Hello
Today, July 20th, is my birthday. I’ve reached an age where it feels silly to ask for anything, so instead I’d like to give you something. Here is my gift, a song and a video.
The song is called “Prayer of the Open Plain”. I wrote it years ago when a friend of mine told me that they were moving out of New York. I wanted in that moment to beg them to stay, but realized that if I really cared about them that I needed them to leave as badly as they did. I produced the song with Jack Greenleaf, with performances from Emmett Ceglia (drums), AJ Santillan (Guitar), Siddhu Anadalingham (Guitar), Frank ‘Friend of Music’ Meadows (Bass, DX7 Keyboard), and Anna McClellan (Backing Vocals) during 2020-2021. Jack mixed the song, and it was mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering Services.
The video was edited and manipulated by Parker Langvardt. I shot the footage while on a full USA tour with Bellows in August of 2022. Taken in combination, the song and video are my ode to the bruised, romantic notion of possibility in the American West, and the eerie combination of velocity and stasis that comes with driving through it. I have always had to share my birthday month with my country. From one Cancer to another, here’s to another year. May we both get better.
If you’d like, you can listen to “Prayer of the Open Plain” on my Bandcamp page. You can also purchase it, or download it for free. The choice is yours.
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