When musician James Everhart steps on stage at the Lititz Shirt Factory, he won’t be alone.
In fact, enough musicians to supplement two or three bands will join him.
The Philadelphia 10-piece outfit Cosmic Guilt burst onto the scene this year in a big way, with four singles from a finished-but-not-released debut album and heavy airplay from Philly station WXPN. While the players are many, this is not a Polyphonic Spree situation with flowing robes and giant choirs.
Instead, Cosmic Guilt leans heavy into a sort of psychedelic Americana, with gentle guitars, a pedal steel and ghostly harmonies.
Cosmic Guilt performs at the Lititz Shirt Factory on Friday, Dec. 17. Tickets are $20.
Everhart is a music lifer, who last visited Lancaster way back in 2014 as part of popular rockers Low Cut Connie.
“The coolest thing about that many people that are so good at their instruments, is that it’s sparse,” Everhart says over the phone. “A lot of comments I get from people are like, ‘Wow, I thought that was going to be a mess.’ And it’s like, no, these parts are all orchestrated and deliberate. Sometimes, I can just sit there and sing. I use my acoustic guitar to direct the music a little bit, but I can just kind of chill back because there’s already 4,000 people playing.”
The Cosmic seeds were planted in late 2019 when Everhart, also of the raucous Philly band Scantron, decided to lean into a lifelong appreciation for British folk artists such as Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. Some of this year’s singles, such as the instant earworm “Cautious Lover” and buoyant folk rocker “Silver and Lead,” got their start over a decade ago as sketches in Everhart’s notebook, not yet ready for the world.
“No one was mature enough to do this type of music, because everyone wanted to shred and be up front and play a thousand notes,” Everhart says with a laugh. “Now the challenge is, how few notes can we play? How perfect can the ones that we lay down be? In college, I was in a lot of bands that I like to call ‘Budweiser rock.’ You start breaking out sensitive songs about losing your love to the sea, and everyone is like, ‘Yeah, we’re not gonna do that one.’”
The members of Cosmic Guilt were friends going into the group, which allowed the musicians to start work quickly. Everhart usually brings close to complete demos for the band, and then each member finds their own groove to improve or expand upon the initial ideas.
How does a 10-piece band find time to practice? Well, by making it fun. Everhart usually hosts what he calls a “Cosmic Brunch” on Sundays, wherein the band gets together and imbibes on country records and zines, breakfast food and cannabis (Everhart is a full-time creative director in the cannabis industry).
What comes next is a combination of to–be–determined and to–be–unveiled. On the strength of previous bands from the area, Cosmic Guilt emerged almost fully formed and in demand in Philadelphia. As Everhart explains, none of the band members are “bartender musicians” anymore and each has their own full-time job in industries like fashion design, graphic arts and coffee.
“I toured for six years all over the world, every state, Europe, Mexico, Canada, everywhere. So that itch has kind of been scratched for me,” Everhart says of touring the world. “However, with that has come a huge network of industry people, and I think that’s why we’re seeing a little bit of early success with this project, because I got to know a ton of people in the industry.
“We have a bunch of big show announcements in the new year, but we’re going to take it slow,” he says. “For example, I have a buddy that books at Levon (Helm)’s barn (deceased drummer of The Band). Would I go to Woodstock? Hell yeah.”
So, this is your sign to see Cosmic Guilt in Lititz, because you might not get the chance again.
“This is the kind of music that I’ve always wanted to play and always loved,” Everhart says. “Cosmic Guilt to me feels like I’m finally hearing what I heard in my head. It’s like, ‘Oh finally – this is what I was talking about.’ So, I’m really happy and it’s really easy to write songs for this band because this is the most natural style of music for me.”
