Photo by Ajalena Dewolf Moura

It’s not quite the end of summer, but pressing play on the Berries’ “Wind Chime” is like kissing the lips of autumn and feeling Mother Nature’s breath of getting you into your cozy feel fantasies in the interim before the heat finally dies out. It’s temperature is an all too fitting progression from where the Los Angeles band led by Hotline TNT touring member, Big Bite member, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Berry last left off with their slept-on 2022 effort, High Flying Man – an album steeped in grief and loss. We can at least now hear warmer glimmers of sunlight and amber waves instead of heavy melancholia being filtered down through Berry’s alternative country roads. Is it cruel to tempt the seasons that haven’t happened before one has passed? Surely not, as he and his vagabond crew featuring members from Narrow Head and Color Green as well as poet musician Julia Lans Nowak bridge the gap between a summertime splendor and its end days in the reflection of a fading relationship. “Your voice rings just like a wind chime,” he sings as guitars wane off into the open air. It’s as if they’ll find their way back, just like these warmer days always do…

The Berries’ The Berries will be self-released August 29th.