Here’s a treat. Field Report has just shared the song “Wings” from their forthcoming album Marigolden, due out October 7.
The song delivers its melancholy message with the support of a locomotive rhythm poised for takeoff. The tension build is palpable and the song, showcasing Chris Porterfield’s fabulous vocal, urgently pushes forward.
Combining acoustic guitar with electronic pads, the instrumentation helps define their modern sound. I dig it.
Porterfield's complicated relationship with alcohol, sobriety, and reflection on his new life as a touring musician define the song. It's a starkly minimal track, stripped down to the bare essentials, so what stands out most are Porterfield's eloquent, literate lyrics: "love melts my wings and the / emptiness / of space / smells like paraffin and gasoline and / color coded cash and coins / the currency of dreams."
"The body remembers what the mind forgets," Chris Porterfield reminisces on his acclaimed band Field Report's sophomore record, Marigolden. The record is strewn with references to the inevitable tolls taken by the passage of time, and prolonged distance from home and loved ones.
The past couple of years have flashed by for Porterfield, who was thrust into the spotlight after years of musical reclusion. His Milwaukee-based band, Field Report (an anagram of his surname), was culled together in the studio while recording their 2012 self-titled debut. They suddenly found themselves championed by their former idols: offered support tours by Counting Crows and Aimee Mann, lauded by the likes of Mark Eitzel and Richard Thompson, and covered by Blind Boys Of Alabama.
The band honed itself from a septet to a quartet in the year that followed, focusing its sound and tightening the screws. With a heavy batch of songs under their arms, they retreated to snowy Ontario in December 2013 to record their sophomore album, Marigolden, with the help of producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist).
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Spending two years roaming around the country playing tiny venues and sold-out amphitheaters alike, Porterfield was uncertain whether he was leading the charge toward an artistic epiphany or headed down a misguided path of self-destruction. Marigolden reflects this, as he ruminates across homesick tension and an un-grounded anxiety. But rather than wallow in melancholy, Porterfield finds solace and inspiration through his songs, which reveal themselves as uplifting and celebratory. The album is brighter than their 2012 debut, but somehow remains just as elegantly ominous.
The album runs the musical gamut, from the Traveling Wilburys-esque pop of "Home," to the Neil Young-inspired piano ballad "Ambrosia," to the electronic sonic landscape of "Wings." While the compositions express a wide range in terms of genre, they find unity in themselves within the limits of self-imposed minimalism. In the studio, the songs were stripped down to the bones and built back up using only their essential elements.
Can’t wait to check out the rest of the album! Find out more at http://www.partisanrecords.com/artists/field-report/
Acoustic Nation is written by Laura B. Whitmore, a music industry marketing veteran, music journalist and editor, who has contributed to Parade.com, Guitar World, and others. She has interviewed hundreds of musicians and hosts the She Rocks Podcast. As the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, she advocates for women in the music industry and produces the annual She Rocks Awards. She is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, making the world safe for guitar exploration everywhere! A guitarist and singer/songwriter, Laura is currently co-writing an album of pop songs that empower and energize girls.
