Tried To Do’s

Drafts of this record started as early as 2019. The initial idea was a “Parable of the Talents” concept album and/or an album about my hometown of Jackson, TN. Many moves, much traveling and many losses later - the loss of our future child, the loss of my grandmother, the near loss of my father in law, and the hit of hurricane Helene in our adopted hometown of Asheville, NC - this record became a record about loss. It’s a record about ways of mourning, ways of re-membering, both with the family in which I was raised as a child and the family of which I have come to inhabit multiple roles as an adult. 

In many ways, this album is a litany of things I’ve tried to do. I’ve tried to learn many ways of coming home through the teachings of Lama Rod Owens (Seven Homecomings). I’ve tried to find balance and intimate care in an unbalanced and uncaring world (Closeness). I’ve tried to accept my demons, my family’s demons, my ancestor’s demons (Prologue, Kin, Waterhole). I’ve tried to sit with grief (The Old Churchyard). Through the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, I’ve tried to welcome loss, to understand that nothing, and no one, is ever truly gone. (No Coming, No Going). I’ve tried to love myself (Trust) as I move through collective healing (Re-Membering). 

-Jay Hammond on Tried To Do’s

Credits

Performance

• Jay Hammond - Voice, Guitars, Production

• Chessa Rich - Voice, Piano

• Libby Rodenbough - Voice, Fiddle

• Joe Westerlund - Drums, Percussion

• Matt O’Connell - Drums (Waterhole)

• Casey Toll - Bass

• Stephanie Coleman - Fiddle

• Joseph Decosimo - Banjo 

• Adrian Knight - Piano, Keyboards

• Matt Evans - Drums, Percussion, Synth

• Greg Chudzic - Bass

• Andy Stack - Engineering, Production

• Michael Hammond - Engineering, Production, Mixing

• Saman Khoujinian - Engineering, Sound Design

Production

• Recorded at home by Jay Hammond with group sessions at: 

  • Figure 8 Studios, March 2025, Brooklyn, NY

  • Stadium Heights Sound, January 2025, Durham, NC

  • Home of Alex Bingham, Summer 2023, Durham, NC

  • Big Fish, Small Pond, Summer 2022, Pittsboro, NC

• Produced by Jay Hammond, Michael Hammond and Andy Stack

• Mixed by Michael Hammond 

• Mastered by Carl Saff

• All songs by Jay Hammond except “The Old Churchyard” (traditional) 

• ©2026 simultaneities under exclusive license to Sleepy Cat Records

• Cover art by Will Stratton with inspiration from the work of Rashid Johnson. Type by Gabe Anderson

• Vinyl layout and design by Gabe Anderson with assets by Will Stratton

• Photos by Charlie Boss

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