Karen and Clint are Stone & Snow. The band has been prolific and has released We Were Made For These Times (2021), Love is a Weapon (2019), Devil That I Know (2016), and These are the Hills (2014). Their latest is entitled Delicate and Wild and is a five-song EP.
The first thing I want to talk about is the cover art. I’m not sure if there was any symbolism I wasn’t catching on with the cat with the human’s hands. Either way I liked it. I found something humorous about the way the cat looked like it was posing.
Stone & Snow has a very organic sound. The recordings on this record feel warm and inviting. I highly doubt that was much involved in post production. It just sounds like talented musicians playing in a room together. The album was recorded by David Mayfield in rural Ohio outside Cincinnati at a barn on private property called "the barn on the hill" in Lebanon, OH. It was mixed by David Mayfield in Akron, OH and mastered by Adam Boose of Cauliflower Audio in Cleveland, OH.
The first song is called “Cruel” and you get a lot of organic and acoustic instrumentation. I loved the standup bass on this song. That being said, everything just sounds lush and inviting. The vocals are incredible. I loved how powerful and confident they sounded. For what I can tell Clint was doing background harmonies which added to the full sound.
Up next is “Moonrise” and the energy here is very similar to the opener. This song is arguably better. The vocals are again just very well delivered. It’s soulful and just full of emotion.
The band continues to dish out some incredible music. “Who Am I” is delicate and fragile at times but the powerful vocals create this wonderful juxtaposition here not unlike Janis Joplin.
“Wait’ is beautiful but melancholy. It’s the kind of song that will make you shed a tear if you’re in a certain type of mood. The straight up most joyful sounding track was “The Hardest Part Of Loving You.” There’s also “Outro” which sounds exactly like the name. It moves slowly and Clint takes the lead here on vocals.
I don’t know how you could hear this music and not love it. It resonates with your soul. I also want to point out that they are dedicated to empowering women in the music industry. They accomplish this by organizing concerts specifically for female artists, conducting research to gauge gender representation in their local music scene and actively participating in the "Girls Rock!" program.
This was a great EP. Take a listen.