Wait So Long – Trampled By Turtles

The first time I heard this song was actually performed live by TbT themselves, opening for Zach Bryan the first time I saw him in May 2023. I had no idea who these guys were (shame on me) and was enjoying their music, but hadn’t really given much thought to them. I always like to watch the openers because live music is live music, and it’s one of the best ways to discover new music. They ended their set with “Wait So Long,” and when I tell you it was one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. The energy and ferocity with which these guys play is similar to a punk rock band, with the angry guitars being replaced by an angry fiddle, banjo, and mandolin. The stand-up bass player was hammering the strings, all while jumping up and down in multiple directions (again, STAND UP BASS) and balancing the thing on his foot. The fiddle player was bent over almost at 90 degrees, and it honestly felt like the fiddle was about to catch fire, the flames only being kept at bay by the sweat pouring off of him. I have always thought that bluegrass players are some of the most talented musicians alive, and this song puts it on full display. Seeing this song live is an experience, and in my short concert-going career, it rivals Zach Bryan’s “Revival” and the Foo Fighters’ “Everlong” live, and I do not make that comparison lightly at all.

Every now and then, a song will seemingly latch itself onto me and it will become stuck in my head for the foreseeable future. I never get tired of these, and will listen to them almost daily, sometimes even back to back to back. This is one of those songs. Lyrically, this is one of my favorite songs ever penned. It holds a really special place in my heart, and I love that the lyrics to this are semi-open to interpretation. I think it is fairly apparent that this is about a relationship, perhaps doomed, unrequited, or unstable. You can apply it to a multitude of things, but I’ll leave it up to y’all to decide what it means to you.

After I first heard the song at the Zach Bryan concert, I was fairly obsessed with it. I couldn’t stop watching videos of TbT playing it live, and I found a cover of it performed by none other than Zach Bryan himself, (trust me, there will be plenty of posts about his songs in the future) the guy who essentially introduced me to Trampled by Turtles and the song, singing a stripped-down, much more mellow version. It was watching his interpretation that the lyrics really began to have an impact on me. From there, I saw a suggested cover by a duo called “Mournwood”. I have tried my not-so-damndest to find some info about these guys, but it seems like they released an EP in 2012 and then went radio silent. The poster of the video, Cud Eastbound, is also the guy singing in the video, and he has some great stuff on his channel as well. I mention this particular cover because for me, it represents the purest forms of joy and happiness that music is able to bring us. According to the caption, this performance takes place during an open mic at a venue or gathering place in Novascotia called “The Burrow”. It looks like a dingy bomb shelter or basement, yet everyone in the room is locked in on the duo, having the time of their lives, who are performing the song with an insatiable rawness and happiness. Even when they make a mistake with the lyrics, they just smile even harder and keep on. It would be pretentious of me to say “this is what music should be”, not concerned with fame or money, but just making beautiful noise for the sake of it. However, that is one of my favorite things, and one of the most bewitching feats that music is able to pull off, that you can be in some dingy basement in BFE Novascotia, with 20 people watching or in a packed-out arena in Atlanta with 20,000 people, watching and experience those same feelings of pure jubilation and joy that only music is able to provide us.

Also, I’m including a link to a TbT cover of another one of my favorite songs, “Where Is My Mind” by the Pixies. (RIP Steve Albini)

Link to a live performance (No stand up bass in this one unfortunately, but the quality and setting are great) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTovORb24UQ

Link to the song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGh-EvmZVCQ

Link to the Mournwood cover – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2b6LI6mALc

Link to the Zach Bryan cover – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgb2ISZTjAA

Link to TbT Pixies cover (there’s a studio version as well but I love live versions of songs so I went with that one) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0sgKnDiDOk