New 1770 Records’ artist Great Yankee released “Man on Stilts” with the CofC student-run label last week. Tonight, Great Yankee will kick off 1770’s free music series Night at the Museum, Live Sessions at the Communications Museum (58 George Street) at 8 p.m.
Available on iTunes and Spotify, “Man on Stilts” is a tasty mix of indie, Southern rock, and pop. The track speaks metaphorically about an old man who’s stuck on stilts and can’t get down, making all aspects of life difficult. Brooker claims the inspiration for the song “stems from a tension we all have of living our lives comfortably instead of the way we think we should.”
Forming just last year, Great Yankee — Stuart Gilreath (drums), John Brooker (guitar), Joe Fusco (guitar), and Tom Fusco (bass) — met while attending the College of Charleston. Joe and Brooker immediately clicked and began collaborating musically. Together, the styles of the four very different members make for Great Yankee’s unique, eclectic sound. As Brooker puts it, “The music we create is both a compromise and a fight between each of our musical interests.”
Stories are often embedded in the songs of Great Yankee. “Pre-American,” for example, is sung from the perspective of the bodies buried around downtown Charleston, describing the contrast of colonial versus modern-day life. Brooker says the idea came from “seeing Charleston nightlife and thinking about the juxtaposition of this with the town’s historic past.”
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