Videos by Wide Open Country
Melissa Wright and Daniel Zezeski, the duo behind Mink's Miracle Medicine, will live and play music almost anywhere. That's not an insult. Mink's Miracle Medicine's first show was in a crowded comic book shop. The pair have spent the last few years living in a camper van overlooking the historic town of Harper's Ferry. Collectively, the pair have shared stages with the likes of Alison Krauss, Sierra Hull, and Philadelphia punk band the Menzingers. In their new song "Page Of Me," the pair's diverse influences meld into a complex portrait of youth and yearning.
The duo's focus on country music is fitting: Wright, who studied at the Berklee College of Music, and Zezeski, whose training came from punk and ska shows as well as long jaunts on freight trains, found themselves fascinated by the project of breaking country music down to its most basic elements.
Following up on their atmospheric debut House of Candles, the new album, Pyramid Theories, came sooner than expected. The pair was stranded in Pittsburgh for several days while their van was on the blocks. However, Wright and Zezeski made good use of the time, discussing their approach to music and realizing it was time to make music for themselves than trying to appeal to popular taste. Once they returned to West Virginia, they set to work on Pyramid Theories.
On "Page of Me," Mink's Miracle Medicine showcases their unique approach to music. The song's distorted guitars and driving beat give the song a '90s alt-rock skeleton with Wright's forlorn vocals and some well-placed pedal steel providing country-inspired flesh. Wright's singing and the slow build in Zezeski's playing give the song a slow-burning power: the kind that hits you in the gut like only the best country torch songs and punk rock pump-ups can.
"'Page of Me' kind of laments being older and being in love with the idea of your younger self," Wright notes. "I finished the bridge where I'm talking on the way to a show and put it in the song when I got there. I literally saw a hubcap hanging on a fence and threw it into the song."
Pyramid Theories will be available on October 5.
