for love, and looking into it at the end is what gives the singer the courage to chase her dreams for real, instead of just fantasizing.
• A Deadly Affair: In "I Ain't Done", the singer sneaks out while her spouse is asleep to sleep with her lover, only to be found out by her spouse one night, resulting in both the singer and her lover being murdered that night. In the afterlife, the singer declares that she has no regrets for being "a woman in love" and has all the time in the world to repent if she has to.
  Felt love's searing sting
  You exposed my nightly wanderings
  You put me in the ground
  But I ain't done
• Determined Defeatist: Implied. The protagonist of "Counting Sheep" lives under some sort of totalitarian society of a Crapsack World; they are aware of it and are "waiting for something", but are feigning fitting in with the social order because they know showing open resistance is futile.
  It's a losing battle
  So why are you still fighting?
• The Dog Bites Back: The central idea of "The Hand That Feeds":
  My papa taught me how to howl
  How to bare my teeth and growl
  He taught me that the hand that feeds
  Deserves to be bitten when it beats
  He taught me how to break my chains
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: "Bitter Medicine"'s protagonist refers to any sympathy for their situation as "stolen", implying they feel unworthy of others' sympathy.
  Is it a gift you give
  Or something precious I'm taking?
  Stolen sympathy for all my worst mistakes
• Dying Town: "Here I Am" was written in honour of "communities whose basic needs have been neglected". In the song itself, the singer recounts having "settled in, had a plan" in their (new) home, but is left to watch its residents migrate away in search of better opportunities.
  I'm getting tired of watching other people go
  The lights on my street never come on
  And the lines are overgrown
  It's obvious now that I've been forgotten
  The hollow houses and vacant lots and
  The shattered windows and splintered doors
  How long have I been here all alone?
• Dysfunction Junction: Discussed in "Hard Sell", where the singer wonders if they are the only one to be close to breaking down, and eventually surmises that everyone should open up about their struggles.
  Does everybody have it together or are we all pretending?
• Enter Stage Window: The music video of "Arcturus Beaming" has Sam sneak in and out of Jordan's house through her window during their first meeting, with Jordan helping her open the window to get in the first time.
• Fading into the Next Song:
  • The last few notes of "The Glacier House" are played on wind chimes, which are echoed at the start of the next song in the album, "Tongues & Teeth".
  • The final long note in "Hard Sell" plays in the background of the next song in the album, "Rockslide", which is voiced over with a short rhythm-counting before it changes to "Rockslide"'s melody.
• Fear Song:
  • "Never Love An Anchor" is about the protagonist being too afraid of hurting their loved one (implicitly their child) to establish a relationship between them, and cutting them away before they have a chance to get close.
  • "Know How" is more subtle, but the very first line of the song is the protagonist admitting they are not brave, and they're clearly aware that their loved one desires them romantically… but they have no idea how to handle it and are pointedly ignoring it, afraid to commit to that kind of risk.
    I gotta wrap my head around
    What my heart is telling me
    I've been trying to drown it out
    Just because I know what I am
    I am supposed to do now
    Doesn't mean I know, doesn't mean I know
    How
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the music video of "Arcturus Beaming", the license plate of the car Sam drives reads "TCW 2010", a nod to how the band was first formed in 2010.
• Garden of Eden: "The Garden"'s references to the titular garden and its accursed apple tree are likely allusions to this.
• Genre Mashup: Their own description probably summarises it best:
  A home grown indie-folk outfit from Grand Rapids, Michigan that defies musical stereotypes.
• Grow Old with Me: The singer expresses this sentiment with their love interest in "New Discovery".
  I want to kindle a love that doesn't age
  Even when all the years carve lines into your face
• Haunted House: Used as a metaphor for trauma in "The Garden" and "Curses".
• Hope Spot: In the middle of "Black Hole Fantasy", the singer seemingly summons up the courage to break the monotony of daily life, drives to the house of her Implied Love Interest… and hesitates at the door, unable to actually commit to such a risk. Not only that, but the whole thing turns out to be a fantasy that didn't even happen.
  Even in my fantasy, I can't commit
  To believing that I'll get what I want
  I'm afraid of what I want
• Idiot Crows: A rare western example in "The Garden":
  The crows in the garden are laughing at my expense
• Jade-Colored Glasses: The protagonist of "Pretty Little Things" is cynical and distrustful towards their new love interest after being "used up" and "ruined" by her past toxic exes.
  Don't buy me flowers, it pains me to watch
  Pretty little things wilt away
• Love Martyr: "Tongues & Teeth" has the singer tell her love interest that about how she is destructive and that they should only pursue her if they don't mind that.
  And I know that you mean so well
  But I am not a vessel for your good intent
  I will only break your pretty things
  I will only wring you dry of everything
  But if you're fine with that
  You can be mine like that
• Loving a Shadow: In "Say It", the singer wonders if their loved one ever cared for them in reality as opposed to what the loved one had imagined of them, and asks them to be honest about it if they didn't care.
  Did the real me corrupt the fantasy?
  Did I spoil the view?
  The build-up is almost always better than getting what you want
  Did I disappoint you?
• Lyrical Dissonance: Many of their songs are quite cheerful and jaunty-sounding. Their lyrics, on the other hand…
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Sam and Jordan in the "Arcturus Beaming" music video, who are heavily implied to be lovers. Sam has short hair that only reaches her ears, wears androgynous clothing, and drives across state lines to secretly spend the night at Jordan's; Jordan has longer hair and wears a thick headband and a long vest that looks like a dress.
• Mindless Sheep: "Counting Sheep" is about living as a Stepford Smiler in a dystopia and compares those who show Blind Obedience to the totalitarian leaders to sheep.
  When the wool is off your eyes
  You'll stop counting sheep at night
  'Cause you'll get your fill of them
  During the daytime
• Mortality Phobia: Alluded to in "The Hand that Feeds":
  And as for time, I am
  Powerless to stop it
  It keeps rambling on like a mad, wandering man
• Never Be Hurt Again:
  • A recurring theme of many of their songs… and also thoroughly deconstructed. In general, either the person closing themself off grows explicitly or implicitly miserable ("Safe Ship, Harbored" and, to a lesser extent, "Pretty Little Things") or causes a fair amount of heartbreak to the people who do care about them ("The Glacier House"). Being too afraid to open oneself to love in the first place ("Never Love an Anchor", "Know How") generally isn't portrayed as a particularly good thing either. It's only the ones who do overcome their fears and open themselves up to love ("Black Hole Fantasy") who manage to get a happy ending for themselves.
  • Nowhere is it more deconstructed than in "How To Rest", which explicitly states that trying to protect yourself from emotional hurt by refusing to love again is a doomed endeavor; you'll inevitably find yourself missing it, it makes things much harder than they needs to be, and refusing to move on won't stop life from continuing, even if you don't want it to.^note Given that Never Be Hurt Again is, as stated, something of a theme for the songs, one wonders if this song is directed at those songs' protagonists.
    Those of us who vow never to love again, to love again
    Are making liars out of honest men
    It's not something that you put to bed
    Hang your head and just forget
    No, love don't know how to rest
• Parental Love Song: A variant. "Never Love an Anchor" is about a parent giving their child up for adoption, knowing that they couldn't care for the child in their current position and that their child would live a terrible life if they kept them.
  There are times when I still wonder about you
  You are someone I have loved but never known
  And you'll never see the reasons I had
  For keeping my claws away when they were close enough to hurt you
• Period Piece: The music video for "Arcturus Beaming" evokes of the late 1990s to early 2000s in terms of technology level — burning CDs, generic Internet chat rooms, video cameras, and brick phones.
• Poor Communication Kills: According to invokedWord of God, "The Well" is about "how withholding the truth to spare someone pain can create resentment and pain for both people".
• Precision F-Strike: Most of the band's song lyrics are clean, but…
  • In "Once & For All":
    Once and for all means I've tried it before
    So many times that I'm just fucking tired
    I'll never be able to close that door
  • "Scars" features this line from a Changing Chorus:
    'Cause I was born with a hole in my heart
    Yeah, we were fucked from the start
  • "Bitter Medicine" is a milder example, but still ends its chorus on this line:
    You see, I talk a big game, but it's bullshit
• Protest Song: "The Hand That Feeds" is an anti-capitalism song.
• Public Execution: "Counting Sheep", being about living under a totalitarian dictatorship or equivalent, opens with a hanging in the morning news.
  Sigh into your cup of coffee
  As you watch the morning news
  There goes your good day
  There's the knot on the noose
• Run or Die: "Rockslide" is about hearing a rockslide "from the peak" and advising those around oneself to run for one's life lest "the Devil we will meet".
  I feel the quakin', honey
  I feel it deep
  Rocks are a-tumblin' while the people are asleep
  Oh, I pray today, my soul to keep
  But we best get a move on or the Devil we will meet
• Safety in Indifference: "Safe Ship, Harbored" is centered around the singer encouraging their love interest to leave them out of a desire to Never Be Hurt Again.
  I am a safe ship, harbored
  A safe ship, harbored
  Losing all of my good years to the shallow water
  I ain't proud
  I ain't proud
• Shout-Out: As noted, they are named after an album by The Decemberists.
• Solar and Lunar: "The Moon Will Sing" is a breakup song built around the singer comparing themself to the Moon and their abusive loved one to the Sun:
  I shine only with the light you give me
• Space Is Introspective:
  • In "Arcturus Beaming", the singer looks up to see "Arcturus beaming on a summer night" and wonders if there is another world beyond the stars looking back at them. Word of God says that the song is about having the hope for and working towards a brighter future by healing oneself so that one can heal their own community. invoked
    This blinding light, this reckoning
    There's more to life than suffering
    But there's still time, it's not too late
    Nothing will change until I change
  • Near the end of "Black Hole Fantasy", the singer looks into the titular black hole and sees a much happier version of themself looking back, causing them to realize they want to experience that happiness again.
• Stargazing Scene: The music video for "Arcturus Beaming" has the two leads, Sam and Jordan, promising in a flashback to stargaze together when they meet up, and actually doing so after Sam drives from Ohio to Michigan to secretly meet Jordan at her home. They also share an interest in using a flashlight and holed paper cards to shine constellations on their walls.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • The protagonist of "Counting Sheep" takes medication and smiles while living in a Crapsack World to hide their true rebellious sentiments.
    Pop a pill and thus a smile
    Feign contentment for a while
    That's all you know how to do
  • "Hard Sell" revolves around the singer struggling with their mental health and trying to find "a fresh new start buried underneath".
    I'm tryin' to make something of myself
    On better days, I go buy the hard sell
    But I feel like I'm working with barbed wire and moth wings
    'Cause I can't really get ahold of many things
    I'm one deep breath away from a breakdown
    My nerves are wrecked and coming unwound
    The world is hostile and I'm fragile and I need
    Someone to kiss the cuts and tell me to keep trying
• Struggling Single Mother: "Margaret" is about the titular woman who is struggling to care for her baby, too tired and scared to go to bed herself. The song also mentions that she "lost one man to a stranger's hand" and "lost one man to a whisky glass", suggesting that she's been widowed.
  Margaret won't sleep tonight
  Margaret won't sleep tonight
  She wouldn't dare for all that creeps at night
  Margaret won't sleep
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: Following a Hope Spot, "Black Hole Fantasy" looks incredibly bleak, with the singer noting that months are passing and wondering when the ceiling is caving in, all while the titular black hole remains in the living room. This time, however, the singer looks into the black hole and sees a much happier version of herself looking back, causing her to realize she wants to experience that happiness, despite the risk. Cue a Triumphant Reprise of her fantasy from earlier, where this time, she actually commits to opening the door and is warmly received by the other person — and it's implied that, unlike before, this version of events is real.
  And on the other side
  Is another life
  A version of me with a spark in her eyes
  That I don't have, and now she's laughing
  And it's killing me that I cannot see what's making her laugh
  From where I'm standing, and I have to know
  So I'm going in, I'm going in
  Let's try this again!
• Triumphant Reprise: "Black Hole Fantasy" has a section in which the singer imagines visiting someone she loves and properly returning their feelings, which ends with her failing to knock on the door even in her fantasy. Later in the song, after realizing that she wants to experience the kind of happiness love brings even with the risks, she heads to their house properly; naturally, this reprises the earlier section.
  I'm on my way to your house
  I can't wait anymore
  I'm pulling in the driveway
  I'm standing on your porch
  My knuckles hesitate an inch away from the door
  What happens when it opens?
  […]
  I'm on my way to your house
  Guided by the stars
  I'm pulling in the driveway
  I'm turning off the car
  I'm running to your porch
  I'm sprinting up the stairs
  The door swings open and you're standing there
• Walking the Earth: Used as a metaphor in "The Hand That Feeds" to describe the relentless progression of time.
• Wanderlust Song: "New Discovery" uses discovering unexplored and exotic lands as a metaphor for a romantic relationship.
  I want to stand on the edge of the water
  And see horizons stretch on forever
  I want to know that there are lands
  Not yet touched by human hands
  I want to be the one
  To find them
• Was It All a Lie?: The protagonist wonders if their loved one ever cared for them in "Say It", and asks for their loved one to be honest with them so that they can move forward with their life, instead of "waiting for the axe to fall".
  I'm haunted by your tenderness
  You gave me a soft place to lay
  You held up a mirror and showed me
  What I've been hiding from for years
  Was that just slight of hand?
• Working-Class Hero: The dirt poor anti-capitalist protagonist of "The Hand That Feeds":
  I got no money but the change
  That jingles in my pockets
  Reminding me how little I have