A friend gave me a copy of Varnaline's Songs in a Northern Key about a year ago, and I haven't stopped listening to it yet. Alt.country sensibility with all kinds of rock and roll energy. I chose "Indian Summer Takedown" pretty much at random, but every track is good.
Varnaline is Anders Parker and an assortment of other musicians. Here's a description of Songs in his own words:
The songs on the new record were born one stoney night on a frozen lake in the Northeast Kingdom (located in, surprise, the Northeastern corner of Vermont). As the lake creaked and groaned under it's own weight (an unsettling sound), I started to receive the staticky seeds of these songs. Now, I'm all for conversations concerning spiritual mumbo jumbo and chemical interactions, but that's a whole other discussion better suited for another time. I will however recommend reading Written in my Soul, a collection of interviews with songwriters, by Bill Flanagan, specifically, the interviews with Keith Richards and Pete Townshend.
I find myself more in Keef's camp of considering the songwriter to be a conduit, or receiver, for what seems to be floating around in the ether. Townsend contends that songs are born more of the person, experience and hard work. Of course, nothing is so cut and dried, but I think the best songs seem to just kind of appear. Not that there isn't work involved, but the interesting ones tend to just show up on your doorstep unannounced. It's your job to clean them up (or throw dirt on them) and send them out into the world. Or lock them in the basement. But, I digress... I managed to get back to shelter where I thawed out the lyrics to the song that became "Difference." That set the wobbly wheels in motion. The next day I dragged my old multi-track into an ice shack and continued recording what would eventually become Songs in a Northern Key.
Back to work. The article is coming along, but, um, writing is hard.
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