Brandon De La Cruz mystifies and mesmerizes on "Tiresias"

 

"... now the ends of my hands have a feminine touch"

On "Tiresias", Portland Oregon's divergent folk artist Brandon De La Cruz mystifies and mesmerizes and, no wonder, there is a beautiful sense of mythology and internal shape shifting within the lilt of his warm yet maybe broken vocal aesthetic and the narrative of his words: "two snakes drop while twisted in a curl, change me from a man into a girl. now the ends of my hands have a feminine touch, seven years with a feminine love". The fable is cyclical, like the beautiful sparkly guitar sounds, as Cruz sings about those magical snakes turning him back into a man but the "feminine touch" remains. The short declarations, reflections and emotional, societal psychedelia captures your imagination fully. In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Apollo and famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman (for seven years). Cruz has a way of pulling you into his own parables based on that mythology but heightened by his own personal visions.

In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years

On his latest album, "Visions of Ovid", informed by The Metamorphoses, an 8 AD Latin narrative poem by the Roman Poet Ovid, he dips into iconic stories and symbolism on "Pyramis & Thisbe" on "Salmacis", "Actaeon" and more. The songs, tales resonate with thematic tensions that are easily relatable to current times when those in power or who have social media tentacles wish to define the myriad of human nature in ways to confine and control. Maybe times never change.

"Visions of Ovid" was recorded in Portland, OR in 2019 at the artist’s home. Mixed by the artist with Thomas Lambert at his studio in Wellington, New Zealand and released just yesterday (March 19th, 2021)

-Robb Donker Curtius

Brandon De La Cruz · Tiresias

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Brandon De La Cruz is a folk artist whose lyricism is uniquely shaped by his interest in mythology, ceremony and RH Blyth’s translations of Japanese haiku. He grew up in the suburbs of Southern California's Inland Empire and has lived and performed regularly in Portland, OR and Berkeley, CA. In Spring of 2020 the artist was visiting friends in Auckland, New Zealand where he has since lived in lieu of travel difficulties amidst the global crisis.
He’s played shows and collaborated with Tom Brosseau, Vanessa Renwick, Shelley Short and Loch Lomond. His release Three Songs appeared on You Should Never Have Opened That Door’s “Best of 2014” list. In 2015 he performed at the Daytrotter Studio in Davenport, IA.

Brandon De La Cruz, Portland, Oregon, folk indie, divergent folk, artist, album "Visions of Ovid", Greek Mythology, RH Blyth’s translations of Japanese haiku, "Tiresias"