
Patrick Davis – Six String Dreams
Similar artists: Jason Isbell, Justin Townes Earle, Son Volt
Genre: Alt-Country, Southern Rock
Patrick Davis is still of the opinion that guitar music can change the world, and he doesn’t need the charts of record labels to confirm his hunch.
All that Davis needs to do is look back just a little. Was it all some kind of mass delusion that made us think this was true? Were the qualities of talented songwriters, hard-working singers, and competent musicians merely overinflated by a music industry that hadn’t found itself?
Judging by how popular classic guitar music continues to be, whether through streaming or in the live arena, many seem inclined to believe that indeed we may have strayed from the path. After all, a singer-songwriter capable of turning dreams into musical revelations is altogether rarer than armies of semi-competent songwriters writing the hits that makeup today’s Top 40.
Patrick Davis is determined to walk the same streets that his alt-country heroes once walked on, and as “Six String Dreams” reveals, he’s going to be doing it while carrying a guitar case.
Be warned, this is not music for people with little time or lack of appreciation for the finesse that goes into baritone country vocals or gentle guitar picking. However, those who have a taste for such things will be rewarded.
Far Caspian – Pool
Similar artists: Duster, The Radio Dept., Autolux, Sparklehorse
Genre: Indie Rock
Far Caspian uses silence as an instrument and aching of the soul as inspiration for the latest single, “Pool.”
Hypnosis sessions are only performed in the quietest of rooms, and can only work as long as the subject is willing to be hypnotized. Meditation requires absolute stillness in and around the person meditating. And prayers are usually said or chanted in dark, quiet places where human-made noise cannot interfere with the intimate thoughts of he who is praying.
There’s some art that requires the exact same conditions. A lot of modern music, the kind that usually has no business being on the radio, is concerned with healing the souls of its listeners. To do this, just like a hypnotism session, a meditation, or a prayer, it needs to gain access to a person’s mind through absolute silence.
Far Caspian’s “Pool” is a song so tender and brittle that, at times, it almost feels like the music is stopping, burning out, disappearing mid-note. But this is the only way that Joel Johnston’s songs can find the connection it is desperately trying to make. “Pool” manages a wonderful trick of taking overbearingly intense emotions that usually do not amount to anything but a tinge of regret and distilling them into four minutes of compelling music.