"I wake up slowly word by word / A silent prayer, a wounded bird / A nurses wing across my breast / An albatross around my neck..."
Rolling like a railcar, the beautifully moving folk song, "Nothing Really Changes" by Slow Leaves, the moniker of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-based artful renaissance man Grant Davidson, lower around you, embraces your shoulders like the ghost of a past loved one comforting you. Davidson has a way of disarming you, of cracking cold cynicism with a rustic hammer constructed of poetry, of self penned journals full of stories on dog eared pages. He hold many weapons besides that poetry like his vulnerable vocal countenance that quivers like a kite's tale. I love this song and have listened to it often. I was planned on writing about it weeks ago but time had other plans (or maybe I am just a fuck up). But, let's just admit, that every damn time I listen to it intently, Davidson gets to me. The blend of somber guitar picking and ascending vocals pours ice cold water over me, literally gives me chills, thrusts me into the sadness of life, of my parents passing and my wife's parents passing too, of how fleeting life is.
"Nothing Really Changes" from Slow Leaves' album "Meantime" is a stunner and elevated by the Official Video that somehow feels as emotionally naked as the song itself. Davidson is a meticulous auteur about his work, he directed the video and is responsible for the set design, concept etc as well. I doubt that this is because he is a control freak (maybe a little bit) but, instead, has a deep respect for what he is creating.
I want to play / learn this song on my old Guild and will eventually. The song calls me to do so and I like that.
"They say nothing really changes time just rearranges all
I guess this life is just a game and I’m just realizing it now
I bet the current underwater won’t drag me any farther down
But just for show, reel me back in slowly, I’m hanging from a thread right now..."
I guess this life is just a game and I’m just realizing it now
I bet the current underwater won’t drag me any farther down
But just for show, reel me back in slowly, I’m hanging from a thread right now..."
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1CNY3GA9jHEuZeQEOHx0r8
https://www.instagram.com/slowleaves/
http://slowleaves.com/
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1CNY3GA9jHEuZeQEOHx0r8
https://www.instagram.com/slowleaves/
http://slowleaves.com/
https://slowleaves.bandcamp.com/track/nothing-really-changes
Slow Leaves’ latest album, Meantime, 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. Grant Davidson, the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-based artist behind Slow Leaves says: “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.”
Slow Leaves is a self-contained solo project with Davidson curating every aspect of the music and its presentation, including being the multi-instrumentalist, producer, cover art designer, photographer, and videographer. He views the totality of these various aspects as being essential parts of a larger project of self-understanding through artistic methods. His folk and psych-rock stylings recall older songwriters like Mickey Newbury, Nick Drake, Gene Clark, and Neil Young. But they also live in the world of modern classic writers like Andy Shauf, Bonny “Prince” Billy, Bedouine, Big Thief and Bill Callahan. His silky voice has been compared to Roy Orbison or Bryan Ferry.
The single, American Band, is a quaint and sweet toe-tapping track with a Tom Petty flair for roots-rock impressionism. Its taut, indie-rock groove lends the song a contemporary feel, but its chorus’s lush layers of airy vocals recalls prime 1960s folk-rock. The song speaks to the glittered mythology about being in a band on the road, and here Davidson’s words are scene-setting and heartfelt. He sings: I wanna see the ocean/Tell my baby I’m coming back home instead/I don’t feel good/I want my own sweet, own sweet, bed/I don’t feel so good no more/Roll the window down and turn it around. “At some point on every tour, I feel the weight of an existential pressure to justify why I’m not somewhere else doing something more reasonable,” Davidson says. “I know reality is always grittier than the dream, but like most things worth doing, the allure is in moments that break you just enough to feel saved.” The song’s accompanying video is directed by Davidson and stars him in a nature-themed, abstract filmic short rife with playful symbolism.
Slow Leaves’ latest album, Meantime, 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. Grant Davidson, the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-based artist behind Slow Leaves says: “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.”
Slow Leaves is a self-contained solo project with Davidson curating every aspect of the music and its presentation, including being the multi-instrumentalist, producer, cover art designer, photographer, and videographer. He views the totality of these various aspects as being essential parts of a larger project of self-understanding through artistic methods. His folk and psych-rock stylings recall older songwriters like Mickey Newbury, Nick Drake, Gene Clark, and Neil Young. But they also live in the world of modern classic writers like Andy Shauf, Bonny “Prince” Billy, Bedouine, Big Thief and Bill Callahan. His silky voice has been compared to Roy Orbison or Bryan Ferry.
The single, American Band, is a quaint and sweet toe-tapping track with a Tom Petty flair for roots-rock impressionism. Its taut, indie-rock groove lends the song a contemporary feel, but its chorus’s lush layers of airy vocals recalls prime 1960s folk-rock. The song speaks to the glittered mythology about being in a band on the road, and here Davidson’s words are scene-setting and heartfelt. He sings: I wanna see the ocean/Tell my baby I’m coming back home instead/I don’t feel good/I want my own sweet, own sweet, bed/I don’t feel so good no more/Roll the window down and turn it around. “At some point on every tour, I feel the weight of an existential pressure to justify why I’m not somewhere else doing something more reasonable,” Davidson says. “I know reality is always grittier than the dream, but like most things worth doing, the allure is in moments that break you just enough to feel saved.” The song’s accompanying video is directed by Davidson and stars him in a nature-themed, abstract filmic short rife with playful symbolism.
folk, folk indie, full length "Meantime", indie pop, multi-instrumentalist, singer songwriter, Slow Leaves, solo project of Grant Davidson, Winnipeg / Manitoba Canada, "Nothing Really Changes" Official Video,
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