Go ahead and pour yourself another glass of honey bourbon, and cheers: to friends and family, beers and bonfires, high spirits and roots culture. It’s summertime! Embrace the sticky American heat as you turn your flushing face towards the ecstatic spectacle on stage, that dynamo of rowdy celebration and folk glory: San Francisco five-piece, Before the Brave.

To corroborate BtB’s hearty debut EP, 2012’s Great Spirit, their premiere West Coast tour to Seattle and back, and their sold-out concert at San Fran’s Noise Pop Fest last February, the mxdwn crew reached out to these up-and-coming indie folk rockers to make sure they were legit. We were met with a brand new music video for “Free,” an instantly addictive single and rollicking Summer anthem featuring rock and roll fortitude and strong vocals in tight-knit harmony. Alongside fellow roots revivalists The Lumineers, Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons, and others, BtB fosters a contemplative carpe-diem, loving life with an eye turned towards quotidian spirituality and heartfelt expression.

Adored for their deeply affecting performances, BtB has performed with fellow Californian independents The Rogue Wave and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, as well as Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside and the progressive Christian rock group The Brilliance. The band attributes their unique sound to a turbulent 2011, which occasioned line-up changes and defining stylistic shifts. Now, armed with ardent local support, solid musical inspiration, and songwriting savvy, they humbly embark on their own indie voyage, inscribing on the walls of their ship the mantic motto: “Good news. Be brave. Get free.”