It’s been quite a year for the local group, The Chairman Dances. From debuting a full 15-track album last summer to returning less than a year later with new music (this time being a conceptual album), they have seen some exponential growth.

A Promise fills me up with a myriad of emotions, and that’s the group’s main focus. From track to track, lead singer Eric Krewson sings the tale of two married couples at two different parts of their lives and relationships. For fans of Death Cab for Cutie, the Weakerthans, and even The Decemberists, I’d say you’ve got quite a match for your taste in music (especially in “A Family Waiting”).

Beyond the involvement you have as a listener, being carefully guided by Krewson’s selection of words, you can’t deny the tight instrumentation keeping all of this together. The band themselves are relaxed with their instruments which I had the opportunity to catch live. Friends first, you could tell they were having a great time performing and that’s what I love to see.

A couple of weeks ago we released a video of an outdoor acoustic session we had with Eric who kindly sang “A Voice In The Night” for us and the neighborhood, all of which you can check out below.

Be sure to grab A Promise, due out May 22nd. After plenty of thorough listens, I can definitely say it’s an album from the Philadelphia scene you don’t want to miss.