Artist:Canyon City Hometown: Fort Collins, Colorado Song: “Telescope” Album:Dear Earth, Love, Moon Release Date: October 21, 2022
In Their Words: “‘Telescope’ is the final song and the ending statement on the Dear Earth, Love, Moon album, which is intended to reframe the story and turn the metaphorical lens back on our own life and home. The concept of the album — songs written to the Earth from the perspective of a personified Moon — plays with lots of imagery and metaphor relating to space; not just the place but also in terms of distance. That was part of what made this project such a catharsis for me, the idea that I could mentally step back and try to look at what it is to experience this life from the viewpoint of a distant place. ‘Telescope,’ however, is meant to wrap up the story by making things more personal.
“The idea is that in the same way we spend all this time and energy looking out — at other people, other places, at space, both metaphorically and literally — imagine looking at Earth, at our own lives and homes through the same distant external perspective; at all that makes us what we are, and life what it is, but that can’t possibly be seen from the telescope. It’s a counterpoint and resolution to the rest of the album that comes before it. The feeling that you could look at this place and this life, and analyze it from a distance, but never understand all that it is unless you’re here personally experiencing it. It’s basically a musical Overview Effect — that feeling people describe when they’re out in the distance of space and finally realize that the most precious and beautiful stuff is right here up close, and how important it is to honor and protect all that we share here on Earth.” — Paul Johnson, Canyon City
Artist:Canyon City Hometown: Ft. Collins, Colorado Song: “So Are We” (Live Acoustic) Album:Matinée Release Date: January 7, 2022 Label: Nettwerk
In Their Words: “The imagery of ‘So Are We’ toggles between hyper zoomed out and hyper zoomed in — trying to tie together the ungraspable ‘big’ with the infinitely small and how the details of everything between work together like the gears of a clock. The chorus idea is, if all of these things could possibly be so intricately placed with the others in mind, working together in all the details, maybe the same could be true of our relationship: ‘It all, maybe, was meant to be, and so are we.'” — Paul Johnson, Canyon City
Christmas is upon us, and we’ve been loving the roots-centric holiday music we’ve been able to share with our December BGS Wraps series thus far! This week we bring you some holly (yet not always jolly) holiday tunes to keep you warm through this weird season – on brand for 2020! – along with some new bluegrass and roots music to be enjoyed year-round. Remember to check back in every Monday for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour!
This week on BGS we’ve got plenty of wraps. Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, one of the youngest blues players on the scene today, is here to start us off with a new Christmas-inspired blues number.
Australia-born and Colorado-based guitarist Mark Harris is one of few who have been able to redefine the six-string, flat-top guitar in roots music. His new album, Old Time Guitar, is a reconfiguration of old-time classics for solo guitar. This week, Harris brings us “Lost Girl.”
From her new Christmas Anyway EP, Heather Maloney brings us the message that what makes the holidays meaningful isn’t dependent on circumstance. Rather, our holidays are made much more special by our own choices, our gestures of kindness, and how we deal with said uncontrollable life circumstances.
December 2020 Artist of the Month Sister Sadie brings us another song this week from their 2018 release, Sister Sadie II. The all female, hard-driving bluegrass band racked up an impressive sampling of IBMA awards this year. We’re covering them all month long, so stay tuned! (You can read our #AOTM interview here!)
From their new album Principium, “Fall: War” is the most intense of The Arcadian Wild’s 4-song movement. Like it did for so many artists, 2020 provided the Nashville band with an opportunity to dust off some old songs. This week, they bring us the result.
There’s no doubt Christmas this year is going to be a difficult one for so many. Anthony D’Amato provides “a good cry” for us all this year, recognizing that we may not be able to see our loved ones this December – or any, for that matter.
Joey Burns of Calexico brings us an Arizona-inspired holiday theme this year, meditating on Dia de Los Muertos, the All Souls Procession, or perhaps even lovers or family members.
We all know some folks with an undying love for Christmas music – Noah Wall, of the Barefoot Movement, is one of them. Citing a 700-song playlist which she narrowed down to a mere 14, Wall and the rest of the band bring us their original contribution to the holiday repertoire.
In 2006, Bruce Molsky redefined a collection of old-time classics on his magnum opus, Soon Be Time. Still as important today as it was at the time of release, the autumnal track “Cider” is a favorite of BGS, and a recent feature on Tunesday Tuesday.
Christmas, and the rest of the holiday season, is a time when many of us, whether purposefully or not, get in touch with our inner child. Through the season’s peace, comfort, and familiarity, the Hello Darlins bring their new Heart in the Snow EP to BGS.
New York’s Coco Reilly is one of our most recent 5+5 guests – that is, 5 songs, 5 questions. She chatted with BGS about the inspirations, songwriting, and the influences behind her new self-titled album.
The shopping sprees, mega light-displays, and commercialism haven’t been as important to many of us this holiday season. Instead, we’re clinging to those things we miss a little extra: family, peace, and the kindness of humanity. In this spirit, von Kampen brings us “A Midwest Christmas.”
Another recent 5+5 guest, Colorado-based Canyon City recently spoke with BGS about cherished memories from the stage, rituals, and a dream meal with a dream musician. This week, he brings us “Purple Horizon.”
To close out this holiday packed Radio Hour, Chandler Holt and Lauren Stovall bring us this instant holiday country classic. The fact that it was left off of the Chatham County Line album it was originally recorded for gave Holt and Stovall the opportunity to sing a wonderful duet, and gift it to us this holiday season.
Photo credit: (L to R) Andrea von Kampen by Letura Idigma; Christone “Kingfish” Ingram by Rory Doyle; The Arcadian Wild by Shelby M’lynn Mick.
Artist:Canyon City Hometown: Fort Collins, Colorado Latest album:Circling the Sun EP Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Nimrod (my first high school band name)
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
One of my favorite memories is from a couple years ago when I was playing an acoustic show at small venue in Camden Town of London called Green Note. I was still pretty new to the UK and even though it was a relatively small room, the show was one of my first that had sold out well in advance. It ended up being such a special night, one of those evenings where you can just feel that everyone is riding the same emotional wave and you have this feeling of connectivity that’s hard to describe. I remember sitting in the front lobby, kind of hidden away while people were walking in, and making an effort to remember as much about that moment as I could — what the walls looked like, what the chatter and noises of people walking in sounded like, the lighting, how it all felt. I’m so glad I did, because now I go back to that mental image often and smile.
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
I’ve found that there’s an environment that really works for my creative process, and though I don’t always adhere to the same motions, it’s a set of tools that really help me get in the right headspace while writing. I start the day with some coffee, then before I do anything else, I try to go outside for a brief walk to start the creative day. After that, I set up the studio for whatever I’m working on that day, maybe light a candle, if it’s nice outside I open the window and go to work. At least once a day I also try to take a break to meditate, which is a huge part of my creative and emotional wellness. At the risk of showing my nerdiness, I also keep an air quality monitor going in the studio to make sure the inside CO2 levels aren’t getting too high and do what I can to keep a solid flow of fresh air. It’s all about creating an environment that makes it easier for the soft-spoken parts of the mind to get their say in.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Again, I’m really sounding the nerd alert here, but I actually do have a mission statement written out that I revisit and revise frequently. I’m not going to share it in its entirety, as it’s born of some personal places of the heart, but the essence is for my work to be a conduit for connection. Whether that’s personally connecting to the moment I’m in, or offering something that listeners can connect over or with wherever they are, or facilitating spaces like the concert I described earlier where people from all walks of life find themselves having the same emotional experience together. I think there’s a great healing to connection and I try to make the most of that opportunity wherever it can be fostered.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
Since my wife and I moved to Colorado this year, we’ve truly been in our happy place. Going out into nature isn’t just something I enjoy, I consider it to be a crucial part of my creative process. Whether it’s hiking, camping, cycling around town, snowboarding or just doing my daily walks throughout the neighborhood, going into places overtaken by life does so much to clear my mind, restore my soul and inspire me to explore new perspective. As a result my songs have lots of references to the natural world, especially as I see and appreciate more of life’s mechanisms that connect us all in this shared environment.
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
Oh man, if I could meet up with the late Tom Petty for some burritos and margaritas I would be in heaven. I don’t know if that meal and musician go together in any logical way, but listening to Wildflowers and digging into some delicious Baja Burrito — a favorite of mine from my old stomping grounds in Nashville — are two of the best feelings I can summon. Otherwise I’m a sucker for folk music early in the mornings, especially when I’m trying to pull that perfect shot of espresso.
Artist:Canyon City Hometown: Nashville, TN Song: “Find You” Album:Constellation Release Date: October 6, 2017
In Their Words: “The ‘Find You’ video, created by my good friends Thomas and Julia Gentry of Electric Peak Creative, is a really candid behind-the-scenes window to the Canyon City shows in 2017, along with the quirky-cool partners in crime that made them possible. The song is all about re-discovery and getting back to your roots, so we felt that documenting the human connection within these unique experiences and relationships would be an authentic way of showcasing a piece of how that journey looks in our own community.
For me, it was particularly special because it documented a coming-of-age season where I was beginning to see the online success of the first record turn into live-show audiences just before releasing the second record, Constellation. It was a series of really intimate and special interactions with the people that have been giving the music its early sea legs, and I’m so grateful to have had some of my best friends alongside to capture it.” — Paul Johnson, Canyon City
Photo credit: Jordan Merrigan
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