Confessions of a Fanboy

Sometimes the most important listen is the second listen. I’ve touched on the theme numerous times, but it cannot be stressed enough. Some albums have to be heard a second, third, and even fourth time before it reveals its magic (I read Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows this weekend, so be prepared for an increase in the use of “magic” terminology).

I started listening to Shadows and Cracks last week, figuring some good blues would be an ideal companion as I waited for my laptop to be repaired. As is often the case, my mind wandered as I listened to the record and I didn’t take much away from the initial listen. I heard nothing in those songs to make me want to turn the album off, but was too distracted to hear anything in them to make me want to keep listening. What a difference a week can make.

Before I’d even heard a single note, I knew Karp was going to be different. I skimmed the press material that accompanied my advance and saw he’d been compared to Jackson Browne and John Prime. I glanced at Shadow’s liner notes and my eye was drawn to one passage that told me I was holding something different in my hands:

Let Sinatra sing away my blues;
let my existence be my own to choose.
Now lets raise a toast and hold me close
while the bottome falls out of everything
– “The Lament” – Peter Karp - Shadows and Cracks

The poetry of the blues is rarely literary in nature, but that’s how that stanza struck me. I kept reading the lyrics; the CD in one hand waiting to be heard, the liner notes being studied in the other. Karp namechecks Homer, Kipling, Dumas, and Dickens and sings to a girl he calls Ophelia in “I Understand.”

Some artists rely on instrumental and vocal prowess to communicate their emotions because they aren’t able to translate those feelings into words. My curiosity now piqued, I found myself wondering if these songs would sound as good as they read. I think I have my answer.

Filed under: Tags: Bloggin' the Blues, Peter Karp