Written by Nat Bourgon
Autumn 2017
During my university days, I met a friend
who shared a very similar way at looking at the world as me. We both spoke the
same soul language. We generated positive vibes through our determination to take
the basic and unpronounced happenings we experienced, and look relentlessly for
the pizzazz, exquisiteness and loudness in these unassuming, seemingly quiet
occurrences. It was about taking any occupancy of time, in and out of our day
planners, even the minutes that could be perceived as just filler-like moments
of transition, and viewing them as occasions of opportunity, memorable events
worth indulging in fully and learning from. We viewed outings such as hour-long
coffee hangouts just to yap about our days, and walks across campus from one
class to the next as life adventures.
From my ongoing journey with this friend, I
have learned that the subtle moments in our lives have a lot to say, if we
carve out space to truly listen attentively to their faint but enlightened
soundtrack. Now, seven years on from graduating university, adulthood’s
responsibilities have tried to encroach upon these beliefs about seeking beauty
and magnificence in the everyday. But luckily for me, immersing myself in the
realm of creativity has helped keep the burden and encumbrance of life’s more
taxing demands at bay, or at least in equilibrium with freedom, awakening and
exploration. On the days when I am feeling flat, when the voices of an imaginative
lifestyle are barely audible, I am lucky to have the songs of Cynthia Nelson to
turn to, for a pint or two of passion, refills on the house.
Cynthia Nelson is
my favourite lyricist and poet because she takes words that nobody would think
of putting together and places them in the same room, informing them something
to the effect of “you might be gems on your own, but together you can be more”.
Invigorated by Nelson’s spunky charm and her encouraging push, the words then
pool their formidable individual talents together to become harmonious
housemates in a communal living scenario that all parties would deem not only
functional, but life enriching. It’s Nelson that makes this word bonding
happen.
Nelson’s gift is helping words be their
best through collaboration with other words. Nelson instructs words that it is
through joining forces with other words, especially the words not on each
other’s radar, which allows them to offer the supplest quality of feeling
possible. Nelson’s choices of word combinations are curious and unexpected. And
she has a way of patiently revealing pieces of her message, before her
overarching principle lands strikingly, with the transparency of a gut feeling
just dawning on you. Her lyrical concerns often start off seeming quite
self-reliant and distinct from one another, before the connection between them
gradually becomes more and more apparent. Her songs’ thesis statements are
first teased, and then strike like a surprise appearance by an adamant gust of
wind that snaps you out of your plans, and into a state of attentive absorption
with nature’s assertiveness. The realizations in the climax of Nelson’s songs hit
you like hunger, and leave you ruminating on what else you have to learn from
her.
“I was taken to the ocean
Several times a week
Walked right into the ocean
Every week
Flew right over the ocean
Over the sea
I knew my heart was an ocean
How could this be?
For weeks you drew a question mark
And I answered with a question
For years I was a question mark
And I answered with an answer
How could this be?
Alas
Alas
Alas
For weeks we went to the sea
And I had shovels and sand
Shovels and sand
And a little boy holding my hand
How could this be?
Alas
Developed the pictures so many months after
Believe in a name so much, it’s disaster,
disaster, disaster
She knows what I’m after
She knows what I’m after
She knows what I’m after
She knows what I’m after”
(Cynthia Nelson- Ocean Question) (The
Sophie Drinker Record- 2004).
It is not just her lyrics that allows for
Cynthia Nelson’s music to stand out. Her guitar playing is keen, agile and
heated, even during the most instrumentally minimal segments. Her voice is
filled with longing and intensity, utilizing a delivery that flip-flops between
playful and profound.
One of Cynthia’s contributions to 1998
Retsin album “Sweet Luck of Amaryllis” entitled “We Are the Rings” showcases her songwriting craft. She
particularly thrives at these conversational, heartfelt musical and lyrical
sketches of the human heart and its intricacies. “Rings” is one of my favourite
love songs of all time, and is a great starting point for Nelson newbies. 2001 poetry book “The Kentucky Rules” changed
my life. She makes words come to life in such an animated way that stretches
the limits of what words can and should do. Her 2006 solo album “Homemade Map”
helped me get through a devastating breakup in the autumn of 2012, with its
ability to honestly greet a romantic relationship’s shine and its shortcomings with acceptance and appreciation, instead of with denial and resistance.
Cynthia Nelson translates a crinkled
emotion to a chance. She finds a new era of satisfaction in an erosion of
supposed wrong turns. Nelson’s music is
a light bulb changer for our minds, helping us find optimism in our outliers,
and courage in our conditions. Cynthia Nelson’s songs provide close-up,
unimpeded “selfies” on life’s smaller-scale moments, zooming in on their
textures, arrangements and complexion, revealing to us that these moments are
worth making close friends with, instead of merely acquaintances, worth getting
to know intimately instead of half-heartedly.
Five years ago, I wrote a review of
“Homemade Map” and emailed it to Cynthia Nelson. Cynthia and I have been
trading emails ever since, me repeatedly inquiring with her about progress on a
new album, her graciously sharing tidbits and progress notes over the years.
On October 11th, 2017, Cynthia
Nelson releases her new album “Out of the Cave.” Teaming up with new
bandmates, the release will don the moniker "Cynthia Nelson Band.” The title
seems fitting, as it marks her first full-length album in seven years,
since 2010’s “In a Lab.”
The
concept of “blue” as a metaphor or motif for love is a thread that has run
through Nelson’s work since her career beginnings in the 90’s. Cynthia Nelson’s storytelling has indeed been
tinged in blue since her music’s inception. From 1994 track “Pink River” (“I
can’t feel blue in my blue room”) through 1998 standout “The Story of One
Party” (“my blue eyes were there”) to the 2001 tune “Tangerine Moon” with its
implied mention of blue through “catching fish” (whom live in water, which is
blue), along to 2004’s “Ocean Question”
(detailing love’s complications) and “Drink the River” (love undone, wishing
that washing herself clean of love would be as easy as gulping water), onto 2006’s
“Blue Receiver” (about passing the love torch and moving onto a new partner,
love’s receiver), all the way to newer EP song “Sand Dollars/Paper Dollars”
mentioning being “broken by dreams and seaweed streams”, Nelson has long been
reporting on love’s specifications and impact.
I
haven’t heard her new album yet, but I know it will be a game-changer as the
cover art has the colour blue all over it, in both font and illustration. Life
is good! A new Cynthia Nelson album awaits, and with it comes another
opportunity to reflect on her deep meditations on love, to gasp at new layers
in her wordsmith proficiency, to immerse ourselves in her singular voice of
strength and clarity, and to groove to her propulsive, pliable guitar lines.
“Out of the Cave”, Cynthia Nelson’s new
album, confidently comes out of the cave and into our speakers on October 11th,
via her Non Stop Co-Op label. It is available via bandcamp at https://cynthianelson.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-the-cave-2
