Ryan Driver - "It's Tulip Season".
Ryan Driver cannot quite sing like Chet Baker, but he can listen to Chet Baker. He can study 16mm film and practice Chet Baker's walk, learn the way he shook hands, the way he shrugged on a coat. He can listen to wrong notes the way Chet Baker listened to wrong notes, nodding, feeling them go right. I have not been able to google the colour of Chet Baker's eyes, but let us imagine that they were blue. Blue eyes are a state of mind. Blue eyes is a nickname for the thing Driver is doing with his piano, here. "Play it blue-eyes," he tells Martin Arnold, on guitar. None of them have ever seen a man with blue eyes. They do not smoke. They are lovesick and it is springtime.
[Who's Breathing?, a stunning and excellent album, is out soon. Buy it, buy it, buy it.]
It is not easy, to sing a song for a departed loved one. The stakes are high. The song must stand for the whole of your heart. If it says too little, it is a lie - but it is also a lie which corrupts, which can slowly become true. A song is not a reflection of one's true feelings; it is an illustration. We gather these illustrations about us, take them with on anniversaries. As time goes by, the illustrations are the most certain things we have.
Daniel Romano's "Louise" is beautiful and slow, a remembrance on high cliffs.
[buy Sleep Beneath the Willow]
(photo is Tree #14 by Myoung Ho Lee/ source)
Posted by Sean at April 28, 2011 11:08 AM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
