Justin Tracy – Atlantic
It’s hard to forgive the world, or even to start small by forgiving yourself. And it’s all the harder when there isn’t silence to accompany these meditations. At its core, folk music contains gently whispered, true stories meant to inspire forgiveness. They belong not just to the history of music, but to the way humans know how to understand the world around them.
We can only hope that these tales belong to our present as well. We can only hope that the world has enough strength and imagination left to accept and understand the music of modern dreamers like Justin Tracy. And, frankly, we can hope against hope that we’re able to find enough time from our force-fed daily distractions to stop and to listen.
Justin Tracy’s “Atlantic” is a surrealist painting presented in the form of a modern folk song. This isn’t meant to make sense if you look at it in the way that you would at a news report photo, or listen to it as you would a pop radio song. There’s a part of your mind that you need to close up for the great imagination involved in creating this piece of music to shine through. Justin Tracy creates sounds meant to stop the world, right now, when time is slowly collapsing on itself.
Holcombe & Ashe – Fear of Missing Out
Imagine this scene if you will. An old man lies on his dying bed. He is surrounded by his family and closest friends. With what may likely be his final words he whispers something. It’s the name of a woman. Somebody pulls closer to hear it until they can clearly make it out. It’s not the name of his current wife or of any of the children. It’s the name of a former girlfriend who ran off with his car five decades ago.
That’s the kind of story that Holcombe & Ashe are likely to have heard whispered around town. And why not? It’s a tale as old as time and one that occurs frequently and in all types of cultures.
But why would someone choose to worship this kind of misery? Because, if properly investigated, this may be that one big ingredient that gives love its flavour and narcotic potential.
Holcombe & Ashe’s “Fear of Missing Out” is a gorgeous little folk-country number sung with the innocence of a child asking for cookies. Listen to that breezy tenor and tell me if you hear any conflict there?
But this is a song about the trials and tribulations of love. It’s a song about how people not only live through these troubles, but live because of them. What would life be without a bit of excitement?
