The Lone Bellow

Lead singer and principal songwriter, Zach Williams, can pinpoint the moment he realized The Lone Bellow had become a group. It was around 9 a.m. in 2010 at Dizzy’s Diner in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where The Lone Bellow’s guitarist and Williams’ old friend Brian Elmquist was working a shift. Williams, up until then performing as a solo artist, asked Elmquist and fellow singer Kanene Pipkin to join him at the diner for a jam session later. As Williams recalls, “Three songs in I realized I should quit what I’m doing and just make music with these people.” And that’s what he did. The trio’s self-titled debut is exuberant in its playing and welcoming in its attitude. Though the lyrics have a melancholic undercurrent, the tracks are more often rave-ups than ruminations, with swelling three-part harmonies and rousing group-sung choruses, especially on the electric guitar-driven “The One You Should’ve Let Go” and “Green Eyes and A Heart of Gold”.