It’s fitting that the birth of Preacher’s Wife occurred only a day before its lead singer, Sarah Feinberg, found out she was pregnant.
Both the band and her family have been growing ever since.
Preacher’s Wife, an Everett-based band, releases its first album, “To Learn The Land and Live,” on Jan. 20. The band will also perform with Cataldo and The Winterlings at a record-release show at 8 p.m. Jan. 17 at The Cannery in downtown Everett.
“We’re thrilled to release the album here in Everett at a cool show,” Feinberg said. “It’s our hometown and everybody has been so supportive of us.”
Three years ago Feinberg, who has been playing guitar since she was 10 and writing music since 11, was scheduled to play a show at The Anchor Pub. She asked friend Brad Heyne to sit in on mandolin and backing vocals. The show was a success and the two continued practicing.
As the two rolled on they started collecting bandmates: Doug Evans, who started on bass and now plays drums; Isaac Melum on bass; Tyler James Chism on lead guitar; and finally Paul Roberts on guitar.
“I wasn’t expecting it to turn into anything,” said Feinberg, who now has two kids. “With every person we’ve added it’s changed a lot. It’s a true collaboration.”
All of the members of the band are intimately linked to Everett and can trace their relationships back to Milltown Church, a small church community Feinberg, her husband, Jeff, and Heyne founded in Everett. The church no longer exists, but Preacher’s Wife continues to grow. Feinberg wrote the song “For Milltown,” which is the first song on the album, for their old church.
Preacher’s Wife, which describes its style as dream folk, has seen its visibility grow in the past year. This past summer, Josh Clauson asked the band to play at Summer Meltdown, the large music festival in Darrington and Feinberg and Heyne opened for Damien Jurado in November. Saturday they share the bill with one of the Pacific Northwest’s hottest bands in Cataldo.
“We’ve had a lot of blessings,” Feinberg said.
Now comes the band’s first album, which wasn’t easy to make. The band started recording nearly a year ago and the initial process was problematic. After a number of fits and starts, they scrapped the first version of the album this past summer and changed engineers, going with Chris Matthews Jr. at Joonior Studios in Seattle.
Things clicked between Matthews Jr. and the band and the recording, mixing and editing of the album came together seamlessly. Despite the fact it cost the band twice as much to record the album a second time, they have no regrets.
“Once we started working with Chris it was like a weight lifting off,” Feinberg said. “I could just play and do what I was supposed to do.”
The band came up with the name for the album while sitting around Feinberg’s dinner table one evening. The line “to learn the land and live” from Heyne’s song “New Life” became an anthem for the band.
“The name became a mantra that I’d say to myself when I’d be annoyed or stressed to help me remember that there is a tremendous amount of value in the process of learning how to do things,” Chism said.
Feinberg and Heyne share the writing credits on the album. Feinberg wrote three of the songs, “For Milltown,” “Changing Shapes” and “Lines on My Face,” while Heyne contributed two, including “Sinner’s Prayer,” the single off the album.
Inspired by Seattle author Timothy Egan’s book “The Worst Hard Time,” Heyne’s songs are part of a larger collection of songs he’s written about the Dust Bowl. For the band’s first album he chose “New Life,” about a man setting out and finding his way through life, and “Sinner’s Prayer,” about a man’s inability to look back on his life because of regrets.
Heyne, who was going through a divorce when he wrote “Sinner’s Prayer,” admitted that parts of his songs are autobiographical.
“I’m definitely in there somewhere,” Heyne said of his songs. “It was cathartic working through all of that.”
Feinberg said being a wife and mother has changed her and influenced much of her songwriting.
“My marriage has been the biggest draw for material because it has worked on me a lot,” Feinberg said. “It’s been hard and good. I think throughout my marriage and working that out and with community has been the biggest richness for my music.”
Despite the heartbreak and difficulties the band and its members have gone through to make the album, Heyne said they’re proud of what they’ve made.
“There was a part of this that was learning through the failures,” Heyne said. “There is success in finding that you did it anyway. It’s really rewarding to get to the end and hear it and know that we created something.”
Aaron Swaney: 425-339-3430; aswaney@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @swaney_aaron79.
If you go
Preacher’s Wife will hold a record release concert 8 p.m. Jan. 17 at The Cannery (2820 Oakes Ave., Suite C, Everett). Cataldo and The Winterlings will also play. For tickets, visit www.brownpapertickets.com.
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