The Crane Wives bring stage presence to the Wilma
William Munoz
(Missoula Current) According to The Crane Wives song writer, Emilee Petersmark, “We are definitely a folk band at our core, a lot of our song writing is based off of story and life experience”
Their stories are dealing with the everyday emotions we all experience. A Korean adoptee, Petersmark has struggled with culture. Raised in Michigan from months old, she's now trying to make sense of her birth right culture Korea.
These band members are nearing 40 while their audience is 13 to 25.
“We are millennials writing in our twenties, or a future generation in their twenties,” said Petersmark.
Making sense of what life is throwing out can be daunting and scary. Their song lyrics look deeper into this story and try to come up with a way to cope with the emotions.
“For me, writing song lyrics is a form of self-therapy or, if not therapy, just sitting with your own emotions and your own life experiences and trying to make sense of it,” said Petersmark. “It can be really scary to be vulnerable, especially as a performer but a lot of that vulnerability is what connects us with our audience.”
Connection is too soft a word to describe what happens in their live show. It is a deep primal emotion that virtually every person in the audience is given permission to express. An emotion that transcends the music into a collective cathartic release of all negative feelings.
I was not familiar with the band when I first saw they were to play at the Wilma Theatre, but the name struck something familiar for me. A little search found that it came from the Desemberists 2006 album.
Both Emilee Petersmark and fellow song writer Kate Pillsbury were and are huge fans of many of the early 2000’s indie bands like the Shins, Fleet Foxes and Death Cab for Cutie, along with the Decemberists.
They were each solo artists waiting tables at a local restaurant. They joined forces in 2010 with Dan Rickabus on drums and Ben Zito on bass and began playing as The Crane Wives in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area.
They have recorded 5 albums over the years with their latest the 2024 ‘Beyond, Beyond, Beyond’ incorporating a more electric sound. They are consummate performers with a stage presence that is infectious.
