At its core, the Philly indie rock band Crooks & Nannies is guitarist Max Rafter and drummer Sam Huntington, two friends from upstate New York who are both trans. They wrote Real Life, their upcoming album for Grand Jury, last year in the partially finished cabin Huntington’s father was building before his terminal cancer diagnosis. So far they’ve shared a couple singles from the record, and today there’s a third.

In recent years, Crooks & Nannies have toyed around with a lot of styles, from the anthemic rock track “control” to an electronic cover of “Islands In The Stream.” Today’s single “Country Bar” merges a confessional singer-songwriter approach with the trappings of artsy indie rock, veering from straight-ahead guitars to grand detonations to sparse intimacy and back around to a louder, mildly twangy conclusion.

Rafter shared this statement:

I started to write this song during a budding romance. There were so many secret unspoken feelings. It felt exciting, and I wanted more. I could only meet them as far as they were willing to go. I thought that if I put in enough work, things would click into place. I thought if I wanted something hard enough, there was no reason it couldn’t happen. It’s about being blinded by love, zoomed in, and hopeful. Knowing it won’t work but trying so hard anyway.

I’ve always been a person who wants to fix relationships that aren’t working rather than walk away, at times to my own detriment. “Country Bar” hits on those themes, looking with rose colored glasses at a relationship.

Hear “Country Bar” below along with prior singles “Temper” and “Weather.”

TRACKLIST:
01 “N95”
02 “Temper”
03 “Cold Hands”
04 “Big Mouth Bass”
05 “Growing Pains”
06 “Country Bar”
07 “A Gift”
08 “Immaculate”
09 “Weather”
10 “Nice Night”

Real Life is out 8/25 on Grand Jury.