Week 1 no.2 - Pierce Cailan 4/5

When you hit this myspace, the first thing you hear is a beautiful layered guitar sound, really thick, perfectly balanced. Just when you think you need to hear some words, 'dim...light...seeps....through....the...haze...'

'The Still Dawn Of Woodsglen' Gives an amazing first impression. When I asked if I could get a few words to post in this blog, he generously gave me this -

'My background is in classical music, and my approach for this album was really just to write some generally simple, accessible folk-pop songs– focusing on lush acoustic textures. I wanted to assimilate the instrumental aesthetic of guitarists like Preston Reed, Michael Hedges, and Kaki King with a very straightforward songwriting approach.

Passerine Myth, vol. 1 is a concept album. There is a clear narrative– a protagonist loses someone close to him and becomes over-invested in what he considers a path of retribution. Philosophically, the story is influenced by Ernest Becker– a writer who heavily contemplated mans inability to truly understand his own mortality, and inclinations to leave lasting impressions in the world beyond his own life. There is also an emphasis on nature and mysticism– a sort of mix between the fantasy-world of Tolkien and the drug-culture of Carlos Castaneda.

The songs are organized into Occitan Lyric Poetry forms– established by troubadours in the 14/15th century. The first song, "The Still Dawn of Woodsglen," for example, is an "alba," a song that depicts the sun rising in the morning, and traditionally focuses on a person leaving a lover in the morning. The interpretation of these forms is purely contextual– it serves merely as a historical reference and a means of focusing content matter in each song. Again, the ultimate goal of the album isn't to create any sort of complex web of styles or influences, but to tell a good story, through good songs.'

If you wanted to get an idea of the sound, I'd say a similar artist would be Rocky Votolato. If you don't know who that is then your just going to have to listen. I would spend a good half an hour of your life just listening to the myspace songs. They are all really well mixed, and the classical background while strongly evident, doesn't overpower what I would call a good acoustic/folk based set of songs. The lyrics are reasonably well written as well.

Here's the page -

www.myspace.com/piercecailan

You can purchase his album from CD Baby.