Based in Columbus, OH, Dave Buker and the Historians have been spreading their brand of Americana since 2010. After performing at 2017’s Bunbury Music Festival, which also featured Death Cab For Cutie and The Shins, they won CD92.9FM’s Local Artist Contest, were featured by American Songwriter Magazine, and opened for Spoon, Alvvays, and The Aces. But as was true for many musicians, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the band’s momentum, and they chose to focus on writing and recording new music, resulting in the more than two year process of producing Heirlooms.
The album is a change of pace that sees the band collaborate with new audio engineers (including James Harker of Spirit of the Bear) and cultivate a more modern and energetic approach. Music blog Tuned Up recognized this in the album’s first single, “Stubborn Blood”, saying - “Right out of the gate, I’m struck by the driving nature of the song and the crunch of the guitars. This is somewhat unexpected for Buker, an Americana influenced indie artist that has been prolific in the Columbus scene for years.” The single was accompanied by a music video that pays homage to 80’s slasher films and emphasizes the more aggressive approach to the music.
Heirlooms’ ten tracks show a different side of Dave Buker and the Historians, at once less organic and more intimate and urgent, while maintaining the lyrical textures and vocal harmonies that have come to define the band. Although their past work has dealt with serious subject matter, Heirlooms treads particularly dark waters with songs about metal health (“Stubborn Blood”, “Demons”), divorce (“Ruby Honeymoon”), and posthumous legacy (“A Great Cascade”). It is these topics that give the album its name, focusing on things we inherit and better understand with time.