Elder Jack Ward – The Way is Already Made
Genre: Retro Soul, Americana
One can’t avoid looking at the past if we are to make any progress in understanding the present. I am, personally, encouraged by the fact that there is little needed to create music nowadays, or, for that matter, any other form of art.
However, I am also aware that one needed an immense amount of ability to even get to be allowed to make one single in the early days of recorded music. Anyone who has attempted to put sounds to tape, or, on to a track on a computer, will reserve a special kind of respect for those who seem to have been blessed with extraordinary musical abilities.
Where do you think your shiny garage-rock comes from? Or, the great Motown records? You can trace a lot of it back to soul and religious music. Elder Jack Ward’s The Way is Already Made is a spiritual song. But, it’s one infused with so much soul and a groove dug down from the very depths of human nature that if it leaves you feeling nothing, you best worry.
Rookin – Scar
Genre: 90s Rock, Alternative Rock, Soft Rock
Similar artists: Tom Petty, My Morning Jacket, Fountains of Wayne, Wilco, Big Thief, M83, U2
I too dream of the great American wilderness! I can practically smell the sea, feel the sky, and cast my eyes upon the great open plains. At night I drive racecars down the empty highways that zig-zag through the deserts. And, every gas station I stop at is playing a Tom Petty song.
Never mind that I’ve never been to the States. The influence of its culture, the beautiful sound of Americana music, in particular, has traversed the world and filled the dreams of so many. It’s hard to hold a guitar and pick an E chord without thinking of this place.
Rookin is a band born out of those dreams and who looking to create brand new ones. Scar is an example of what they’re capable of and how far deep into they are willing to go. The song echoes loss and trauma. However, it’s dressed in layers of cool American sonic threads that make even sadness seem part of a movie bookmarked by a happy ending.
