Americana Sundays: The Lucky Nows

This Sunday, Nov. 16, ArtRat Gallery is delighted to host Americana Sundays: An Afternoon with The Lucky Nows. This edition of ArtRat’s monthly concert series runs 3-5pm at 46 Division Ave. S in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids. (Admission $25; tickets available from Eventbrite.)

Somewhere in mid-Michigan, as the final days of a long, dark December marched dutifully into the history books and a fresh new year waited hopefully in the wings, every star in the universe magically aligned to bring four award-winning singer-songwriters together to create the folk/Americana supergroup, The Lucky Nows.

Featuring renowned singer-songwriter Jen Cass, the stunning work of harmonica legend Rosco Selley, and the vast and varied musical chops of multi-instrumentalists Eric Janetsky and Michael Robertson, The Lucky Nows have spent the last decade showcasing their stellar songwriting, exceptional musicianship, and intricate harmonies.

Through their unique storytelling lens, the Lucky Nows shine a spotlight on important issues from death and dying, indigenous rights, love and acceptance for the LGBTQIA+ community, loneliness, losing faith, Alzheimer's awareness and the pure joy of raising children to fly. The Lucky Nows infuse their work with honesty, beauty and humor, welcoming their audiences to feel the full range of human emotion in every set they play.

Ahead of Sunday’s show, co-founder Eric Janetsky talked to ArtRat about the band’s history and collaborative ethos.

The Lucky Nows started with the partnership (in life and music) of Jen Cass and Eric Janetsky. How has the band evolved over the years? 

The Lucky Nows have been through multiple incarnations before settling on the lineup that you hear on Broken Homes & Hearts of Gold. Our evolution has been pretty organic, like any successful relationship. Jen and I started as a duo. We would perform with special guests sitting in with us, and over time, some of those guests would become members. 

Jen and I booked our first show at The Ark in Ann Arbor in 2016. We asked our good friend Daniel Patrick, who lives in Charleston, SC, to perform with us at that show, which was scheduled for December 2016. Daniel is a fantastic brilliant mandolin player. He had a conflicting schedule where he was performing with Michael Robertson that same night. I suggested he cancel the show and come play with us and bring Michael along. They both agreed. 

Rosco Selly, a world-class harmonica player, heard about us getting together and stated he would be at the show. Instead, we invited him to play with us that night, and the rest is history. Unfortunately, Daniel Patrick was unable to commit long-term due to living in Charleston, but we will always hold a spot for him. 

After the departure of our fiddle player, Jon Potrykus, we primarily focused on performing as a four piece consisting of myself, Jen, Michael and Rosco. Beginning in 2024 we felt that we would like to expand our sound and be able to perform our songs as they were represented on the records, with drums and bass. We had tossed the idea around for a couple of years, but when we were able to bring in Loren Kranz on drums and Ozzie Andrews on bass, it was a no-brainer that now was the time. We still perform in different variations from just Jen and me, to a three-piece, four-piece or full band.

 How do you create and collaborate? Do songs start with a story, or does the music guide their themes? 

Jen, Michael, Rosco and I are all songwriters with different writing styles and different approaches. Typically, one of us will bring a song to the band that is pretty much bare bones, and then together we will nurture the song into a Lucky Nows song. We now know each other enough both personally and musically that when we write a song, we have an idea what each of us will bring to it. It sounds weird, but we are very close with each other and we know it is just going to work itself out the way it is meant to. 

As for how our songs start … Again, it depends on who is writing it, but lyrics are always the critical part that makes the song tick. Jen is a master lyricist and wordsmith. I’ve been married to her for almost 12 years and I am still in absolute awe of her ability to craft a song with such profound lyrics.

How would you compare and contrast your 2018 debut album, Rise, and 2024’s Broken Homes & Hearts of Gold? What’s the best entry point for folks who want to bone up on their Lucky Nows ahead of Sunday’s show? 

Rise is a record that feels very “raw” and super exciting, even though we were all seasoned musicians individually. We weren’t together for very long when we started recording that record. Most of the songs were already written by the time we got together with Daniel, Michael and Rosco, but they weren’t developed like they were on the record. We are super proud of Rise, and that whole process of making that record was such a special time. 

Broken Homes is definitely more of a “band” record. Jen, Michael, Rosco and myself each have song contributions on the record and we each sing on the record. I think Broken Homes is a very, very deep record. We worked with Andy Reed from Reed Recording on both records and by the time we did Broken Homes, he knew what we were about and how we sound. With Rise, it was all new and unfamiliar for Andy and us as well. Rise definitely felt like a continuation of Jen’s solo work, but you could hear the evolution in her writing. Broken Homes shows that evolution continuing for her and understanding how to write in a band construct instead of a solo artist construct. 

As for the best entry point for people to be introduced to the Lucky Nows, I’m going to take the easy way out on this and say that both records are a fair representation of us. I believe that we have a sound that is unique to us, and that stands to be true no matter which one of us is singing or who wrote the song.

What do you like best about playing in Grand Rapids? 

What can you say about Grand Rapids other than, “It’s freaking Grand Rapids!”? Grand Rapids to us is like the closest thing to playing in Chicago without playing in Chicago. We have made so many musician friends from the Grand Rapids area, including Drew Nelson, Kyle Jo, Josh Rose, Charlie Millard … I could go on. So much good music comes from Grand Rapids. Oh yeah, also Sonic Coast … cannot forget about Sonic Coast. They have become so important in supporting Michigan bands and providing them with a platform for their music. I mean, what is there to not love about Grand Rapids.