new every morning

my cover of “re: stacks” by bon iver. from for emma, forever ago (2008). my absolute favorite bon iver song. this is a song of three years ago, this is the song for me. three years ago in the car all summer.

this is more or less in the same style as the cover of “holocene” which i did a couple months ago.

goodwordsgood, about gambling and stacks of poker chips, dead sea scrolls, unbearable carryings, heavies:

this my excavation and today is kumran
everything that happens from now on
this is pouring rain
this is paralyzed

i keep throwing it down two hundred at a time
it’s hard to find it when you knew it
when your money’s gone
and you’re drunk as hell

on your back with your racks as the stacks as your load
in the back and the racks and the stacks are your load
in the back with your racks and you’re unstacking your load

i’ve twisting to the sun i needed to replace
the fountain in the front yard is rusted out
all my love was down
in a frozen ground

there’s a black crow sitting across from me; his wiry legs are crossed
and he’s dangling my keys, he even fakes a toss
whatever could it be
that has brought me to this loss?

on your back with your racks as the stacks as your load
in the back and the racks and the stacks are your load
in the back with your racks and you’re unstacking your load

this is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization
it’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away
your love will be
safe with me

i’ll spare saying much about justin vernon’s now-famous secluded cabin experience. this is the song though that describes that whole thing for him. this is the song for his low. not entirely sure what his “stacks” were, something about disbandedness and unloveness i’ve read. and! the whole “for emma” bit, the album name, parallels the feelings behind this song. vernon has said,

“emma is not a person. emma is a place that you get stuck in. emma is a pain that you cannot erase.”

i love him as a lyricist. something about taking very broad topics, ones that apply to everyone and describing them along with the weirdest measure of personal detail so that you’re right there with him, under his stacks, and with your own.

one of my lately stacks: for about two months, my aunt whom i love so much has been struggling through stage four breast cancer which had spread to the bones in her back along with dangerous blood clots in her legs. she’s been doing chemotherapy, too. this morning i woke up to news that the doctors say she is responding incredibly well to the sessions. such a good way to wake up, such a good thing. an answered prayer for me, an answered prayer for so many good, close humans around me that have also been praying for her recovery.

my aunt and cousin.

featuring ukulele, a couple mildy detuned pianos and some electronic noise. and lots and lots of layered vocals. the effect i used on most of the instruments is sort of phonograph-emulator. gives it that wavy feel, that pitchy tastefulness. i mostly fell in love with that kind of sound in the couple weeks i spent on this song. kind of a journey of a song, really. more individual tracks than i’ve ever mixed. frustrating trying to get things to sound right, such a guitar-rhythm-driven song turned piano ballad.. we’ll see. it took a while to get it all right. and the phonograph effect works a lot better if you’re checking it through headphones. it was sort of just the right combination of having an open-slate of a night, along with good snowfall and my favorite great lakes brewing co. delightful beverage, finishing this damn thing.

this is for my aunt, on the day we received a good bit of happy news and continue praying for recovery.
this is also for emma.
not justin’s metaphor girl, but a good one of my own.

download?

“i have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. i can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

~philippians 4:12-13