AUGUST Preview — Lament for the Makers

Poor Old Stobo. He never had a chance.

The first full-length track on August is a lament, a plea to Death himself, for people and poets past.

The refrain is Latin for, "The fear of death bewilders me." Not death itself, but the fear of it. The song's based on a poem by William Dunbar. He saw many of the greats die, having lived through the Black Plague and all, a time when 70% of Europe's population fell to boils and scabs.

As for the musical arrangement, anyone who doubts that Dunbar's descendant's settled in Appalachia hasn't heard Ralph Stanley sing "O Death"

AUGUST Preview — The Storm

Today I preview for you the lead-off track of the forthcoming Still Lost Bird Music album (out on the 23rd of next month): "The Storm".



It's a subtle thing that whispers with a dreamy, mysterious voice from beyond. The questions it raises about the songs that follow are: "Is the subject awake or asleep?" "Is this real or a dream?"

It's one of the most creatively produced tracks on the album (thanks to my friend Jeff who co-produced). For a short song (it clocks in at just less than a minute), the arrangement morphs several times: from a solo nylon string guitar, to an earth-trembling cloud of distortion, to echoing voices in the sky. It's about a feeling that's violent and hopeful and terrifying and comforting all at the same time. You were the wind. 

ALBUM UPDATE — AUGUST TO BE RELEASED 8/23

A few weeks ago, I made a post about my forthcoming album, August, on DashGo Records. We now have an official (and fitting) release date: August 23rd. In the next few weeks, leading up to the release, I'll preview some of the songs here and write about how the album was made, etc. Exciting!

Mats for New Album

My solo project, Still Lost Bird Music, has a new album coming out, so I'm putting together some promo stuff. Becky did an amazing job designing the website, and it just went up today: www.stilllostbirdmusic.com. (She also designed the above sweet-looking card. It shows the album cover on it, also her design. The photo on the cover, and several other photos on the website, were taken with a special kind of Polaroid film called Chocolate.)

I'm SOOOO excited about the album. (There's a bit of a concept to it that you can read about on the website.) I recorded it almost all myself in my studio—had to learn how to play the banjo first—and my friend Jeff mixed and mastered it and added some very tasty arrangement/production touches too.

The title of the album comes from the first song, "August", about youth, lust, ill-fated love, confusion, clarity, and nostalgia in the late summer. There's a seasonal theme running through much of the rest of the album as well, and a lot of the music has the bittersweet feeling of the late-summer/early-fall too I think. Here's the title track: