The Delta Rae EP

The very first piece of art we released as a band was our self-titled EP.

It was recorded in Spring of 2010 in Durham, NC with the help of Eric Johnson and Aaron Keane of Blazing Music and Sound. It was released on June 7th, 2010 at a CD release party at Broadstreet Cafe in Durham that featured performances by our friends, Jason Adamo, Vienna Teng and Alex Wong (The band’s future producer). The four singers still had day jobs and hadn’t even met Mike and Grant when they started recording, so the album features studio musicians James Goldberg on bass and cello and Stephen Coffman on drums.

We recorded all the vocals, acoustic guitar and piano in Eric’s bedroom at our house in the middle of the woods on the outskirts of Durham, where we all lived together at the time. According to local lore, this was the most exciting thing that happened in Eric’s bedroom that year. Watch the “Making the Delta Rae EP” video from the attic to see for yourself.

This 5 song EP includes two flagship Delta Rae songs “Morning Comes” and “Holding Onto Good” which ended up being the foundational tracks for our first full-length album, Carry The Fire. The other three are deep cuts the band rarely performs. The last time anyone heard “Darling If” was a spur of the moment rendition during one of Eric’s Wednesday livestream concerts. “Young & Pretty” is the only song that was mixed by Eric and “Ooh Caroline” is a lighthearted tune the Hölljes brothers wrote about a girl they had a crush on back when they lived in Georgia as kids.

This EP is a sonic moment in time and listening brings back lots of memories of when we lived together in the early days. The band was what we did as soon as we got home from our jobs. We would sit in a circle, swap a few work stories and then commence dreaming of Delta Rae’s future together before getting up to rehearse in the living room, which was permanently set up with mics and a keyboard so we could rock whenever inspiration struck. The EP is affectionately referred to as “The Red Rabbits EP” for the art on the front, which was a gift from a family friend and amazing artist, Darcy Nuding. It’s a type of paper art called Scherenschnitte—which means scissor cuts in German.

Every band starts somewhere and we’re thrilled to share this original artifact with you all Behind The Door…