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"sticky notes / by the basement stairs /tell him not to go down there / cause if he falls / one more time / he could vanish / she drives them down / in drywall with / a slender old dark nail / doubtless picked up / some years back / a steal at a yard sale..."
The tear soaked sadness and true love of "To Keep Him Here" by Columbus, Ohio based ornamental Americana band Hello Emerson, will undoubtedly hit you hard if you have a ears and a heart and will undoubtedly hit you even harder, just like a sucker punch you in the gut, if you live long enough to have tragedy befall a loved one who you subsequently give your time to help, take care of, heal back to a semblance of normalcy because it is what you should do and because that is what love is all about.
"To Keep Him Here" is the title track of Hello Emerson's autobiographical album released via Anyway Records "telling the story of a serious and sudden accident suffered by primary singer-songwriter Sam Emerson Bodary’s father. The record is interspersed with audio from an interview conducted with NPR’s StoryCorps about the incident and its aftermath".
The folk driven, late 70's garden rock /Americana aesthetic works exquisitely well telling such delicate, intimate, personal stories because the genre just seems closer to the earth, the soil that all sorts of life springs from and all life is dependent on. I certainly cannot see such a story full of razor sharp edges and existential connections between father and son and between son and others he loves told within a post punk or art rock diorama and be as telling, be as downright emotional.
The song, with a potent lyrical arc and a special musical narrative that is punctuated with lovely, lovely musical orchestrations, searing touching lead guitar work and the moments of nothingness in between relatively sparse production is wonderfully moving. "To Keep Him Here" might plunge you into an other-world of thoughts (and late night discussions) and maybe like it did me, create chills across your skin. The song also had me on my knees searching for photos of those who gave me life and wishing they were still around.
HERE ARE SOME LOVELY LINER NOTES EXCERPTS (bracketed):
[Across the record, Bodary uses his measured yet honest lyrical voice to articulate and sort through the terror of the experience, and the strength which pulled him and his family through. Lead single “Tupperware For Glass” offered a thesis statement for the album, introducing the record’s themes of mortality and resilience. “Church,” arrived with a cinematic music video that serves as a touching yet bittersweet slice of life with lyrics about the inevitability of death and loss. And as a final preview, the band shared the album’s title track — a quiet rumination that unfurls into a cathartic swell, made more powerful for the small details (“sticky notes / by the basement stairs,” “white knuckles grip my shoulders like / a theme park safety bar”) that Bodary uses to paint a vivid picture of the fear and uncertainty of caring for his father after he was discharged from the hospital.]
[Tracked live in his godfather’s home, the band’s physical proximity lends an added layer of intimacy to the tracks, all while maintaining musical director/arranger Dan Seibert’s subtle yet sweeping arrangements. The result is the band’s strongest effort yet; a record of hope and fear that finds beauty in the kind of compassion which can only arise from disorder.]
[Rounded out with keyboardist Jack Doran, Hello Emerson has been crafting subtle, earnest, and expansive songs since its formation in 2015. Drawing on the midwestern songwriting tradition of acclaimed acts like Bright Eyes and The Mountain Goats, Bodary’s erudite yet homespun lyrics are bolstered by the group’s increasingly baroque arrangements. A collaborative act inspired by the local artistic community of their home base of Columbus, Ohio, their 2020 sophomore effort, How to Cook Everything featured contributions from 50 local musicians, creating an immersive and complex yet folky and accessible sound.]
[Tracked live in his godfather’s home, the band’s physical proximity lends an added layer of intimacy to the tracks, all while maintaining musical director/arranger Dan Seibert’s subtle yet sweeping arrangements. The result is the band’s strongest effort yet; a record of hope and fear that finds beauty in the kind of compassion which can only arise from disorder.]
[Rounded out with keyboardist Jack Doran, Hello Emerson has been crafting subtle, earnest, and expansive songs since its formation in 2015. Drawing on the midwestern songwriting tradition of acclaimed acts like Bright Eyes and The Mountain Goats, Bodary’s erudite yet homespun lyrics are bolstered by the group’s increasingly baroque arrangements. A collaborative act inspired by the local artistic community of their home base of Columbus, Ohio, their 2020 sophomore effort, How to Cook Everything featured contributions from 50 local musicians, creating an immersive and complex yet folky and accessible sound.]
The longer we live we will see the death of loved ones and the birth of others who we will love deeply and through the course of however long we have on the funny planet we can choose to hold on to those loved ones and give our time to them, the most precious gift that we all have no matter what our station in life is.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/user-681544401
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3og5-VERmbsT8CMtChQyFw
https://www.instagram.com/helloemersongs/
https://www.facebook.com/helloemersongs
https://helloemerson.com/linktree
Hi! Our names are Sam, Jack, and Dan. Sam write songs for our band Hello Emerson. We are a midwestern indie-folk band based in Columbus, Ohio.
Songs are probably our favorite things in the whole world. We're happy we get to write and play them.
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