Multi-instrumentalist John Mailander calls his band Forecast, but the project’s musical output is anything but predictable.
Initially relying on his foundation in bluegrass, the group’s new EP, “Little Wheel/Hope Looming,” is an atmospheric, mostly instrumental expression of a band leader and his charges extending their grasp beyond the expectations of listeners to the group’s earlier work as well as fans who might know him via the legendary Bruce Hornsby, for whom Mailander has been playing violin and mandolin since 2018.
Mailander released his first album, “Forecast,” in 2019. When he assembled a group of fellow Nashville players to recreate the material live, he quickly realized, “Oh man, this is actually a band.”
The concept, he says during a video chat from Maryland during a day off during a Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers Tour, was to gather musicians he loves and respects “and try not to have any real rules about what the instrumentation should be, or what the sound should be, and to just push it to a place that I hadn’t been before.”
In addition to Mailander on fiddle, piano and electronics, Forecast features Ethan Jodziewicz on upright and electric bass, Chris Lippincott on pedal steel guitar and Wurlitzer, Dean Miller on tenor saxophone, Mark Raudabaugh on drums and percussion, and Jake Stargel on acoustic guitar.
The group recorded an album called “Look Closer” during the pandemic and early last year released another LP, “Let The World In.”
The three songs on the new digital-only EP are “Little Wheel Spin and Spin,” which as the title track of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s 1966 album, “Hope, Looming” and “(turnstile).”
Mailander says he was introduced to the Sainte-Marie tune by his friend Jack Silverman, the Nashville guitarist.
“We were hanging out and I was just really struck by this video of Buffy Sainte-Marie singing it,” he recalls. “It was on Pete Seeger’s show on YouTube, and I immediately thought it would make sense for our band to do, primarily lyrically first. With the cover songs we pick, I try to put a lot of thought into it. Since we’re mostly an instrumental band, when we do put out something with lyrics, it’s really important to stand behind what we’re saying. And I also love this idea of taking songs deep from the past that could maybe have new life now.
“I was also drawn to her guitar pattern; it’s one chord but it’s very open. I’ve only found solo acoustic versions of that song, but it felt like it would also be a really fun musical environment for the band to improvise on. I thought we could maybe get into a darker kind of trance territory with the music that we haven’t really explored yet as a band either.”
The vocalist on the Forecast version of the track is Kristina Train.
“She’s an incredible artist,” says Mailander. “The second gig we ever did as a band was a co-bill with her in Nashville, so that’s where we met.” She went on to sing the Joni Mitchell song “Borderline” on the “Look Closer” EP. “She’s really more of a band member at this point,” he says, adding she will be performing at Forecast’s upcoming gigs.
Mailander raves about the musicians in Forecast, appreciating their “really singular voices on their instruments and really distinct personalities on their instruments.”
Much of his inspiration as their leader comes from the way Hornsby manages The Noisemakers.
“I learned so much from Bruce. Being in The Noisemakers was one of the primary inspirations to do my own project, and I’ve learned so much from just being around Bruce and playing with him and seeing how he leads the band. And I think having the perspective as a member of the band helps me have more perspective as the leader of my own band as well. I think both those things feed into one another.
“Bruce is one of my biggest heroes, and every member of the Noisemakers are my heroes, and so it really sets the bar for what I would hope to do with my own band: creating a musical environment where they all feel inspired and lifted up and like their voices are encouraged and everybody’s creative together, because that’s what Bruce does for us.”
Mailander, a graduate of Berklee College of Music, has Noisemakers dates through mid-October, and he also plays in the Sam Grisman Project. He’s recorded with Noah Kahan, Lucy Dacus and Billy Strings, including on Strings’ Grammy-winning album “Home.”
Additionally, he says, “I’ve been producing a lot recently and that’s a direction I’m really excited to keep leaning into in the coming years.”
Photo by Michael Weintrob
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