Episode 126 - Mandy Fer.

Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Mandy Fer.

Mandy Fer Bio:

"Sway Wild was born on a small island in the Salish Sea.

In the fall of 2017, Mandy Fer, Dave McGraw, and Thom Lord had just come home to San Juan Island, Washington, after two months spent navigating a 36-foot sailboat among the remote anchorages of British Columbia. Before this trip, and with little experience sailing, the three friends had spent countless evenings dreaming aloud about exploring the Inside Passage, with its glacier-carved fjords and innumerable secluded islands, that lay between them and Alaska. Deciding that the time may never be better, they managed to find a 1972 Islander that could stand up to such a trip, pointed it north, and learned to sail it together along the way. For Fer and McGraw, the voyage served as a kind of sabbatical from nine years of heavy international touring as an acclaimed indie-folk duo, sharing stages with the likes of Iron & Wine, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Mandolin Orange. The days on the boat were filled reading books in quiet green coves, watching humpback whales and black bears for hours on end, and talking over simple dinners of freshly baked bread and fish caught from a creaky plastic rowboat. Feeling invigorated and inspired from their journey, the three former bandmates returned to their pastoral island as the weather began to turn cold. They took to playing music in Fer and McGraw’s living room, with no aspirations other than to enjoy the process of creation.

Between her Strat, her powerful songwriting, and her rapturous vocals, Fer’s indelible influence permeates Sway Wild. She clearly loves the world around her, as well as the people in it. Her moving lyrics serve to both process and share her jubilation, her grief, and her frustration with a complex and deeply imperfect society. This authentic and thoughtful approach is underscored by McGraw and Lord, a rhythm section that just happened to have met as wildlife biologists studying endangered California condors in the Grand Canyon. They provide unwavering support to Fer’s formidable musicianship in a way that remains consistently accessible and emotional, and the resulting sound explores the corners of pop, jazz, funk, prog, worldbeat, folk, and, of course, rock. At its nucleus, though, it is undeniably full of joy—a music saturated in gratitude for well-lived lives and sympathetic to our shared humanity. It can squeeze the heart in your chest, it can draw tears from your eyes, and it can force you to get up and move your body; over and over, it somehow manages to do all three at once."

Website: http://swaywild.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davemcgrawandmandyfer

Twitter: https://twitter.com/swaywild

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sway-wild/1470529996

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/amferrarini/playlist/5qj5B8wGNx4mcsYFVkse23?si=9UYP66JHSlSIyAcfntBM2Q\\

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLODG4cLgVoEVX1PgDTZIj6pVKraOMMceP

Bandcamp: https://swaywild.bandcamp.com/releases

All music excerpts in episode are used with permission from Sway Wild.

Note: Guests create their own bio description for each episode.

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