Luke Winslow-King Album Review
Luke Winslow-King’s debut album marries people’s music with elements of poetry and classical composition through his songs for strings, guitar and voice. The bold, yet graceful tone of his steel-bodied National Reso-Phonic guitar coupled with the traditional voicing of a string quartet is both rustic and elegant. The foundation of the album lies in the balance of fingerstyle guitar with violin, viola and cello, though supplementary instrumentation of bass, piano, Hammond organ and whistling are simple, elegant complements to these compositions.
King’s unique vocals find strength in the delicacy of his rich vibrato and accessible style that perfectly relates the words of his long-time writing partner and playwright Ji Un Choi. The opening track, “Fall Down the Boulder” is a romanticized lament of the impossibilities of love. “If I could walk walls/ and lift the waters/ I’d be the one for you.” This sets an air of nostalgia and exodus, themes revisited throughout the album. An exceptionally stirring piece, “Flood Waltz,” was written long before Hurricane Katrina, but gained an eerie significance after the tragedy.
keep an axe in the attic
hold your worries at bay
have Bertie tie a boat to the roof
I’ll be chasing this letter from an upriver town
rushing to hold you o’er watery ground
themes of nostalgia and exodus are revisited throughout the album
In addition to the Winslow-King/Un Choi lyrical collaborations, new life is found in the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, Spring and Fall (to a young child) set to music. Pigeon, a song depicting one bird’s determination to reach the moon is a humorous departure from the sobering melancholia of many of the other songs. Cosmo Segurson, dear friend of Winslow-King’s and Emmy nominated animator, filmmaker and free-lancer for Cartoon Network is credited for the words and music of that song.
A member of the Michigan-based Earthwork Music Collective, Winslow-King called on the services of many talented friends. Notable among them, Breathe Owl Breathe cellist Andrea Moreno-Beals, Steppin’ In It bassist Dominic Suchyta, award-winning vocalist ‘Daisy’ May Erlewine, best known for her duo with Seth Bernard, and organist Mike Lynch who has performed most recently with the Larry McCray Blues Band.
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