Band of the Week: Golden Shoulders

Hometown: Nevada City, Calif.

Members: Adam Kline and “whoever else happens to be around.”

Fun Fact: More than 30 people have at some time or another been a part of Golden Shoulders.

Why They’re Worth Watching: Ballads like “I Will Light You on Fire” and eloquent political statements like “The Honey, the Power, the Light,” for starters.

For Fans of: The Beatles, George Harrison, The Kinks

If you ask Adam Kline for the current line-up of his band, Golden Shoulders, and he starts laughing, don’t be offended. “That’s a trick question,” the lead singer and songwriter says mid-chuckle. “I’m the principal member, but I can give you a list of about 30 people who have been or are currently involved with the band.”

Unlike other music collectives whose numbers onstage rival those in the audience, Golden Shoulders weren’t born out of experimental zeal or a Polyphonic Spree brand of whimsy. Rather, Kline was simply looking for a way to avoid what seemed like the inevitable breakup that awaited his last band when one member chose to move on.

“I thought it was a shame for all of those CDs in my closet to go unsold because the band broke up,” he says. “So I decided to make my next band breakup proof.”

It sounds like a tall order, but Kline said the key to his plan was flexibility, pure and simple. “If someone goes off to school or gets tired of my jokes, they can go and we’ll find another bass player to step in. I love that my friends can still go off and pursue their adventures.”  

 

Touring has been a mainstay for the band. A show is usually a stripped-down acoustic affair featuring Kline and another member with guitars and minimal percussion. Their shows have an appealing intimacy; audience members sit a mere yard or two away from the band, and join in clapping, stomping and singing softly. The band often travels off the beaten path to stops like Gunnison, Colo., and Manhattan, Kan., small venues that are on few bands tour schedule. “It could be that people are really starved for entertainment, but we get a much friendlier reception in smaller town and venues,” Kline explains.

 

The band’s devoted following bought out all of the original pressings of its sophomore album, Friendship is Deep, released in 2004 by Doppler Records. “I don’t know the original number of pressings,” Kline cautions. “That could be impressive, or they could have only made 40. But that record was a particular favorite of people who like my band, so it was frustrating to have it out of print.” Golden Shoulders recently signed with Welcome Home Records, and one of the first orders of business for Kline was buying the rights to the record from Doppler and reissuing the album from his new label.

 

With the band’s early material widely available once more, Kline next decided that it was to time to start working on a new album. He vowed not to book a tour in 2008 until he had finished the entire project, a goal that turned out to be easier said then done. A host of musicians from the band’s past are returning to perform on Golden Shoulders’ latest record, and juggling all of their schedules took more time than anyone had anticipated.

 

The band enjoys implementing political and social commentary in its songs, often intricately woven into clever turns of phrase that sometimes take several listens to reveal themselves. But Kline says he didn’t always realize how powerful song lyrics could be. “Before the Golden Shoulders, I was in another band writing a lot of cute boy-girl songs,” he says. “But then I saw a band called the Little Wings, and Kyle Field’s incredible mastery of the language was a wake-up call to me. It was like, ‘Oh. Words don’t have to be boring.’ Now when I write, I really focus on the lyrics. I want there to be something there even when you get past the melody.”

 

While lyrics often prove to be a stumbling block, Kline said the upcoming election has provided plenty of inspiration for the songs’ themes. “I don’t think it’s coincidental that the last full album was written during an election year, and that this one is too,” he says. “The unfortunate part is that the album will come out next spring after President Obama has already waved his magic wand and fixed everything. Here, I’ll be bitching about George W. Bush and people will be like, ‘Who’s this grumpy old man?’”