Description
“It’s hard to explain if you’ve never lived here,” sings Andy Shauf on the epic elegy “Wendell Walker,” the centerpiece of his stunning album The Bearer of Bad News. Shauf makes it seem easy to coax forth beauty from the dimmest of corners, forming gorgeous songs by conjuring vivid particulars of place and character through dark wordcraft, a gooseflesh-inducing tenor and wide-open instrumentation. You feel him summoning energy from the loamy soil of his Saskatchewan homeland. You sense the hardscrabble shapes of Prairie landscapes and lives in his warm guitar tone, wind-swept piano, and lilting clarinet.
Comments