“Volume 2” by The Blue Winter [a review]
October 13, 2022
It only took until the end of song one that I began singing along to the Blue Winter’s second full length project, appropriately titled, Volume 2. Throughout the ten tracks, Aaron Troyer and Ben Roth build infectiously melodic rock anthems with splashes of pop and country that make it nearly impossible to sit still, to sit silent. The momentum, the joy, the enthusiasm is infectious, even when the songs slow down to an introspective amble. “I don’t know what you want from me,” begins the album, with a little fingerpicking in the background. A few moments more and the drums snap in, and the two performers—Roth taking up percussion duties and Troyer handling many of the instruments—are off to the races. It is the sound of two friends asking existential questions, pushing themselves musically, and having a lot of fun doing it. As the album progresses, the details become more specific: a 99 Toyota, a father/child heart to heart- stories that mine the small town terrain akin to country fringe artists like Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton. The melodies, the lyrics, the playfulness— it all cooks. These songs could stand toe to toe with the best of them.
Some Thoughts in Response to Damien Jurado’s New Record
April 18, 2018
A week or two ago, I attended a pre-release listening party for one of my favorite artists. Under the dim lights of Canton’s Deli Ohio restaurant, after hours, I scribbled a few thoughts down as Damien Jurado’s new record spun. I added a few more later, the sound still lingering…
Gray skies over Canton. A whirling April snow. Red lights turn to green.
A voice is carried along on the reverb; a winding stream. It sinks into the wood grain.
Thomas Wolfe. Bruce Springsteen.
Otis Redding. Percy Faith.
Lost in America; stuck in the 70s.
Bob Dylan. Bill Fay.
The red of the exit sign. The hum of the cooler.
Leonard Cohen tells a crude joke.
Lazarus and resurrection. Jonah bouncing around Nineveh.
Old Testament fire. New Testament glory.
A life detached. A glass darkly.
Charlie Brown on the streets of Laredo.
The horizon just laughed.
“The Horizon Just Laughed” will be released on May 4th.
“Out of the Sea” by Heritage Hill [a review]
March 1, 2017
The apex of Heritage Hill’s debut EP, Out of the Sea, comes about halfway into the album, when the four Vancouver ladies channel Father Abraham himself, to vent what feels like every frustration, every discouragement, and every praise that’s ever come down the pike. Harmonizing over gentle bluegrass and Americana melodies, the band switches from slow lament to foot stomping worship throughout the song. It’s a haunting tune, sitting within a beautiful debut—one that captures the many brutal sides of faith, and the glory that emerges somewhere over the rise.
You can purchase the album on itunes and Google Play, or stream it on Spotify. You can also find more information about the band and their ministry here.
“Shadow of the Sun” by Jonah Sissoyev [a review]
February 27, 2017
I have a difficult time pinning down the music of Portland’s Jonah Sissoyev. I started listening to his songs back in 2012. It was the first time that I truly lived alone, outside of a college dorm room—a quiet, light-filled apartment all to myself, on the top floor of an old house. I didn’t know what Sissoyev was singing about, whether it was God or girls, but I knew that it hit me—that it spoke to something far down, in that part of you that knows only a profound, Biblical groaning. Sissoyev is now releasing his third EP, Shadow of the Sun, and his sound has expanded somewhat over the years. There are more players. There is a greater scope to the recordings. But the songs are still rooted in those far down places. They still feel like an artist’s abstract search for love or peace or salvation of some kind. At the heart of it, Sissoyev’s songs remain strange, enigmatic and utterly beautiful.
You can stream and purchase his music here. Beginning March 1, you’ll be able to hear and buy the new EP, Shadow of the Sun.
Saturday Night & Sunday Morning
February 23, 2017
Hello dear readers. I’m taking a few short paragraphs out of my regularly scheduled music reviews and write-ups to point you toward a few of my own music projects. I recently released two very different albums that you can listen to or purchase at the links below.
The first is a 70s-style rock and roll project we call “Killbuck”. The album was mostly recorded live onto a Goodwill-purchased tape recorder, at the end of a gravel back road, in a cabin in Killbuck, Ohio. Matt Kurtz, John Finley, John King, Joe Farr and I collaborated over a love of dark sunglasses, Tom Petty and 3-chord rock songs. The result is our self-titled debut: 11 “heartland-soaked tunes full of Americana angst and Rust Belt blues”.
The second project is a new volume of hymns my friends and I recorded over the past year. Each of us took a different hymn to reinterpret and explore through our individual styles. All profits from the Harp Family Hymnbook: Vol. II will go to Mennonite Central Committee.
You can find Killbuck here , and the Harp Family Hymnbook Vol. II here.
let us make a record 