The Jardani Crow Band has opened a new chapter in its musical journey with Love Section, a 10-song album released across major streaming platforms on September 14. Rooted in indie folk and roots rock, the record brings together decades of friendship, deeply personal stories, and musicians from around the world.
Fronted by Michael Wheat and Rip Kurtain, the project carries the spirit of Asheville and New Orleans while reaching far beyond both cities. Its songs explore love, redemption, adversity, peace, and the universal desire for connection.
A Lifelong Friendship Shapes Love Section
At the heart of The Jardani Crow Band is a creative partnership that has developed over decades. Wheat, who handles vocals and guitar, is based in Asheville, North Carolina, while bassist Kurtain calls New Orleans, Louisiana, home. Their friendship has already produced three earlier bands: Project 4, Jake Leg, and Zama Para.
Love Section represents the latest stage of that shared history. Years of writing, performing, and exchanging musical ideas have given the pair an instinctive understanding of each other’s approach. That familiarity gives the album a lived-in quality, with songs that feel closely connected to personal experience.
The album’s title also carries special significance. Love Section is named in dedication to Section, Jamaica, where close friends and family of Kurtain live. That connection gives the project another layer of meaning and reflects the band’s belief in music’s ability to travel naturally between communities and cultures.
The record moves through an evocative collection of titles, including “Fairytale of New Orleans,” “Midnight Moon,” “Heart Attack,” “Love Section,” “Sand & Broken Shells,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” “Her Song,” “Train,” “Come What May,” and “Pathway to Hell.” A reprise of “Heart Attack” appears as a bonus track.
Asheville Grit Meets New Orleans Groove
The band describes its musical identity with a memorable motto: “Asheville Grit, New Orleans Groove, and International Flavor.” It’s an apt summary of an album shaped by distinctive regional traditions and an unusually broad collaborative network.
Asheville’s connection to roots-oriented songwriting provides one part of the foundation. New Orleans contributes its own rhythmic personality and musical heritage. Around these influences, The Jardani Crow Band incorporates performances from approximately 20 musicians located across the United States and countries including Portugal, Croatia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Bulgaria, Japan, Brazil, and France.
The instrumentation is equally expansive. Drums, cello, mandolin, pedal steel, harmonica, violin, trumpet, trombone, tuba, keyboards, guitar, guiro, and background vocals appear throughout the collaborative lineup. The arrangements were purposefully developed to give participating musicians room to contribute their individual character, including opportunities for expressive solos.
This approach gives Love Section a broad musical palette while preserving the storytelling associated with indie folk and roots rock. Each contributor adds another texture to a record built around human experiences that can resonate regardless of geography.
Songs for Kindred Roots Music Listeners
Wheat and Kurtain draw inspiration from artists whose work has helped shape American roots-oriented music. Big Star, Wilco, The Band, Gram Parsons, and Tom Petty are among the influences Wheat identifies in the duo’s songwriting, arrangements, and performances.
“Admirers of Big Star, Wilco, The Band, Gram Parsons, and Tom Petty are all influences on our songwriting, arrangements, and performances,” Wheat says. “If you love these bands like we do, give us a listen, you’ll feel right at home.”
That invitation captures what The Jardani Crow Band hopes to accomplish with Love Section: find kindred listeners who value sincere songwriting, memorable performances, and music created through genuine collaboration.
Themes of love and redemption run alongside adversity and peace throughout the album. The search for connection ties those ideas together, fitting naturally with a recording process involving musicians separated by thousands of miles.
About The Jardani Crow Band
The Jardani Crow Band is an indie folk and roots rock project led by lifelong friends Michael Wheat on vocals and guitar and Rip Kurtain on bass. Based respectively in Asheville and New Orleans, Wheat and Kurtain previously worked together in Project 4, Jake Leg, and Zama Para.
Their newest project combines their longstanding musical chemistry with contributions from an international collective of session musicians. The band emphasizes honest songwriting, individual musicianship, cultural flavor, and arrangements that allow collaborators to leave a recognizable stamp on each song.
A Record Built Around Connection
With Love Section, The Jardani Crow Band turns a lifelong creative friendship into a wide-ranging musical collaboration. Released September 14, the album brings Asheville, New Orleans, Jamaica, and an international community of musicians into the same creative space, giving indie folk and roots rock listeners ten songs shaped by friendship, craftsmanship, and the enduring search for connection.