Mississippi Mud

     Mississippi Mud is a song released by the Wentzel Brothers Band in June 2020. The song uses a metaphor to compare the path of life to the endless momentum of a river. The song was written by Ivan Wentzel starting with lyrics and a simple banjo part in an open D-minor tuning outlining the chord structure. The artwork was by Daniel Lee and the music was recorded and mixed at Wentzel Brothers Studios. The musical influences for this song include: bluegrass, folk, southern rock, and grunge.

     This song started to come together after Ivan Wentzel started experimenting with an alternate D-minor tuning on a five string banjo. The banjo tuning lended itself to the use of suspended chord voicing and a high droning F note over almost the entire track. The dark eerie vibe of the harmony lead Ivan more and more  towards lyrics about the inevitability of death.

     The lyrics focus around the idea that every single person, no matter how wealthy, how smart or how successful, is subject to the inherent tragedy of life and death. We are all carried on towards the end constantly, with or without consent, towards our predetermined final destination; just as the river carries all water to the sea.

The arrangement and recording of the song was a group effort by The Wentzel Brothers Band. Issac attributed harmony vocals as well as lead and rhythm guitar. Jacob Newcomb added a bassline while Ivan attributed drums, vocals, and banjo.

The artwork was hand drawn by Daniel after a collaborative brainstorming session about the artwork for this piece of music.

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