Good Old War’s “Come Back As Rain” is featured as AmazonMP3’s “Daily Deal” today only for just $4.99 so if you don’t have it yet, now is a great time to grab it or turn your friends on to it so they can come dance and sing with you at a show!

Link - http://amzn.com/B0071YHV6Y

As much as they’re known for their recordings, GOOD OLD WAR’s intimate performances are difficult to forget. Whether it’s inside of a church, out in a small studio or at an average-sized venue that’s cozy and personal, they’re songs are hard to brush off due to the experiences they create. Before their recent set last week at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, we met up with the Philadelphia trio to document an acoustic session where they performed numbers from Come Back As Rain such as “Not Quite Happiness” and “Better Weather”.


Come Back As Rain is available now via Sargent House // iTunes | Insound

Good Old War perform “Calling Me Names” from their new album Come Back As Rain in the Sargent House glassroom. We love when they come over and sing for us. Thanks to Behn Fannin for shooting and directing the session for us.

“One of the ingenious things about having three-part harmonies and significant vocal contributions from all three members of a group can lead you perfectly astray when trying - or attempting - to get at the crux of a lyrical idea. Good Old War’s Keith Goodwin might, technically, be considered the band’s lead singer, but the way that the songs here on the band’s first session with us play out, we can’t be sure if we’re just hearing about a specific girl or we’re hearing about a whole cluster of them. We don’t necessarily hope that there are numerous ladies being described here because we’re not sure that they’re all that great (or, more specifically, we’re not sure that they’re painted in the most flattering of lights), but it would take the air out of what could be a real mountain of tension, allowing it to be distributed evenly over everyone in the group. It could just be an interesting group dynamic that they’re all involved with women who give them nothing but horribly mixed signals. They’re great one day and then they’re driving them to the loony bin the next day, only to circle back around and find a way or ways to win them back over on the third day, reinstating the cycle.

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Good Old War was started by former Days Away members Keith Goodwin and Tim Arnold along with former Unlikely Cowboy member Dan Schwartz. They spent time as the studio & touring band for Anthony Green (Circa Survive) and the logical next step was to get serious as a three-piece. They already knew the musical direction would be acoustic driven with the vocals being a major part of the sound. The three-part harmonies would fall into place as a “happy accident”. The third Good Old War album Come Back As Rain was produced and engineered by Jason Cupp. It was recorded in Omaha, NE at Another Recording Company Studios. In the five weeks Good Old War spent there, 30 songs were recorded and eleven made it onto the album. Watch the guys in performance at our studio in NYC as they do three songs from the new record as well as a fan favorite from the debut album Only Way To Be Alone of 2008.

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The boys from Good Old War perform “Better Weather” from their new album Come Back as Rain out now on Sargent House. Don’t miss them live they are on tour now! All dates HERE

(Source: teamcoco.com)

It’s a buoyant-sounding tune, carried along by three-part vocal harmonies afloat above a warm and inviting arrangement of ringing guitars and softly driving drums. By the time your toes are tapping, you might not notice the dark shading of the lyrics: the apocalyptically titled “Present for the End of the World” opens with the line “Pain, pain is in everything.”

Like many of the other tracks that Philadelphia folk-pop trio Good Old War included on its sophomore LP, Come Back as Rain, “Present for the End of the World” is a love song. Well, sort of. It walks that fine line between wanting out and wanting back in again, between splitting up and staying together. That dichotomy is summed up neatly in “Amazing Eyes” when lead vocalist Keith Goodwin sings, “You have amazing eyes/The right one’s suspicious and the left one wants my love.”

Reached on his cellphone during a day off in Nashville, Goodwin (who also plays guitar and keys) says, “It’s crazy how you can love somebody so much and still have those moments where you’re just like, ‘Oh, I wanna kill you,’ you know? That kind of thing. You get on each other a little bit. That happens, but it’s like, ‘There is something working, so let’s just go with that.’ ”

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(Source: straight.com)

Interwoven throughout Good Old War’s catchy acoustic folk is lyrical themes of love, loss and letting go. This inspiration - mixed with a few drinks and a late night in LA - fueled what is now known as “Loud Love.” from their new album Come Back As Rain.

(Source: altartv.com)

Eternal thanks to everyone that supported Good Old War and bought their new album Come Back As Rain, making it’s debut at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart! Thank you all so much.

Good Old War stopped by the Best Buy studio at SXSW and performed a new song Amazing Eyes for them, then sat down for a chat about the new album.

The SXSW season can often find people in our profession inundated with different sights and sounds as the festival approaches.  A level of ear and visual fatigue has been known to drive more than one writer I know batty whenever any festival of this size and caliber approaches.  In the sea of remixed sub bass, lyrical overload, and ‘electro-hop’ progressions that can be a part of the daily routine for any reviewer, it was awesome to catch an respite from said cacophony during my time spent listening and researching Philly based indie group, Good Old War.

Good Old War, who’s name drives from combining the last names of the three members; Keith Goodwin, Tim Arnold, and Dan Schwartz, sounds something akin to a time warp back to the Americana folk sensibilities of the the late 60’s and early 70’s.  Their third album, ‘Come Back As Rain.’ is as breezy and melodic as they come, almost reveling in the simplicity of their harmonic vocals and country like melodies.  The songwriting and production, as clichéd as this sounds, can be to your ears what a breath of fresh air feels like.

The lead single, Can’t Go Home, rides their vocal harmonies over a rolling acoustic guitar that plants you firmly in their emotive longing for the ’simple truths of being home.’  Amazing Eyes, while keeping to their formula of dancing simple melodic vocal rhythms across acoustic guitar, elicits an entirely different emotive set proving the sophistication of their songwriting and the power in their simplicity.

The album released today is available for purchase or preview on their site or on iTunes.  Check the video premiere above and be sure to catch them during SXSW during the following dates and places:

Pitstop Day Party
Rusty’s
405 E. 7th St.

March 16th @ 12am
Official SXSW Showcase 
(with Ingrid Michaelson)
The Central Presbyterian Church
200 E. 8th St.

Good Old War’s - Come Back As Rain is out everywhere today! Thanks to Itunes for featuring Come Back As Rain in your Singer Songwriter section. The Deluxe version of the album has 3 bonus tracks and a bonus Acoustic version of “Amazing Eyes” only available at Itunes.


And! Good Old War have the featured FREE Indie Spotlight Download of the week for the  song “Can’t Go Home”.

Happy Release Day Tuesday!!

Good Old War / Come Back As Rain
(Sargent House) out on March 6, 2012

There’s a pure simplicity to Good Old War’s music that’s hard to resist. The band builds its lovely acoustic-based music out of gorgeous harmonies, gently-played guitars and light percussion.

The opening track offers a perfect example of what Good Old War does so well. “Over and Over” serves up airy vocals, strummy acoustic guitars and the pattering of percussions. Even though the song is about a failing relationship, there is such a vitality to the performances that the tune seems like an upbeat number. The trio of Keith Goodwin, Tim Arnold and Daniel Schwartz (who use parts of their surnames to form the band’s name) achieves this winning blend of catchy, harmony-rich acoustic music numerous times throughout this disc. “Calling Me Names,” for instance, is a hooky slice of folk pop, while the twangy “It Hurts Every Time” rates as another stand out.

The group has drawn some comparisons to Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Still, Nash and Young and traces of the former can be heard in “Can’t Go Home” and the latter in “Better Weather.” Good Old War’s music also holds elements of English folk-rock (“It Hurts Every Times” recalls Del Amitri) and Australian/New Zealand bands like Paul Kelly and Crowded House (“Loud Love”). Their sound occasionally does get a bit too soft. “Amazing Eyes” conjures up memories of the overly laidback ’70 country-pop band Firefall and the tune also reveals the trio’s tendency to sometimes repeat lyrics. The album’s closer “Present At The End Of The World,” on the other hand, wraps up the album on a high note, ranking as the most exuberant vision of the apocalypse since R.E.M.’s “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”

With this impressive album of wonderfully melodic music, the band joins the growing ranks of harmony-based folk-rock outfits like the Fleet Foxes and The Civil Wars. - by Mike Berick for American Songwriter

Good Old War releases their new album Come Back As Rain on March 6 on Sargent House and heads out on a two month tour during March and April with a homecoming final show at Union Transfer on April 27!

Philadelphia’s own, Good Old War, has a new album, Come Back As Rain, out March 6. These Philly natives and indie-folk trio, consist of Keith Goodwin (vocals, guitar, keys), Tim Arnold (drums, keys, accordion, cocals), and Daniel Schwartz (guitar, vocals). Pulling from each of their surnames to create the band’s moniker, these three friends and collaborators have created a great chemistry on stage and a knack for mesmerizing three-part harmonies. Playing at festivals such as SXSW and the XPoNential Music Festival, collaborating with Anthony Green, and cultivating a reputation that’s reached beyond the Philly music scene to the rest of the nation, Good Old War have started out their first few years in a successful fashion.

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Good Old War and Sargent House are hosting the full album stream of Come Back As Rain a week early over at Goodoldwar.com . Just click and go take a listen and share it with your friends. We hope you like it! Out everywhere on March 6, 2012