Full Circle & Then Some is the sophomore release from Trigger Hippy, the band founded by former Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman and his longtime friend, Nick Govrik (ex-Highwater). The pair initially started Trigger Hippy in 2009, then, in 2014, were joined by Joan Osborne and Jackie Greene. The group released their self-titled debut album and played a string of live dates soon after, but outside commitments tugged at the group’s core. Gorman and Govrik soon set major plans for the group aside, determined to find a committed and sustainable lineup, while continuing to hone new material.
Enter Band of Heathens guitarist Ed Jurdi and vocalist/saxophonist Amber Woodhouse, who are fully present on Full Circle & Then Some. The album is both diverse and cohesive, the music rooted in American traditions stemming largely from the South, whether the blues-based “Dandelion”, the swamp raga “Born to Be Blue”, or the country-ish “Strung Out on the Pain”. Joined by a range of guests, including Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s Sadler Vaden, longtime Willie Nelson harp man Mickey Raphaelor, pedal steel player Spencer Cullum, Trigger Hippy cement themselves as a formidable power with their own identity and dedication to crafting first-class songs that demand repeated listens.
When Gorman speaks of the band, he does so with deep reverence and respect for the style that he and Govrik have forged over the last decade. Trigger Hippy, he insists, is a band worth keeping together and one, he adds, that allows him to avoid past mistakes. In 2016 he began work on his recently-published memoir, Hard to Handle: The Life and Death of the Black Crowes. An unflinching examination of the group’s highest highs and lowest lows, it gives an inside view of the Atlanta-formed outfit’s continuous tumult and ultimate dissolution. In its pages, Gorman details the collective’s struggles to find their voice and then keep themselves together amid drug addiction, internal conflict, and creative differences.
