So, where were you five years ago?
Many of us would rather put the events of 2020 behind us. Yes in fact most of that time was challenging to say the least, and downright tragic at its worst. It was also a time of incredible introspection and reflection. During the depths of the pandemic, many creatives like myself found ourselves in a strange place where we were inspired to create from the quiet places: the longing, the reminiscing, the loneliness, and all the myriad of other feelings that came from the lockdown. My outlet was a largely forgotten and unnoticed 5 song collection called The North Fork EP.
Released on May 19, 2020, this was my first foray back into releasing music. A simple and stripped down acoustic guitar sound reminiscent of Elliott Smith meets Belle and Sebastian, The North Fork EP was raw and vulnerable, a return back to my roots as a solo acoustic singer songwriter playing open mics which were far more commonplace in the early 2000’s. In many ways, the album was a throwback to those times, of the anxious and nervous urgency of writing a song during the day and performing it later that night. I did in fact follow a similar creative process during the making of The North Fork EP as I wrote all of the songs one day, recorded demos the next, made final tweaks to the vocal melodies and lyrics on the third, then recorded the final takes on days four and five. I hadn’t felt that kind of creative urgency in years, and despite the lockdown and the turmoil that the world was facing during those days, I actually felt invigorated and inspired.
The recording of the album was deceptively simple, and despite it’s sparse instrumentation, had it’s fair share of challenges. I wanted to create an atmosphere of being outside: of rambling down the highway to where the pavement ends and to see the dirt being kicked up behind your truck as you and a long time friend wind your way up a dirt road into the mountains; the crackle of a campfire, telling funny stories over a tin cup filled with whiskey; the liberating feeling of swimming in cool mountain streams; the sobering reality of real life and mortality juxtaposed against the euphoria of the beauty of nature surrounding you. It wasn’t entirely easy to create the emotional backdrop for the songs simply by the sonics of an acoustic guitar recorded in a small bedroom studio. But it was during those isolated weeks that brought it out from me. The longing for friendly faces and warm embraces found their way into every strum and lyric of The North Fork EP. As we celebrate the 5th year anniversary of this personal landmark, we take stock of what has happened in those years since. The people we’ve lost and the ones that are still around, the remnant, and how life and all of it’s peaks and valleys, bitter and sweet moments, seem all the more fragile and precious as they have ever been.
Listen to The North Fork EP on your preferred streaming platform.
Track Listing:
Bear Creek Road
The River Runs Dry
Maggie’s Shakedown
Redwood Crossing
The North Fork