Timothy Dick – On a Grassblade
Some quiet music needs to be played really, really loud. Nick Cave’s masterpiece The Boatman’s Call springs most obviously to mind, and I might include Leonard Cohen in that, as well as some Lamchop and Bonnie Prince Billy (fuck off with your quotation marks). You could have the stereo at full volume when listening to this, and still strain to hear some of the more hushed moments.
Timothy Dick almost brings time to a halt, pauses the breath in your lungs and silences all around you with nothing but the sheer careful quietness of his music. It’s the sort of stuff you could silence traffic with at Piccadilly Circus. When Howe Gelb drops his tin can blues approach, he slows down to this kind of careful, dusty storytelling, rich with character and emotionally laden with great droplets of imagery. You watch them grow and form until they are impossibly full and it seems like you hold your breath forever as they finally break away and drip downwards.
See, even I’m at it now. I’ll be kidding myself I’m a proper writer if I keep this up, but you know what I mean, hopefully. This kind of timeless songwriting and delivery seems to have lived in America since before time began, and simply seeped into the hearts of some of the settlers the second they set foot on the soil. You know the kind of music with so little ornamentation that you listen for every last flick of finger on guitar string, or strained syllable of verse?
Timothy Dick is not rock ‘n’ roll, and he is unlikely to become famous. I can’t even see you getting into this unless you really, really take your time and genuinely do nothing else while you listen to it apart from gaze wistfully out the window and absorb the music. But this man could make boiling eggs seem like an epic tale of heartbreak in the tragic story of some doomed life we’ll never know.
Timothy Dick – Lost Star
Big thanks to Shane from The Torture Garden for alerting me to this.
I second that.
Which?
Pretty much all; esp. the attention to detail listening requirement. I do like the song, too.
I’ll also add the quotation marks thing because it does stink a bit of portentous wanker.
Oh yes indeed it does. It’s pretty harmless but still it really aggravates me for some reason.
Song, “by” Toad
I’m gonna listen to this when i get home from work, your description of what he sounds like is very intriguing, anything that remotley resembles Howe Gelb i’m interested in.
Great write-up!! I’m totally in love with this album. It certainly is the sort of stuff that won’t stand for a casual listen — pretty bleak some moments, but then it goes all glorious on the 2nd half of the record.
Anyway, glad to see Timothy written about.
Timothy is a great friend and a collaborator. His music is just amazing..and yes your right its not for the casual listener…nothing great ever is.
Hooorayyy for Timothy!
Man, I must get hold of this album. Florence and Lost Star are both unbelievably good.
this album is unbelieveable. I wept near the end. i’m glad people are still making music this good.
I tell you what, I’m surprised and impressed this has gone down as well as it has. It’s not immediately accessible and I was a little afraid that people might skip over it. It’s nice to see this kind of stuff getting real appreciation.