Dead Reckoning

1 My River
2 Transit of Venus
3 Quiet Rider
4 Ghost Moon
5 Soul-maker
6 The Torch
7 Cautionary Tale
8 The Hawk
9 Son of a Gun
10 Received Wisdom
11 Firefly

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Description

DESCRIPTION

When my friend Mike was dying in December of 2019, I came across an Amy Hempel poem about the failure of language when faced with things like death —

At the end, I wanted to comfort him.
But what I said was, Sing to it. The
Arab proverb: When danger
approaches, sing to it.

Mike was not the first loss, nor was he to be the last, in the past few years of my life. My parents went, naturally; but it was the consecutive losses of my friends — bandmates, soulmates, mentors — that stung and bewildered; each one barely fifty years old when cruel variations on cancer made their way through my friends’ bodies, turning off all the lights.

In some cases, I was fortunate enough to be with them through this process, allowed to love and care for them at this most intimate juncture. In every case, I was tempted by the idea that I could make it better for them. That I could give them something to take with them, and they could leave something behind for me to hold, something slight but durable to set me in my life. In the end, all I felt I did was walk them to the threshold and watch them disappear.

I know life by definition is contoured by the loss of it. This time feels particularly burdened with loss, real and impending; maybe every time has felt that way. I’m left with love as the only defense — loving people and letting them know they were loved by you.

Singing is my way of loving, loving even danger. Here I sing to my friends, my parents; their ghosts; and to you. I hope you can hear it. 

CREDITS

Released January 15, 2023

Produced and Arranged by Scotty Hard
Recorded and mixed at Duro of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
Assisted by Nathan Diesendruck and Tybalt Mooney, except “My River”, “Cautionary Tale” and “Firefly” recorded at Brooklyn Recording by Richard Salino, assisted by Andy Taub, and ”Ghost Moon” recorded by Hugh Christopher Brown at The Post Office, Wolfe Island, Ontario.

Stéphane San Juan—drums and percussion
Connor Schultze—electric and upright bass
Mark Spencer—guitar, pedal steel guitar, piano, Wurlitzer, organ, Mellotron
Tony Scherr—bass on 1, 7; acoustic guitar on 7; electric guitar on 4, 7, 9
Jason Moran—piano on 1
Scott Harding—electric guitar on 3, 5, 8, 9, Mellotron 2, 9, Moog on 5, string arrangement 1, 10

Chris Brown—organ on 5, strings, wurlitzer and additional production on 4
Lucien Clough—intro and outro piano on 10, guitar on 4
Agustin Uriburu—cello on 1, 7, 10; acoustic guitar on 2
Tomoko Omura—violin, viola on 1
Kate—singing, acoustic guitar on 3, 6, 8