"dreaming with eyes wide open..."
The wonderfully produced "American Band" by Winnipeg / Manitoba Canada based Slow Leaves has such a wonderful sweep full of panoramic charm and bits of musical nostalgia glittering like stars in the background. The creation (from top to bottom) by Grant Davidson who embraces every aspect of his art as singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, cover art designer, photographer and videographer fully realizes his visions and because his universe building is his own you get the feeling that his art is not beholden to anyone and anything.
"American Band" runs in nostalgic circles. It is exquisitely free of contemporary indie tropes of the day. There is not one hint of auto-tune (even for artistic effect) or a megaphone-esque vocal sound. There is no hint of yacht or psych rock, no unexcused nods to Tame Impala or Vampire Weekend. There are however nods, purposeful or not, to sounds that might of first been heard on vinyl. I get a sense of 60's, 70's broad pop / indie rock with a country western wink like an amalgam of artists like Chris Issak, Roy Orbison, The Mavericks, T-Bone Burnett, to name a few.
This track is from Slow Leaves latest album "Meantime" which, as press notes reveal, "is about waiting for something momentous to occur in life, and how all the mundane stuff that happens during the wait actually constitutes what is meaningful. If you blink, you miss it; if you think too much, you miss it. If you’re lucky, in the meantime, there’s love and there’s death and not much less."
Davidson expounds:
“I see this album as a love letter, a collection of messes that fit neatly within a regular life if there is such a thing. In that sense, I guess these songs serve as a reminder for myself, since I’m forgetful, that all moments are equal in that they pass through us once only in long stretches of boredom or by bursts of love and death. In the meantime, I only hope not to let any more go by unnoticed.”
I love the timelessness of "American Band", the all inclusive garden rock sound. The desire to not shock but to just rock and in this way I also thought of artists like Tom Petty and Dwight Yoakam.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.facebook.com/slowleaves
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1CNY3GA9jHEuZeQEOHx0r8
https://www.instagram.com/slowleaves/
https://twitter.com/SlowLeaves
Slow Leaves is the self-contained solo project of Grant Davidson. He curates almost every aspect of the music and its presentation, including being multi-instrumentalist, producer, cover art designer, photographer, and videographer. He views the totality of these aspects as essential parts of a larger project of self-understanding. His folk and psych-rock stylings recall older songwriters like Mickey Newbury and Nick Drake as well as more modern artists like Andy Shauf and Bill Callahan. His voice has been compared to Roy Orbison and Bryan Ferry. His newest album, Meantime, is out June 30th on Birthday Cake Records.
Slow Leaves, singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, indie pop, alt pop, folk, folk indie, panoramic pop, full length album "Meantime", Winnipeg / Manitoba Canada, solo project of Grant Davidson,
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