via Last Revel pic by Chris Murphy / with permission
The Load Out Music Podcast returns for our final show of Season 6, and we finish up a tremendous episode speaking with Lee Henke and Vinnie Donatelle of The Last Revel—the highly acclaimed band formed in Minneapolis in 2011. The group has a tightly harmonized sound that’s one part folk, one part bluegrass, and a little alt-country, with a sound harkening to the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of what it means to pursue your dreams in real time.
“I like the idea of taking something that can feel pretty standardized, especially like the instrumentation that we use, and kind of doing whatever the hell we want with it,” said Henke, the band’s guitarist. “If you don’t fit into a category, sometimes it takes a little longer for people to really grab a hold of it. But I’m proud of us for staying true and kind of making a sound that feels authentic and real to us.”
The foundation of The Last Revel’s sound is conjured by a deep appreciation and genuine respect for the vast landscape and sometimes-harsh realities of what it means to emerge from the Midwest, while being certain to come across as uniquely authentic.
“Who wants to hear a bunch of the same thing, you know,” Henke added. “It’s hard to believe them when they’re playing the same exact traditional, you know, genre specific style. I kind of want to hear like the personality of the band. So, I like that. It’s just hard to find them because they’re all supposed to fit in these little boxes, so—worth looking.”
But years of playing together, working on that vision, and life on the road took its toll. Thus, after years of heavy touring, the band took a hiatus in 2019.
“Honestly, I don’t know if we would’ve been able to do this career for as long as we have without persistence,” Henke noted. “By living in a challenging place, it’s definitely conditioned us to have a high tolerance for discomfort, a certain toughness to push ahead.”
The group reconvened with a refreshed perspective and stronger bond to produce its latest album, the excellent Gone for Good. Produced by Trampled by Turtles’ Dave Simonett, the ten-track LP shines with The Last Revel’s commitment to never give up, signed in blood by musical brothers Acker, Henke, and Donatelle. A multilayered ode to the life of an artist, life on the road, and what it means to be a human being in uncertain times, the album explores the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of what it means to pursue your dreams in real time, and doing so with their hard-won and road-honed delivery.
Formed in 2011 by Henke, Ryan Acker (Banjo), and later joined by Donatelle (Fiddle) and most recently Ryan Krauss (Bass)—we find the band feels a rather tangible, positive shift in vision and purpose.
It’s a collective realm of collaboration, all in hopes of connectivity not only between the bandmates, but also the audience itself night in and night out—from coast-to-coast and back around to Minnesota. But they also never lose sight of just how far they have come, noting how they “struck out a lot in the beginning.”
But their experience competing on the competition stage at Montana’s Red Ants Pants music festival after driving 16 hours from Minneapolis and even accidentally hitting on a deer on the way—it told them they really had something.
“Just getting the opportunity to really get outside of our comfort zone to even make it to play a competition stage over there,” Donatelle recalled. “That, in and of itself, was like….‘the universe is trusting us enough to give us a shot…There’s potential here for to like really make a career out of this.’ But then actually winning that and being received. You play 15 minutes to a bunch of people you’ve never seen before in your life in an environment you’ve never been in, and they like it and they respond. Or, they vote for you and you win and like …that was a pretty pivotal moment for us.”
Humble, appreciative, incredibly talented—we dig into the band’s history, the new record and more during a terrific conversation with Vinnie Donnatelle and Lee Henke of The Last Revel on the Load Out music podcast. Enjoy!