From the Valley Maker record, Rhododendron, out now on Frenchkiss Records: http://radi.al/Rhododendron Directed, photographed, and edited by Joseph Kolean Illustration by Alexa Koenings Starring Steph Holmbo Color and additional photography by Zach Gutierrez Song produced by Trevor Spencer

With Tomberlin

On Valley Maker’s second full-length album, Rhododendron, songwriter Austin Crane sings about movement – from one kind of belief to another, from place to place, through time. This new record from Crane, a Seattle-based musician and PhD student in Human Geography, reflects both the rootedness and rootlessness that shapes his songwriting on the precipice of his third decade. Like his noted inspirations Jason Molina, Bill Fay, and Gillian Welch before him, he speaks to the strange and transitory ways we mark time through our lives. Years pass and fold in his cosmic American songs.