This band has really brought me full circle. Whiskey Daydream was so deliberate, like I was obsessed with presenting an Alt-Country / Country-Rock sound, and while I love that genre and think my writing often falls there naturally, it is very limiting. With So Much Closer I am back to being stoked to have great musicians that want to play with me, and whatever happens happens. As a result defining our genre is damn near impossible. On Thursday we played with an awesome band from Nashville called The Compromise. We were chatting with their bass player, Adam, after our set, and he could not categorize it, "I kept thinking, what genre is this...it's good, but what genre." We have the same struggle, and I think we are okay with that.
Every band ends up having a defining member. I think most assume it is the singer, but that is a rarity. I defined EKe version 1, we switched just about every player at one time or another, and we still sounded, about, the same. EKe v2, once Scott Allen joined the band, is a totally different story. If Scott had never left the band, I may be still in EKe, but once he left, to me, it could no longer be called EKe because his presence was the dominant force. The same could be said of Brian Ruby in Whiskey Daydream. Once he left the band, Woody and I continued to play as a duo, but it was no longer Whiskey Daydream, same songs but a different entity had been formed. What is unique about So Much Closer is our defining member is the collective. Our drummer Patrick Enright, our multi-instrumentalist Patrick Swan, our bassist Chris Logan, and I all have very defined voices, and when all are singing it harmony it creates So Much Closer.
What Patrick brings to the kit is the complete opposite of what Woody brought to Whiskey Daydream. In all the bands I have been in I have never played with a drummer that was so calculated. He is never content to play the same beat and is busier than a squirrel preparing for winter. In his absence it would no longer be So Much Closer. The songs can stand on their own, but we would have to change the name because they would not sound the same. The same could be said of Swan. I would have to find someone that could play guitar, keys, and trumpet, plus breakout some of the most amazing harmonies these ears have ever heard, not likely to happen. Logan, well Logan is a rock. He, like me, isn't a schooled musician, but in a bassist I want feel, and that is what he brings. Plus his personality is so hysterical that he makes every event fun.
For these reasons, my favorite track off of Felt Not Seen is "Felt Not Seen." It is the only track in this seven CD series that was co-written. Swan provided the guitar melody, I contributed lyrics and vocals, and the collective developed the structure and defined the dynamics. Enjoy!
Felt Not Seen by So Much Closer by SoMuchCloser
Lyrics:
Man made fingers
Stretch towards heaven
They fold in prayer
Laser lights of lives in transit
Live in Transit
A waterfall of reds and yellows
Christmas’ kissing Easter’s Peep
Forming Halloween’s smile
It jack-o-lantern smile
Just a bridge it was a simple bridgeAbove a birdless midnight sky
Taking me home momma taking me
Just a bridge it was a simple bridge
Taking me home
Da-da-dah-dow
Descends at eye sight’s edge
This moment a Trinity
Material, Motion, and Miracle
Material the Son
Born to provide passage
Carrier of souls
Receiver of prayers
Just a bridge it was a simple bridgeMotion the Great Ghost
Taking me home momma taking me
Just a bridge it was a simple bridge
Taking me home
Da-da-dah-dow
Trails of energy felt not seen
Omnipresent chill giver
Breath stealer
Miracle the Father
Provider of Physical Laws
Creator of motion
Creator of material
Just a bridge it was a simple bridge
Taking me home momma taking me
Just a bridge it was a simple bridge
Taking me home
Da-da-dah-dow
Inside Cover:
Back Cover:
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