Crowe Boys are redefining the boundaries of country music and New Orleans music with their inspiring debut album, Made to Wander. By putting their own life experiences into these 10 original songs, the brothers are creating a safe space for listeners to find value in their own lives.
Built around Ocie Crowe on acoustic guitar and Wes Crowe on mandolin, the duo’s acoustic-driven direction has also resonated with alternative, Americana, and folk audiences who feel an immediate connection to songs such as “Bootstraps,” the rousing album opener that reflects a personal, yet relatable, experience of staying hopeful amid constant setbacks. Ocie drew on frustrations after a job offer fell apart just as his family was expecting their second child. After several stressful months, a dream job materialized, which provided a newfound stability for his growing family.
Talking about family, Ocie highlighted he “… gave up a lot of financial security, which a lot of people did not see or understand,” which was a key inspiration behind “Bootstraps.” “There were a lot of people in our life who were scrutinizing me and my family, which is a really hard place to be when you’re struggling, and you’re trying to do something you believe in.”
Born in Baton Rouge, Ocie and Wes Crowe spent a few years of their childhood in Pride, Louisiana, living next door to their grandparents. However, the Crowe family rarely settled in one place for long. Sometimes they would spend months living in an RV while their father taught in a church. As boys, Wes began playing bass while Ocie had quickly picked up acoustic guitar, piano, and drums, while learning how to write songs from his mother. When Ocie was 11 and Wes was 8, they lost their mother to breast cancer at just 33. The family then settled in the small town of Franklinton, Louisiana, when their father remarried.
“Music was where we went when we were frustrated or angry or confused or just hurt,” Ocie remembers. “We might have been at a church or might have been home in a den with instruments set up, and we would just go in there and lay it all out. That was our way of processing and working through life, and we chose to do it together. Music really is more than just something we do. It’s a spiritual experience for us, being able to share it with people.”
A few years later, at 17, Ocie moved to New Orleans determined to pursue a career in music. Two of his three younger brothers, Jacob and Wes, eventually joined him.
“Personally, I don’t know if I would actually do this kind of thing if I wasn’t with my brothers,” Wes observes. “I love playing music, but I’m passionate about my family. I love getting to do this with my family. That’s what we’ve always done. Growing up, we were always on the road in the family band. So, whenever I stepped out of that, I moved to New Orleans because my brothers were there, and we could play music together. I could just as easily go get another job and make all the money in the world, but I love getting to do music with my brothers.”
Crowe Boys first tried to break through as an indie punk band (with Ocie on guitar, Wes on bass and Jacob on drums) but struggled to gain traction in the local clubs. After one night of hustling to fill up a venue, the crowd completely emptied out after the opening act’s set. Feeling defeated and tempted to quit, the brothers turned their microphones around and played to one another. What could have been the breaking point for most bands proved to be a turning point instead.
“Something happened that night where we gave up trying to be something, and we just started playing for ourselves,” Ocie remembers. “And writing the song ‘Where Did I Go Wrong’ was me getting that part of myself out, like, ‘All right, I’m done trying to write music about a life that doesn’t exist.’ This is who I am. These are the things I struggle with. I’m really confused about where I should go, and who I should be, and I don’t know what I should believe. And I just want to mean something to myself, but everything is so confusing.”
One of Ocie’s friends could hear their artistic evolution and asked if he could play the new songs for another friend, Andrew Campanelli of the multiplatinum act The Revivalists. Campanelli enthusiastically agreed to help capture the duo’s sound in the studio. As the album wrapped, Ocie and Wes spent five solid days in the studio for ten hours a day, forging an even stronger sibling bond. However, the guitar/bass duo configuration didn’t feel quite right, so Wes reached for a different instrument.
“We had a mandolin in the studio, and I picked it up, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna learn how to play this,’” Wes remembers. “I’m still learning how to play it. And I think learning how to play it has helped me fall in love with the folk genre as well. I used to be really big into skateboarding and punk music. When I started working at a coffee shop, I would wake up at four in the morning, go make a cup of coffee, and I didn’t particularly want to listen to punk music that early in the morning. So, I started finding some more mellowed out songs. And that’s how I found folk music and fell in love with that — watching the sunrise, listening to folk music.”
With the album essentially completed, Ocie and Wes consistently (but somewhat reluctantly) started filming performance clips for TikTok. When an impassioned rendition of “Where Did I Go Wrong” went viral, Wes and Ocie were both busy at work, trying to keep tabs on the clip’s explosive growth. Within hours, the video accrued more than a hundred thousand views; by the next day, nearly a million people had watched it. (Ultimately, it garnered more than 13 million streams.) Dozens of labels reached out and club bookers scrambled to find larger venues for their upcoming tour, but at the time, the brothers didn’t even have a manager. With the help of Campanelli and C3 Management, Crowe Boys negotiated a major label recording contract with Universal Music Group Nashville (now MCA) without sacrificing the sound that made them stand out in the first place.
Intended to be heard as a complete body of work, their debut album Made to Wander shares songs about wanting to grow and move forward, even when the circumstances make it difficult. On the second half, emotional songs such as “Good Days” and “Brother Song” encourage listeners to embrace life for all that it is and live in the moment.
“I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve learned and grown mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, especially over the last year,” Wes recognizes. “So much has happened that has changed my personality from this nonchalant kid to somebody who wants to feed into people’s lives and inspire them. There was just a change where I’m on fire now to make it happen.”
“Even if it’s just a handful of people that are able to move forward in their lives because of our music, that’s all I care about,” Ocie concludes. “Hopefully, this soundtrack of our lives that we’ve built is enough to encourage people. The hope is that after you’ve listened to what we’ve gone through, and the reasons why we just go and live and ask questions and search for life, it will be enough to inspire others to do the same.”
