Artist Feature: Seth Gallant
Singer-songwriter Seth Gallant weaves captivating and contemplative stories from the threads of everyday life in rural Maine.
Seth Gallant. Photo courtesy of the artist.
One of my favorite feelings as a music lover is hearing an artist for the first time who speaks to me in a new way. The magic of those moments is magnified when the discovery is a surprise.
Two months ago, I fell asleep with my earbuds in, listening to Apple Music, and woke in the middle of the night to a song I’d never heard before. Recognizing it was something special, I took a screenshot before going back to sleep.
The song was “Keep It Lean” by Seth Gallant. Since that night, I’ve been listening to his songs almost daily, and his songwriting and performance on these songs continue to captivate me. Gallant’s songs are creative, familiar, unique, and joyfully melancholy. His unique voice exudes an honesty and sincerity that suits his folk style of music perfectly. He was simply made for what he’s doing.
Gallant writes contemplative folk songs of struggle and hope with honest reflections of his heritage and everyday life in rural Maine. He has two full band singles out this year, and also a solo acoustic LP released in 2022. I normally pick my favorites from an album to write about, but I didn’t want to exclude anything this time, so bear with me, and I hope you enjoy learning about his music, Hank Williams, and a little about life in rural Maine.
“Keep It Lean” is the first track on Gallant’s 2022 studio LP, Seth Gallant and His Guitar, which is exactly as the title implies: The album has very few instruments other than Gallant and his Gibson Southern Jumbo (basically a J-45). In fact, “Keep it Lean” is the most elaborately arranged on the entire album, with an added banjo and some background vocals. I was drawn to this song for its realistic positivity, its recognition that things aren’t easy and life’s distracting, but it pays to stay on track.
I recently met with Gallant to learn more about what inspired his songs. He wrote this one to himself when he returned to songwriting after a multi-year hiatus when life got busy. It’s his personal reminder to keep doing what he loves… “keep it lean, keep it light, don’t somehow lose sight of what it was you set out to do.”
On the second track, the relationship song “Saint Marie,” the opening verse not only sets the stage but also the temperature:
She came like a cold front
On a hot summer day
All the light and all the bluster
But then blew it all away
Another verse later in the song espouses truth and yearning, and really almost sums up life:
And we’ve seen this country changing
And we’ve watched others climb
And she and I are always moving
And we’re never far behind
“Are You Mourning” is a touching ballad paying respects to Hank Williams’ final moments before he passed away at the age of 29, only 6 years into his music career, in the backseat of a car on the way to a gig in Ohio. Gallant’s album title is also a tribute to Hank Williams, modeled after his album title Just Me and My Guitar.
Seth Gallant and His Guitar album artwork.
I initially interpreted the next track, “On the Other Side,” as being about a man who wants a friendship with a woman to be something more. I told Gallant this, and he kindly said it’s actually more platonic than that. It’s about not being able to spend as much time with friends as he’d like. Both takes are relatable stories, and I love how songs can live different lives inside the minds of listeners. I will continue to listen with my version in mind, knowing it’s probably Gallant's innocent intentions that make it come across so well.
“Simple Song” is the first love song Gallant ever wrote, inspired by his sister’s marriage. Several lines in the song are inspired by his favorite poem, “I Knew a Woman” by Theodore Roethke. (Gallant majored in poetry in college.) The soft and simple refrain, “Oh, it’s a simple song I sing,” is a highlight, as is the bridge:
I would stand in one place now for hours
I would fall down in my own shoes
I would walk all day and all night
Just to finally get a better view
“Worn In” has my favorite first verse of the album. It describes the beauty of the transition from winter to spring, warming the southern mountain slopes, but reminds us that the northern slopes aren’t as lucky.
Well the winter's long, the spring is here
The rivers thaw, the mountains feel
All the sun upon their southern slopes
While the north ones have to wait
Okay, let’s get nerdy… That last line doesn’t even give the “north” slopes the dignity of calling them “northern,” a shot across the bow compared with the reference to the “southern” slopes. To add injury to insult, that difference results in the line being one syllable shorter than the second line, and “wait” doesn't even rhyme with anything! The listener is left hanging at the end of the verse just like the northern slopes. It’s a small but notable example of how Gallant is a hell of a songwriter.
“The Day After Labor Day” reflects on Gallant’s home in rural Maine, a town that’s touristy in the summers and deserted in the winters. The song exudes the emotion of feeling left behind, and it’s touching, honest, and pure.
Gallant is a carpenter by day, and he built his family’s own home. While building it, he lived in a run-down house on an isolated old dairy farm, the only one still running in the area after others closed down. The final song on the album is “Last House on the Hill,” written to remember that home and what it represents as the last remnant of a once bustling local industry.
Gallant has released two singles in 2024, part of a collection of recent songs that explore his heritage and the stories of those who have moved to the towns in New England. The first, “Summer of the Strike,” is a heartwarming account of Gallant’s own life, starting with his birth during the summer of the strike at the company where his father was employed and ending with him finding his wife and settling into a life together.
The second single, “Company Town,” tells the story of New England manufacturing towns. There’s optimism in this upbeat tune set to a Cajun rhythm, as families flow into town for work and to make new lives. The song remains upbeat throughout, until the jobs are shipped overseas in the final verse, and you can feel the rug being pulled out from under the town. Gallant said the situation is what it is, and his intention was to simply capture it without taking a side as to whether it’s good or bad.
Gallant is a true folk singer, pulling songs from the world around him and putting them out for us all to experience. His work is creative and inspired, and a sound reminder to keep doing what we love, keep it lean, and keep it light.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacson Miller. Photo courtesy of the author.
Jacson Miller is a huge fan of great Americana music and the songwriters who create it. He is a passionate supporter of equity in education and youth development as a Board Member of the nonprofit ‘Search Institute’. A long-time resident of Minneapolis, he grew up in southern Indiana, has a Business degree from Purdue University, an MBA from Duke University, and loves being a dad, playing guitar, and songwriting.
