Premiere: Edward and Jane cope with growing older on ‘Too Early to Tell’ EP -

This weary life is bound to leave a few scars on your skin. It’s when you have nothing left to lose that you take the most risks, throwing caution to the wind and weathering whatever storm may come. You bury your heart in the dirt with the hope that it’ll grow and flourish, peaking through the cracked soil unscathed to kiss the sun. But you can never be prepared for the inevitability that time will consume you whole. Growing old is both a tragic and beautiful display. We fight to stay alive most days, and if we’re lucky, we won’t be completely broken by it. Six-piece self-proclaimed folkicana group Edward and Jane pick their bones clean in search of the truths they’ve collected along the way with their sophomore EP, Too Early to Tell, premiering today.

The band ⎯⎯ fronted by husband-wife pairing Edward and Jane Carpenter and rounded out with Spencer Thomas Smith (on guitar), Aaron Sawyer (bass), Brenden Koon (keys) and Jerome Obholz (drums) ⎯⎯ step into the ring with a clenched jaw and a gleam in their eyes. Their skin is yellowed and wrinkled, smattered with blood from the strains of everyday living. “You’re a fighter / You’re a boxer in his ring / Not easily tired,” hoists Edward from the get go on “Hold Your Own,” as he braces for the impact of more of life’s quick jabs and stomach stabs. It’s as much a primer for their ensuing trek through the barren deserts of life as it is a handwritten love letter to his wife and bandmate Jane, who takes up mandolin throughout much of the record, smoothing the edges with a classic folk-rock coating. “I’ll Already Be Gone” greases up the cogs of their machine after sputtering and stalling right on the tracks, with another steam locomotive barreling right for them with no escape in sight. A sunny disposition laces the melancholy so ripe and sour in their throats, and even given the blunt-force trauma of life, of leaving, of breaking, of spinning out of control, they emerge thicker skinned and far more capable of conquering their demons.

“When we began writing these songs, we had no idea that an EP would come from them. We started to see a theme weave itself throughout the songs we were writing and felt the need to compile them,” the band tells B-Sides & Badlands of the record’s homegrown, headstrong themes. “This record taught us what it means to transition from one season of life to the next, to live one day at a time and to cherish those we love. We have no idea where our musical journey will take us. It’s been a dream thus far, and we look forward to what will come.”

With “More,” the acoustic-stung, haunting backbone of the record, their emotional condition is distinctly decayed, as they observe their parents’ own aging process, which has inadvertently weighed down on their still-porcelain shoulder blades. “Throughout my younger years, I watched my parents age / And how they loved / And how they fought,” Jane cries out both in tribute and in sacrifice, her voice as faded and worn out as the souls to which she sings. “But now’s the time to walk tall / On my own two legs / And hold my head up strong.” The band later spends additional sentimental change with “Fly Me Home (Tennessee),” a plucky but despondent tune on missing the fountains of their homestead that has always reenergized them. Their understanding of adulthood and place in this world clicks into lucid focus with the staggeringly gospel-knit hymnal, “Take Me with You,” which gathers up their lonesomeness and folds it into their suitcase, underneath tattered blue jeans and scruffy T-shirts, for safe keeping. Their travels are far from over, and as the sun waxes hot and sticky, Edward and Jane kick off the dust from their boots and set out on a new adventure. “Life is short with the ones you love,” they sing in unison, their flesh cleansed with a choir of voices and a blues-washed dip.

Edward and Jane snag their hearts on world-weary depictions of this so-called life across all five tracks, a feather-down patchwork quilt of solemn gratitude even for life’s sharp darkness. Amidst the sobering temper of Too Early to Tell, an extraordinary set, to be sure, there remains hopefulness only wisdom dare impart. Producer Jonathan Class allows the band to find exhilarating pockets of nuance, delicately shading inside and out of lines marked by the many folk heroes of the ’70s. But through the lens of sweeping countrysides, the earth’s parched shell and a bird’s eye view of the human race, the music leaps beyond this world and into the next. Space and time certainly don’t mean much anymore, and Edward and Jane urge us all to take what we have before it’s too late.

Edward and Jane are set to play an EP release show Saturday (October 13) at The Camphouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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