Wednesday by abigail mueller
It's been 42 years since the release of Merle Haggard's That’s The Way Love Goes, a song rooted in the belief that love eventually settles into stability. Haggard’s comforting melody sounds familiar even when you hear it for the first time, and as I search for modern takes on these classic tunes, I’ve found that Karly Hartzman is searching too. For the frontwoman of Wednesday, Haggard’s swooning was a reference point rather than a conclusion while she faced the juxtaposition of heartbreak and success. In a touching essay for Vulture, Karly reflected on her love song inspired by Haggard’s melody and the effects of burnout on her relationship with guitarist MJ Lenderman. This shift marks a new direction for the band, their music growing more deliberate with the weight of experience. I spoke with Wednesday after their show at Emo’s in Austin, TX, as part of their 2026 headlining tour for the album Bleeds. I found that her impressive vulnerability doesn't stop at her writing; it transforms in front of you on stage. Karly sings like she’s tying up loose ends, and this band is not even at their peak.
North Carolina’s band Wednesday is a modern response to the desire for Appalachian-rooted sounds provided by indie folk and rock, with a jagged, experimental edge. When I shared my reading of their place in that evolving sound, they didn’t resist the label as a standout in the Asheville indie genre. They emphasize their love for North Carolina and the community it’s offered them, having formed in 2017 in Asheville. Though the members are spread across Marshall, Greensboro, and Durham, they still consider Asheville to be home base.
“All of the important things about this band happened in Asheville,” Hartzman says. “My most influential music upbringing was house shows and DIY shows there. I still think of us as a North Carolina ground‑zero band.”
"It's a small community to have such an outsized impact on the greater national music scene. Time will tell, but there's something special about it. It did push us together.” Pedal-steel player Xandy Chelmis says.
They began touring in support of Bleeds in November, moving through North America before heading to Asia and Europe in early 2026. Now back in the U.S., they’re pushing through the final leg. The band has found a worldwide demand, but Karly Hartzman notices the tiring blur of constant travel. Even the plane has become a kind of blink between cities.
“I already don't like flying, but recently I've been vegging out in this weird state where I'm not quite asleep but not stimulating myself in any way. It’s kind of creepy. The shows abroad have been amazing, but it's easier to be homesick over there.”
“It's good to be kind of in my neck of the woods. We’re mostly seeing green rooms, even though we’re surrounded by these iconic places. But we can see stuff once in a while. During the few days we had off in Taipei, it quickly became one of my favorite cities I've been to,"
Hartzman states.
Wednesday by Abigail mueller
Leading the country-inflected indie movement alongside Wednesday are groups like Waxahatchee, This Is Lorelai, Dutch Interior, and Wednesday’s own MJ Lenderman. Nearly ten years after forming, the band rides upon an undeniable hunger for their sound as they headline yet another transnational tour. Their massive success wasn’t anticipated by Karly, whose ultimate goal was just to make music with her friends and exercise her songwriting. When they heard they had sold out their first venue, they realized what started as a shared passion was leaving a greater footprint.
“It was the first time we could play shows after COVID, after vaccines came out.” Drummer Alan Miller states.
“We were going up to New York and we found out that the show was sold out on our way up, and we were like, 'We don't have that many friends in New York! ’. It was only a 150 cap room. We were like, wait... are we baddies?”
“It was a huge fucking deal,” Hartzman adds.
The band centers two primary sounds throughout their discography, and Bleeds is no exception. Karly’s voice excels on heavy-hitting instrumental tracks like Wasp as well as on their tender, country‑leaning melodies heard in Elderberry Wine and the Way Love Goes. In most of Wednesday’s songs, however, the lyrics include blunt observations of day-to-day annoyances complete with crushing purpose, recreating that feeling of sitting in your old high school’s parking lot. She makes uncomfortability comfortable, and it shows in the yearning vocals of their hardcore songs as much as their emotionally direct country tracks. Their 2023 album Rat Saw God masters this dichotomy as well, with Karly’s writing and tone hitting the mark throughout each song. As time goes on, the difference between the two sounds is getting more defined.
“As soon as I write the lyrics, I know whether it’s a country song, a hardcore song, or something shoegazey or ambient. The country songs come more naturally to us, and I think as we veer more into the hardcore songs, we're stretching our potentiality. The Wednesday sound is best defined by Bleeds and Rat Saw God—I don't think we’ll put out another record like either one because we’ve done the best versions of those. We’ll use those as a jumping-off point to go into two extreme directions," Karly states.
The band’s current challenge is pushing farther into uncharted territory, towards new inspirations. Alan jokes of a future record alternating jugband folk and grindcore tracks, and I could sense a genuine undertone in their collective love for music as listeners and performers. He mentions Yo La Tengo, a band known for decades of prioritizing experimentation.
“They do whatever they want,” Hartzman says. “And they make amazing music the whole time. I think when you do that, it serves to prove that you love music.”
“That's what we're going to be in pursuit of as we grow older, to keep loving music. If you get pigeonholed and it becomes an aesthetic goal to match the expectations of your audience, it's not loving music anymore. That's something else. I don't know what that is."
Wednesday’s principle is versatility, not for the sake of strategy but out of commitment to play. Their raw performance and well-developed sound make it clear they haven't forgotten their starting point in North Carolina as a group of friends with a shared passion. What comes next for Wednesday is an expansion. If Bleeds is any indication, they’re still tracing the edges of what this band can become.
wEDNESDAY BY ABIGAIL MUELLER