Song of the Day: Rocky Votolato - The Hereafter

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “The Hereafter” by Rocky Votolato from the 2015 album Hospital Handshakes on No Sleep Records.

Rocky Votolato - The Hereafter (MP3)

Across the better part of two decades, the Texas-born, Seattle-based songwriter Rocky Votolato has proven to be one of the Pacific Northwest's most venerable songwriters. Votolato moved from rural Texas to Seattle in his teens, simultaneously shifting his musical interests from country and roots music to punk rock. In 1996, Votolato co-founded the punk outfit Waxwing, which would garner a cult following and serve as his primary group until the band's cessation in 2005. Votolato had sporadically released acoustic-based material under a solo moniker while active in Waxwing, and after the band's breakup, he returned to his musical roots and began releasing solo albums in that vein every other year on average, becoming part of a growing group of punk musicians who also work in country traditions. (Votolato has toured and recorded with members of Chuck Ragan's Revival Tour.) His latest album, this year's Hospital Handshakes, which was recorded with Chris Walla and written after his second major battle with depression. (The first happened following the release of 2007's Brag and Cuss.) On "The Hereafter", Votolato sounds like a man who's gone eleven rounds with his demons and still isn't giving in. In fact, the pain is giving him more clarity than ever ("You have to live in the edge that's bleeding/these broken teeth are teaching me something"), and with that lucidity comes resolve. Votolato sings like a man whose body is giving in but whose mind is more focused than ever, and that makes "The Hereafter", and the rest of Hospital Handshakes, an triumphant, affecting postscript to the journeyman musician's battle with himself.

Rocky will be embarking on a full-band summer tour in support of Hospital Handshakes this summer with Dave Hause. He'll start the tour on July 9th at the Bartlett in Spokane and end it at the Crocodile on August 29th. Additionally, he played live on KEXP yesterday, so keep an eye out for video of that session in the near future. Keep up with Rocky at his Facebook and website and watch the lyric video for "The Hereafter" below.