"Follow, follow / The water low / A child at its arm / I can’t help you sleep / To swallow me / Was it worth the harm? / To come back, come back alone / To come back, come back alone..."
The deeply knit tenderness and stone ground power of "Come Back, Come Back", by Buffalo NY based band Tough Old Bird, feels at once rustic and beautiful like an old stately iron gate that you have walked through for years, a gate that has seen you through the worst of times and the best of times. I am really feeling Nathan Corrigan's wistful electric guitar strains and brother Mathew's vocal countenance (as songwriter) maybe full of caged memories. Corrigan imbues the narrative with poetry vague enough to instantly make you curious but communal enough to feel relatable as well. There is comfort in the folk indie rock wash but it can ravage you too when the song gets big, purges with dissonance and grounded folk touchstones like a wailing harmonica.
In a previous Tough Old Bird review I wrote:
"a convergence of many things, campfire stories, sea shanties, 70's folk rock and the lineage of people that cut paths and saw things. I personally (off the top of my head) am feeling an amalgam of iconic artists like The Drones, Hüsker Dü and Neil Young"
...and that still makes sense, but for whatever reason, this time around, I also feel artistic / emotional leans that feel adjacent to a wide range of artists from Jackson Browne to Cracker to Dawes as well. Great song, filmic too in that it, in and of itself, it could, in my mind, certainly inspire a story that becomes a film.
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[BUFFALO, N.Y. — Western New York band Tough Old Bird has continued its summer release schedule with the new single, "Come Back, Come Back," as of Wednesday, August 26. It’s the fourth new track the band has released during a season that has seen a fresh Tough Old Bird song every three weeks.
Much like recent singles “Wednesday’s Child” and “Shape of Our Love,” the new song brings an electrified indie rock influence into Tough Old Bird’s established folk sound while maintaining the band’s strong sense of melody and lyrical depth. It’s part of a batch of new songs recorded over the past year at Sunwood Studios in Trumansburg, NY, helmed by engineer Chris Ploss.
With lyrics written by Matthew Corrigan, who sings the lead vocal on the track, “Come Back, Come Back” has already been a staple of Tough Old Bird’s live show for two years. In the studio, the band sought to capture the song as organically as possible, ultimately using a live in-studio take with only sparse overdubs.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
Follow, follow
The water low
A child at its arm
I can’t help you sleep
To swallow me
Was it worth the harm?
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
Now I return to my first birth
A silver shadow
I ate the root to taste its youth
Well, it was such a long way to go
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
Suddenly now
Just to know how
Was falling off a steeper climb
The lamb at rest
Her smooth even breath
Was it worth the time?
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
LYRICS
Follow, follow
The water low
A child at its arm
I can’t help you sleep
To swallow me
Was it worth the harm?
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
Now I return to my first birth
A silver shadow
I ate the root to taste its youth
Well, it was such a long way to go
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
Suddenly now
Just to know how
Was falling off a steeper climb
The lamb at rest
Her smooth even breath
Was it worth the time?
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
To come back, come back alone
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
https://tougholdbird.bandcamp.com/album/wednesdays-child
https://www.instagram.com/tougholdbirdmusic
https://www.facebook.com/tougholdbird/
http://www.tougholdbirdmusic.com/
Tough Old Bird was formed by songwriting brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan in a remote corner of rural Western New York. The brothers grew up surrounded by music, in a tiny house in the woods that was heated by woodstove and insulated with stacks of paperback books.
After releasing their first full-length album, 'Gambling Days' in 2016, Tough Old Bird spent years on the road as an acoustic duo, releasing multiple albums and EPs before expanding to its current four-piece lineup, with Brendan O’Shea on bass and Ricky Bechard on drums.
Currently based in Buffalo, NY, the scope of the band’s sound has widened to encompass modern folk music and indie rock, influenced as much by 90s alternative and 60s roots-rock as by traditional folk music and classic country.
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://tougholdbird.bandcamp.com/album/wednesdays-child
https://www.instagram.com/tougholdbirdmusic
https://www.facebook.com/tougholdbird/
http://www.tougholdbirdmusic.com/
Tough Old Bird was formed by songwriting brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan in a remote corner of rural Western New York. The brothers grew up surrounded by music, in a tiny house in the woods that was heated by woodstove and insulated with stacks of paperback books.
After releasing their first full-length album, 'Gambling Days' in 2016, Tough Old Bird spent years on the road as an acoustic duo, releasing multiple albums and EPs before expanding to its current four-piece lineup, with Brendan O’Shea on bass and Ricky Bechard on drums.
Currently based in Buffalo, NY, the scope of the band’s sound has widened to encompass modern folk music and indie rock, influenced as much by 90s alternative and 60s roots-rock as by traditional folk music and classic country.
Tough Old Bird, indie rock, folk, folk rock, historical folk, Buffalo NY, Brothers Matthew and Nathan Corrigan, singer songwriters, bassist Brendan O’Shea, Ricky Bechard (drums), Sunwood Studios, "Come Back, Come Back",
No comments:
Post a Comment