Dead, Dead Swans play a stark, raw and world-weary blend of American folk music- with a largely pared-back guitar, banjo, and male vocal setting. Even Still, We Were Together is seemingly the band's second album- taking in ten tracks, that chart downbeat/blue-collar life.

The project is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is seemingly the one-man venture of John E Swan. Going from their Bandcamp they’ve been active since 2021. This CD release appears on Punkerton Records- with the disc presented in a card slip sleeve with minimal texts, featuring an old photograph, from say the 1950s, of a group of scarf-wearing women having a riverside picnic.

Each of the ten tracks runs between just under a minute and nearly four minutes. The male singing is raggedly harmonic, at times slightly wailingly glum. With a backing of sparse acoustic guitar, banjo, and harmonica- with some light additions of female backing vocals, and other sparse instrumentation.

The album opens with “Just Like Stealin’” which is just strummed 'n' picked melodic guitar and a huskily harmonic/ cigarette whisky roughed male voice.  There’s “Look It Up” with its steady slugging bajo gallop, basic hissing percussion, harmonica solo, and lyrics about struggling to get up halfway through the day and emptying overflowing ashtrays.

In the album's second half, we move from the short “Morning Fog” with just wavering/ ragged vocals over a steady and sadly soothing sound of distant wind chimes. Onto forlorn acoustic pick and pluck,  later subtly simmer horn work, and husky vocal wail of “What Is Was Worth”. The album plays out ragged twang meets- -climbing harmonic guitar work of “Death Rattle Blues” with lyrics like it ‘only takes just a moment to die’, and ‘you grew your hair out in your final days’.

Even Still, We Were Together severs up a selection of stark and often world-word American folk music- with some great simplistic yet memorable songcraft, as well as real grit ‘n’ honest vocals/ lyric craft.