Two brothers from New Orleans are strumming joy and singing life loud enough for the world to hear. Flying under the banner of alternative-folk, Crowe Boys, made up of Ocie (lead singer, guitar) and Wes Crowe, are on the road with a fresh look and perspective, releasing some of their truest work yet. Fans can’t help but congregate around the honest, all-too-relatable tales of the Crowe Boys.
Home in The Bayou
With roots in the bayou, the Crowe Boys are immersed in the vibrant, folk tradition of New Orleans, home to the brothers’ project. The two are no strangers to life on the road though. The Crowe family is known well in the area as the family-band spreading gospel tunes in a town every Sunday. “New Orleans is a special place to us,” Ocie explains. “They’re just in love with the music and the feeling.” Today, the Crowe legacy continues on the national stage, but this time around, the music has taken on a starkly different meaning for the brothers.
Crowe Boys aren’t just writing songs that we want to hear, “hits” as Ocie described it, rather, they’re using songwriting as a means of finding peace in their lives: “Writing music for us is a big way that we process life… we’re just talking about things we’ve gone through.” After losing their mother to cancer in 2009, music became the way that Crowe Boys (including brother and former drummer, Jacob) leaned on each other for strength. Recently, their songwriting has turned back to times like these, but through the lens of something that has always been there for them: music. “A lot of our recent music comes from past depression and things we didn’t do a good job of processing. Everything we write is real life.”
Where Did They Go Wrong?
As it turns out, authenticity is exactly what listeners were waiting for. In March of 2024, Crowe Boys hit a milestone, as their latest single “Where Did I Go Wrong?” became their first to reach a million streams on Spotify, a metric that has nearly doubled since. In it, the brothers channel the angst that comes with becoming an adult. “This song is how it feels to grow up,” explains Ocie. The most refreshing part about the song is that it doesn’t turn to imaginative figurative language to decorate what is a pure and powerful song. Whether they’re ranting about how “The government took [their money] all away,” “stressing over politics,” or wishing they “weren’t so focused on money,” the young artists are speaking the listeners’ language. The Crowe Boys masterfully sing about what is right there in front of them, and evidently, that’s all people really want to hear.
“Crowe Boys isn’t really about being artists as much as it’s about providing a space for people to come into our show and be safe to learn themselves and let their guards down.”
Crowes on the Road
Exciting things are on the horizon for the brothers this year. Their next release “Bootstraps,” is set to be ours on May 2nd, just in time for the Colorado leg of their tour, which will bring them through Colorado Springs, Greeley, and Denver. This time around, it is just Ocie and Wes taking the stage each night, so fans can expect a much more intimate, personal experience. Ocie provides that the tour and the songs they’re screaming on it are exactly that; personal. “We need to write the music for ourselves first in a way that we connect to what we’re saying before people congregate around it.” The Crowe Boys that we’re seeing today is truly focused on making meaningful music in the studio and meaningful memories on the road. Their act is pure, and they’ve built an unwavering foundation for personal growth by taking the music back to its roots.
