Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids capture the fleeting nature of time on their seventh album “I Only See the Moon.”
The indie folk duo has dedicated plenty of time supporting their sixth studio album, touring steadily since last July. The guitarists-vocalists will play the Buckhead Theatre on Jan. 30 and then dates at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Feb. 1 and in their native Los Angeles on Feb. 3 before taking a few weeks’ break.
The duo began recording in the second half of 2021, a little more than a decade after they launched their career with the album “Prologue” in 2011. Ryan said the way the world closed down during the pandemic encouraged the idea of time as a focus.
“Once the world shut down and we were home for so long, giving up everything else other than just being with my kids, there was a huge shift in the nature of how I looked at the world,” he said in a telephone interview. “And so, I think a lot of that came through in the songwriting -- about the nature of time. How it moves. How it begins and ends.”
“I Only See the Moon” is primarily a meditation on the concept of time and its impact on relationships, the love that binds two people together as well as what breaks them apart. For instance, the song “Wheels and Levers” ebbs and flows elegantly with sweeping fingerpicking and lyrics that include, “Time quickens patiently/ Through the wind I turn to say one more I love you that fades away.”
The reflections on time also extend to Pattengale and Ryan’s thoughts about their path together as a duo approaching 13 years together.
“Me and Kenneth have always had a way of complementing each other, musically and personally, which has led to everything from the joy of our artistic collaboration to the various breakdowns in our relationship along the way and the rebuilding of it,” Ryan said on New York’s WFUV-FM.
As the Milk Carton Kids prepared songs for “I Only See the Moon” in their new Los Angeles studio, they sought to try to recapture some of the magic of their beginnings a dozen years before.
“Of course, we didn’t want to do the hit parade and be super nostalgic and emulate ourselves from back then,” Pattengale said in the radio interview “But we tried to emulate that moment of departure that felt exciting and collaborative and fresh and inspired and tried to go back to that point and not necessarily predetermine what [musical] scaffolding would be around it.”
The musicians said that it was time to go back to the beginning for inspiration partly in response to the release of their critically lauded 2018 release “All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn’t Do.” Produced by Joe Henry, the Milk Carton Kids’ only full-band album was a Grammy nominee for “Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.”
The album that preceded “All the Things I Did,” 2015′s “Monterey,” also was something of a departure from the band’s early studio recordings. “Monterey” was recorded live at four empty venues over six days before concerts in the U.S. and Canada. A song from the album, “The City of Our Lady,” was Grammy-nominated in the Best American Roots Performance category.
Credit: David McClister
Credit: David McClister
Yet for all the graceful interplay of guitars and vocals that fans appreciate, Ryan acknowledged that there are musical differences -- healthy ones -- between he and Pattengale, as well.
“The way that we push and pull against each other I think gives the music a unique quality that it wouldn’t otherwise have,” said Ryan, who plays fingerstyle rhythm to Pattengale’s demanding lead. “We’re opposites in so many ways. From our musical sense, which was apparent the first time we played together, just to our sense of tempo, which is very different. Basically every way in which we’re opposite contributes to what makes it actually work for us musically.”
Masters of musical yin and yang, Pattengale and Ryan have had made several Atlanta tour stops over the years, and Ryan waxes sentimental about venues where they’ve played.
Ryan is upbeat about returning to Buckhead Theatre, where he recalls that a 2015 appearance marked one of the Milk Carton Kids’ best-attended shows to that point. “At the time it was one of our crowning achievements,” he recalled.
Ryan added that he and Pattengale also “felt a real connection to our fans” at Eddie’s Attic, a regular stop when they were establishing themselves. “To know that there’s a community of folk music lovers that will come support you in your early touring days, that’s a huge thing.”
The well-crafted, emotionally crushing songs on “I Only See the Moon” should resonate well for fans who experienced early shows at both venues. The album also reveals interesting progressions in the Milk Carton Kids’ sound. Ryan plays clawhammer banjo on a release for the first time on the song “My One True Love.” And the title cut features a 15-piece orchestra, something different for the duo that takes unusual pride in the purity of its “limited palette” of instruments.
“This album is kind of based on trying to rediscover what the original spark was that brought us together in the first place, and where does that initial spark take us 13 years later?” Ryan said. “Hopefully we’re better musicians. Hopefully we understand each other a little bit better. If we can get that feeling back of just sitting on [Pattengale’s] front porch 13 years ago, learning each other’s songs, and being really excited about everything, I’m really grateful for that.”
CONCERT PREVIEW
The Milk Carton Kids. 8 p.m. Jan. 30. $30-$35. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road N.E. 404-843-2825, www.thebuckheadtheatre.com
