She’s a little bit country, he’s a little bit rock ’n’ roll.
At least that’s how Laurel Wright and Wes Lunsford of The Young Fables cut their teeth musically: “I was way more country, playing The Chicks, Patsy Cline, stuff like that,’ Wright said.
“And I went through every phase but country when I grew up – Pink Floyd and the Ramones, everything,” Lunsford said. “And then I heard George Vinson, and I got really into jazz. That was my career when I went to China, that’s what I was playing, jazz and R&B and stuff like that. And then someone sent me a video of Glen Campbell playing ‘Galveston,’ and I fell in love like and that turned my life around.”
The two began working together when Wright, who by the time they met was steadily building a career, needed a guitar player after a former bandmate backed out of a show last minute.
If you go
WHAT: Backstage Pass Series presents The Young Fables.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: Sold out.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit https://tinyurl.com/yf73v2pa.
“I was playing in East Tennessee for a long time, and Wes was too, but he went to China for a little bit, and that’s kind of when he fell in love with country music, which is kind of weird, because we’re both from East Tennessee,” Wright said. “He came back and I needed a guitar player for a gig, and my drummer at the time knew this guy named Wes, and we’ve pretty much played every show together since.”
The result has been, according to their website, “music with classic storytelling weaved into country music with pop sensibilities.” A blend that lends itself to a different kind of approach to music, Lunsford said, a sort of “mashup” of the duo’s different ways of looking at music.
The two will be in Durango next week to perform as part of the Backstage Pass Series at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.
Along with their music, Wright and Lunsford are also known for their mental health advocacy, something that was captured in the documentary, “The Fable of a Song,” an idea their manager Patryk Larney came up with, Lunsford said. (The documentary is available on Amazon Prime Video.)
“What really opened my eyes to it is that Patryck, our manager, had this idea to shoot a video of us writing a song. And so he came over and he shot a video, and we wrote a song about Laurel’s dad, and then that was right before her sister and her dad passed away,” he said. “We did this little tour called ‘The Screenplay Tour,’ and we played the movie and then played a set, too. And it was incredible that to see that everyone goes through these same things. It’s all different, and everyone’s sort of internal grief and pain is different, but it’s something we all experience.”
And for Wright, the importance of addressing mental health challenges began to grow for her musically as well about seven years ago, she said, after the deaths of her father and sister within a short span of time.
“I think probably when I lost my sister and my dad back in 2018,” she said. “I think that’s when it became more purposeful for me. I found a lot of purpose in my music and in my writing. I think we both did just going through losing so much that kind of tipped everything off in terms of mental health.”
The two found that the topics they address in their music resonate with their audiences; in fact, after shows, audience members would approach the two and tell them their stories. It’s a way, they said, to give audiences space to talk to Wright or Lunsford – letting people know that they’re not alone.
“It’s hard to talk about this stuff,” Lunsford said. “Sometimes talking to a stranger or someone who is not connected, it’s a little easier.”
The Young Fables is currently on a monthslong tour in support of their latest release, their fourth studio album, “Short Stories.” And while Wright and Lunsford spend their time on the road writing new music, there’s one thing the couple is missing, Wright said.
“It is fun. The only thing is, I wish we could take our cat with us,” she said. “It’s really hard, because we don’t have kids, and that’s kind of like our kid, and so it’s really hard to leave the cat.”
katie@durangoherald.com
