It’s always fun to hear a good band’s newest release. Sure, the single might be streaming, but there is the rest of the music just waiting to be heard. When the band has been around for a while, like X Ambassadors have, then there is an expectation of the musical journey waiting to unspool.
Townie, releasing April 5, 2024, is unexpectedly nostalgic. The album is colored by lead singer Sam Nelson Harris’s experience growing up alongside his brother and bandmate Casey in Ithaca, New York. Ithaca is a college town, perhaps best known as the home of Cornell University.
College towns are transient. Students come for a few years, then typically move elsewhere as they begin the path to adulting. In Ithaca, the colleges were dominant in town. They were a window into another world for the locals and a stopping point in life for those enrolled. The students rarely ventured far beyond the campus. Many of the adults living in town worked at the schools.
I spoke with Sam Nelson Harris, the lead singer of X Ambassadors, and principal author of Townie. He wrote this album reflecting on what he experienced during his Ithaca years. He was not a college student there, he was a “townie.” Living alongside those who simply arrive in town and act as education tourists flags the differences in status and attitude of those who came as a step to furthering their career. Those who are lifers in town live an entirely different experience. They are always there, and often always in the background.
Harris didn’t want to be an afterthought. He and other locals wanted to stake their claim to the city. New kids would come into town for college then go on to their own adventures. Harris moved out of Ithaca as soon as he turned 18. He moved to New York City for 10 years, then spent the next ten in Los Angeles where he remains. Harris tried to run away from himself and not have his identity tied to Ithaca. Now, however, he is returning to the idea that Ithaca formed a significant part of who he became, and he reconciles those ideas through Townie.
Townie is a very personal record. Harris’ voice is vulnerable and honest. He reflects upon what Ithaca represents because outside the region it has a limited identity beyond being a college center. Harris wrote Townie as an album about upstate New York – where there are cold winters. and the colors are grey and brown. There are so many forgotten towns upstate like Ithaca. Harris wanted to make a record about that life.
He now finds he is deeply tied to Ithaca, even while he lives with his family in Los Angeles. Ithaca is the home for Cornell and Ithaca college. Sam felt isolated in that environment. Upstate New York doesn’t resonate with people who live outside the region. Upstate New York has its own specific identity, which is the core idea behind the album.
X Ambassadors recently finished a European tour, returning to start a 44 city North American tour. Their current tour began April 3 and runs through the end of June. On this tour there are four in the band plus their support team. They play in comfortably sized rooms.
Harris loves being surrounded by artists in Los Angeles. There’s inspiration in a creation space. It’s a space where the quality of your art is your credibility. This ethos differs from other places which are scorekeeping by counting money. When art is your endeavor, then art is also the result. Harris both writes and performs, so he has the satisfaction along with his band to break out of the isolation which all writers face and celebrate with those who watch in real time their performance. This duality both inspires and reaffirms the public awareness and acceptance of their work.
X Ambassadors has received their own training on stages around the globe. It’s one thing to get a degree from a place like Cornell. It’s entirely different to leave the place where Cornell exists and develop a global brand which centers entirely on producing music which people come out to celebrate whenever and wherever they come to play. Music stirs both insight and emotion. Live performance is a turbo charged version of what plays on streaming or vinyl. X Ambassadors will soon be nearby. If you want to embrace their music as the band delivers it live, check the link below for dates and get yourself to a show. It’s an inspiring evening at a very comfortable price. And, just maybe as you are heading back after the show, you may feel longing or nostalgic for your own roots. After all, we each grew up somewhere, and for most that place holds memories beyond family stretching back to when we were all townies of a sort.
