Jess Kerber – Carry My Home
How far do you hope that your music will be able to travel? That’s a question that every aspiring songwriter should ask themselves and try to answer truthfully. There is no shame in wanting to spread songs to every corner of the Earth.
Neither is there any shame in keeping them close, in isolating them from those who might tear open these fragile ideas by inspecting them too closely. But travel plans need to be made. Things don’t just happen on their own. And songwriter Jess Kerber has made a decision.
That decision is influenced, most likely, by how much the songs are allowed to pack with them on their travels. The tunes that reach millions typically are light, easy to move around, and ready-made for reinterpretation. Some musicians will accept these conditions.
Some won’t. Jess Kerber’s forlorn acoustic guitar-led meditation of “Carry Me Home,” is whispered slowly and constructed with great attention to detail. It’s meant to be delivered only to those who swear that they’ll carry it as some kind of secret that one does not give out even under penalty of torture. It’s music meant to stick close to home, to travel less and develop on home soil. It’s not something that needs to reach everyone. And that’s a brave decision in itself.
Tele & The Ghost of Our Lord – A Wish In Hell
The old myths and 1960s cartoons where Gods, Fates, or Fairy godmothers watch over the talented ones and make sure to equip them with everything that they’ll need for success in this world, are, I’m sorry to tell you, a bunch of fabricated lies.
Don’t get me wrong, these mythical beings do watch over people and will occasionally bless one of them with incredible talent. But they have a wicked sense of humour. Just look at what they did, Matt Kamm, head honcho behind folk sensation Tele & The Ghost of Our Lord.
Just like Townes van Zandt or Blaze Foley, Kamm’s been blessed with a hatful of great song ideas, and a wicked sense of humour. But it’s all been balanced out by laziness, stubbornness and hell-tinted shades with which to see the world.
There’s nothing that a producer or an A&R person could do with Tele & The Ghost of Our Lord’s “A Wish In Hell.” That’s because it’s already a perfect song. But it’s also because, quite frankly, the song feels made up on the spot and used as a slingshot against the world. It’s a gem! And just like cliffs that’ve stubbornly stuck close to the shore, in the sea, nobody can make money from them, or decide if they ought to make the effort and tear them down.
