“I just want to be pretty and mute / and be blind to the world, but find love in what grew...”
On "Feather in the Wind", Louisville, Kentucky-based singer-songwriter Jack Keyes dares to walk a sonic tightrope. Sometimes folk music (especially classic) is adorned, is framed as a storyteller-extraordinaire or one who rides the rails and as the wise traveler tosses out quips about life like parables. Keyes' layered detuned acoustic guitar does display classic tones, wonderful ones in fact, as the melodies floating from his guitar feel like a quick waltz but the subtle percussion and sonic twists speak more to an Elliot Smith or Thom Yorke. Most of all, what makes "Feather in the Wind" captivating (and daring) is Keyes vocal performance that seems purposely free of any enhancements. His voice like the themes he presents feel absolutely naked as if he is intimately opening up to the listener who sits only inches away. The tenderness bathed in melancholia or, in the least, somber, sober reflections is both earnestly beautiful and heartbreaking like a final goodbye kiss.
The song is about the "desire to be an active participant in life, rather than one who goes wherever the wind blows" and as I listen, maybe it is about being present too and actively so. Maybe for some of us, the hardest thing to be.
Keyes shares: “I’m often the type of person who says ‘sorry’ for everything or is afraid to take up space. I wanted to write this song to reflect on how what I truly want is to feel grounded and secure, rather than floating away wherever the wind goes.”
"Feather in the Wind" is from Keyes' upcoming sophomore full length album, “Dissolving in Dusk”, which will be released in Spring 2022. It is just one of ten songs and I look forward to hearing the other nine.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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The human spirit strives for transcendence—anywhere we are, we want to be somewhere else. In the Coronavirus era, it often feels like there is no place else to go but where we stand. For those of us who long for something more, Louisville, Kentucky-based singer-songwriter Jack Keyes offers escapism in his sophomore full-length, “Dissolving in Dusk”, which will be released in Spring 2022. The album features 10 songs of intimate experimental folk.
“I found myself feeling more open to being vulnerable and experimenting both sonically and lyrically,” Keyes says. “It feels freeing to present something authentic because I know the album represents who I am at this point in time.”
Jack’s influences span anywhere from his experiences singing in his Catholic school choir in elementary school, to watching his older sister’s musical theater performances as a child. He’s strongly influenced by the soft-spoken, but melancholic stylings of Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, and Judee Sill.
Also highly influential to Keyes are his experiences as a seventh-grade English teacher in Louisville, and his previous experience teaching writing to high school students in Nashville.
Previously, Keyes released his debut album, “The Moon is Too High” in March of this year. Over the past year, Keyes has landed premieres in Northern Transmissions, Glide Magazine, and Happy Mag TV. His songs have been featured on Louisville’s WFPK radio station, Australia’s Double J, and prominent playlists such as Indie & Folk Radio.
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Jack Keyes, Indie Folk, Folk, Acoustic, singer songwriter, Nashville, Louisville Kentucky, teacher, artist, "Feather in the Wind", sophomore album, “Dissolving in Dusk”,
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