The music of Friendship moves somewhere between dream and reality — and right there, among the tropical leaves of the botanical garden, that world comes to life.
The Philadelphia band makes dreamy country music with a rough edge: poetic, warm, and lived-in. Their new album Caveman Wakes Up (Merge Records, 2025) sounds like an alarm clock at the edge of a dream: as familiar as it is strange. From jagged and crooked guitars to soft flute lines, from Motown rhythms to fragile poetry — Friendship lifts country far beyond the genre, to something unique, something deeper.
Frontman Dan Wriggins sings with a raw baritone about work, love, faith, and emptiness — with lyrics that linger long after the last note fades away. On a languid spring evening at Palmarium, their music takes on a new form: languid, melancholic, and unexpectedly comforting.
