Fact and fiction filled accounts of encounters with americana music. Where it was heard. Where it was made. Where it takes us- be it thru maps of memory, journeys of the spirit, or the maze of roads we strike out on to simply press play and follow the ghosts of the highway.
This is an interactive experience. First task is to buy or listen to the music. Next, report where it takes you...existential thoughts of bliss, standing atop the san rafael swell spontaneously talking fluent Lakota to hawks, making sweet love to the gal who waited on you at the diner, bar room brawls, fights with your significant other that end in monastic contemplation, or raging at the artist for wasting your money (and theirs)as you purge your ears with q-tips...the idea is for me to plant the seed, give you the itinerary of soundscapes to explore. The rest is up to you.
My job is to sort thru the noise, find the voices and sounds that prick up your ears and take you on a ride. Can't promise what the journey will look like. Trust me. A few autumns ago I stood on the deftly named "knife's edge" in the Weminuche Wilderness Area once in a late afternoon thunderstorm. Not by choice, mind you. There really is no way down forwards or backwards. The graphite and aluminum frames on my pack were humming from the static in the air. I pondered for a moment if this was the hum one hears immediately preceding the blinding flash of doom, followed by guys with headlamps and helicopter flights. No flash came. But the next two miles along the ridge on apple sized decomposed granite chunks, intelligently designed to make quick trekking humbling at best. were pure adrenaline. Couldn't sleep for hours that nite, though exhausted. For me, it was a hell of a hair raising story to tell, despite the inconvenience of sweat provoking fear. For my partner at the time, it was grounds for a possible breakup...and a reason to verbally kick me more often than her kindergarden stomps at the damn rocks in her way. Music can be just like that. Same hour or so. Totally different vibe. Way different account years later. Perhaps destiny changing, these paths, this music.
Funny that backpacking memory came to me while writing this first blog. Maybe you will understand better after going on the little jaunt i am about to invite you on....then again, who knows.
Let's find out.
Itinerary Week One: Eric Shiveley | "Eden's Light" | Recorded in San Luis Valley, Colorado
Preview Song and Video (Video by Eric Shively as well - dude makes movies now..more on that later.)
I recommend listening to Mr. Shiveley, who produces and engineers all his own recordings, on headphones when you can...he understands the word "soundscape".
Beyond the atmosphere of the spacious dynamic in the music, Eric uses visual and auditory imagery in his lyrics, the scenes and sounds we can attach our memory to and recall our own senses in our own moments of note. And damn, he ain't afraid of getting personal, but not to the point we feel we are intrusive and lose our ability to relate and equate the experience.
When Shiveley changes subject matter in his songs and gets intense, the music suddenly retracts from spaciousness, getting claustrophobic and in your face. Its well thought out, this orchestration of mood. Whether it be in the timbre of his voice, the mix across the stereo panorama, or the instrumentation swelling from sparse to symphonic...it is seemless and fitting.
Perhaps my favorite aspect of Eric's songwriting is his ability to turn and create memorable phrases that move past sensory into philosophical musings. "One chorus written on devil's white linen". Damn. That's divine.
Pair it with the chorus of the song "you don't now me at all" and its clever and insightful. And honest. And the truth fucking hurts.
Sometimes i feel the art of songwriting is getting lost when i listen to mainstream music. Another music writer consoled me by suggesting it was "how" i listened to music compared to many. Perhaps the folks I listen to these days just take it one step further. But i like where they take me. I don't have a lot of guru's to look up to these days. But Eric Shiveley is one of them.
Looking forward to this one! Hope you are too.
Comments are your reprisal, your experience. Let this little experience begin.
-russ
About Me
- Spur Gazer
- Fatherhood consumes me. Love my kiddo. Luck enough to have found another source of grace & gratitude with Melanie and her kiddos too. I've dj'd at a college radio station or two,written features and reviews- briefly was music editor for a glossy rag seen on the Front Range. Pride myself on being quoted early and often in the first remarks on albums and artists of impending significance i crossd paths with...either sharing the stage or scouting the scene. Btw, i have a band and am a songwriter but probably wouldn't make the cut for this blog. Although, other folks seem to want to write about my music or band on quiet news weeks, which is simultaneously gratifying and terrifying. I love the outdoors and have been a river and wilderness guide, and in a not so distant past folks paid me some real money & copious amounts of worthless stock to position start up companies and their products. I battled whiskey for years. It won. Dedicated my new career to helping others find their own way out of that scenario. Fly fishing and baseball are religions to me. So is music. Hate watching any of the above done poorly. That being said, I write. Sometimes poorly.