!f you’re a certain age, you remember Uncle Jungle, the band of high schoolers that played lots of shows at the New Daisy in the mid-2000s.
Now, about 17 years later and after three years in law school at Washington & Lee University, Uncle Jungle’s guitarist/principal songwriter Carl Krausnick has released his first solo album.
He never stopped making music.
On January 30th, Krausnick released Dining Companion, about 15 years after Uncle Jungle released its album, The Medicine Man & His Medicine Band.
The new album contains 12 tracks, some of which have their roots in music Krausnick wrote in college.
As a child growing up in Memphis, Krausnick was more interested in visual arts than music. “I loved drawing and messing around with my hands,” he says. “I won some competition and [one of my drawings] ended up on a Christmas card when I was in elementary school at PDS (Presbyterian Day School). It was some incarnation of The Berenstain Bears family. I think it was a Berenstain Bears nuclear family.”
By his freshman year of high school, Krausnick, who grew up in a family that listened to a lot of music, was “really engrossed in the guitar. I was listening and developing my own taste in music alongside my friends, growing up. At the time we were all into jam bands.”
They listened to a lot of music by groups like Phish. “I found it all to be so incredibly musical and diverse.”
Krausnick formed Uncle Jungle, which included Gabe Ruby, Sam Ferguson, Mikey Rose, and Harrison Martin.
“I shared guitar duties with Gabe. And Harrison and I sang vocals. Sam Ferguson, bass. Mikey, drums.”
The Medicine Man & His Medicine Band was recorded at Young Avenue Sound. “‘Diamond Cave’ was a stand alone single and the last thing we recorded,” Krausnick says. “Death of Funk” was another popular song.
Krausnick also played lacrosse, but he stopped sports when Uncle Jungle started gaining traction and playing more gigs, so he could focus on the band.
“Aside from house parties, we had a pretty regular gig at the New Daisy. That’s where the majority of our live performances took place.”
Uncle Jungle only played about three years, but, Krausnick says, “I did know that I would maintain a musical relationship with all those guys moving forward. I just didn’t know in what capacity.”
They broke up after Krausnick, who was a year ahead of the other members, went to Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he formed another band, Lil’ Buddha & the Packrats.
They played a lot of Grateful Dead, Phish, Talking Heads, and Allman Brothers songs at fraternity parties and football tailgate parties. “We played in different capacities with somewhat of a revolving lineup all four years of college. But we never recorded anything. I don’t want to overstate it as being anything more than a party band.”
But, he says, “I would say, most importantly, I found it to be fun. Namely, performing with a band.”
While in that party band, Krausnick knew he wanted to put out a solo release at some point. He began writing “decidedly non-jam band-centric music.”
“There were a lot of voice memos on the phone. And then I recorded a lot of stuff directly through a laptop with microphones, backed vocals. And the vast majority of those recordings are acoustic with vocals.”
After he graduated from SMU, Krausnick took a year off and moved to Alaska, where he worked in a fishing lodge, and then to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he “did the whole transient ski bum thing.”
He didn’t put a band together, but he continued writing and recording at Washington & Lee University. “Just completely solo acoustic guitar and vocals. And I wrote a lot of songs then. So, there was a lot of developing in terms of songcraft that took place during the three years of law school. I improved my production chops quite a lot.”
After he graduated from law school, Krausnick moved back to Memphis, where he had accepted a job with a law firm. But, he says, “One of the first things I did was get re-acquainted with old musician friends of mine that were still in Memphis. A lot of jams at people’s houses.”
Krausnick kept his songs private, for the most part. “Not sharing it outside of a few select friends.”
During that time, he just wanted to play music and create. “Keep my hands on a guitar.”
Finally, in 2024, Krausnick began seriously working on his solo album. “I decided to make this record after some health issues forced me to slow down and reevaluate things.”
He realized music was “becoming essential. Around that same time, I was settling into life as a father, with more responsibility and a different sense of time.”
Krausnick bought a lot more gear, including a violin, an analog synthesizer, and drums — all of which, in addition to piano, he played himself. “I play everything. One hundred percent,” he says.
“This whole album was born out of having hot microphones on every single time I went into my space. I was really intentional about recording as I was playing, even if it was under the guise of practicing.”
Some of the melodies he wrote in law school appear on the album. “There was, quite frankly, a lot of this stuff. These songs are pastiches. They’re cobbled together from different disparate ideas.”
And, he says, “I knew how easy it was to forget a really good idea if you’re not recording everything.”
Throughout the spring and summer of 2024, Krausnick recorded his songs. “And this might sound cheesy, but more melodic ideas were pouring out of me than at any time in my life,” he says.
“Memphis Fireworks,” his first single from the album, was “born out of several occasions in which I was putting my daughter to sleep or tending to her late at night and I could hear gun shots.”
He describes the song, which includes the words “pop, pop, pop” throughout, as “a love letter to my daughter that acknowledges some of the realities of the city we live in.”
As far as an overall theme to his new album, Krausnick says, “I would tend to think on the whole it’s supposed to be uplifting. But, melodically, I think a lot of the stuff is really dense. And I think it’s just very charged.”
And so is Krausnick. He’s planning to do with his new album what he’s been doing most of his life. “The next step is to bring it to life with a band.”