Charlie Bishop – Horses
The vast majority of us just take, take, take. We don’t put any of it back, never think we need less, and won’t ever see a reason why we should change our ways.
We’re colossal egotists, and we rob everything and everyone that we can of resources that we use to improve ourselves. We run until we can’t run anymore, until we finally see that there was no rush in the first place.
There are a lot of us like this. In fact, if there’s one way to explain why the world is in the condition that it finds itself, you might just point a finger at all of our selfishness.
On the other hand, when you notice someone trying to put something back into the world, once you get past your astonishment, it only makes sense that you should try to support them.
Charlie Bishop is trying to add to the world one story at a time. This is a modern folk singer who paints with sound and works with moods rather than linear stories. “Horses” may very well be a tune about freedom and what happens when that becomes unavailable. Still, the song can just as well hold up to your own interpretation of it. Bishop’s working hard to make sense of the world and make it just a touch better than how he found it.
Andie Yagher – boxer’s tale
When all is said and done, when everything is done and dusted, when the world’s finally ready to give out, the only songs that will have been kept around are those that tell stories with which most of the souls of the people left living can identify.
There aren’t many of those. They’re getting fewer every day. And, I am sorry to let you know, but there’s a good chance that even you, with your perfect hearing and exceptional taste, might miss them.
We’ve been taught to listen to songs the wrong way for a long time. We listen with our eyes and expectations. “boxer’s tale” is a fantastic song about loving someone despite their shortcomings and, especially, because of them. But it doesn’t come out of the body you’d expect to deliver such a mature elegy to a failed love affair.
Andie Yagher is a young singer-songwriter whose voice possesses grace and tenderness. The story she tells, however, is gritty, filled with passion and, at times, gruesome. It’s easy to miss these details while focusing on the prettiness of the performance. But this is a story that will live on.
