I was driving to play a baseball game on a July afternoon in 2012. It was the Saturday of the WXPN Music Festival in Camden (awkwardly named the XPoNential Music Festival). I was listening to XPN, which was broadcasting the Festival, on the way there. And, just before I got to the ballpark, Good Old War started playing Better Weather. It was one of the feature songs on their then new album, Come Back As Rain. I had never heard the song before - - and I hardly knew anything about Good Old War. But it was one of those songs that I knew that I'd buy (along with the rest of the album) as soon as I got home.
Better Weather soon became my favorite song of the month. And Good Old War quickly became one of my favorite groups. Back then, there were three guys in the group: Keith Goodwin, who I'm guessing is the main songwriter and usually the lead singer; Dan Schwartz, the unbelievably fabulous guitar player (acoustic and electric) and harmony singer; and Tim Arnold, the percussionist and backup singer. All three grew up in the Philadelphia area. Tim Arnold left the group a few years ago, although I think that he still appears with the group occasionally.
I guess you'd call Good Old War an Indie folk band. But they could also be considered a pop group. Their songs are often upbeat and catchy. And sometimes it's hard to get the tunes out of your head. (See: Better Weather.) With XPN's help, the group has found some level of success, and they certainly have a big following here in Philadelphia.
The band's website says that Keith, at the very least, jots down an idea for a new song each and every day. If he's still doing that, good work by Keith.
I've seen the group a few times in Philadelphia, including once at an XPN Free-at-Noon concert, at which they did their encore in the middle of the audience while holding their little kids. And I had the chance to briefly meet all three guys who were in the group at the time at an XPN fundraiser a few years ago. They're good guys who make good music. Obviously.
So here it is: Song 29: Good Old War performing Better Weather in a van in 2012, and then another version of Better Weather that the group did on the streets of Toronto in 2012.