BD05 Coach Fingers One Jack Shy of a Cycle

There is a fine line between illumination and obscuration when one is attempting to interpret the meaning of a song cycle. Is the narrator singing from experience or is there an embodiment of characters, real or imagined, happening? When listening to the new record by Coach Fingers from beginning to end, a story is not necessarily being told in a straight narrative form, but perhaps taking a cue from a literary background, One Jack Shy of a Cycle can be perceived as a metafiction in song form. Who is the fool with the unsteady hands? What poor soul has found his demise at the barrel end of Jack’s rifle? Along what shoreline is the tortured couple from “Things Get Stranger” travelling? Why is a bullfrog singing about happiness and doubt? Who is having such trouble sleeping on Side 2, and why? Are there literally turkeys falling out of the trees as the dawn breaks to end the record? Recurring themes of failed relationships, misunderstandings, anxiety and passing are woven throughout this rock and roll record as easily as they would be in a collection of short stories. Like images flickering through a shadow play screen, Coach Fingers has drawn upon the talents of the community of musicians surrounding Black Dirt Studio, to project the visage of a band upon the collection of tales captured on these sides. And in the process has conjured the aural equivalent of metempsychosis, passing life stories through song into the grooves of vinyl.

 

Edition of 500
Recorded at Black Dirt Studio
Westtown, NY
Mastered by Carl Saff
Chicago, IL
140g vinyl pressed at Brooklyn Phono
Brooklyn. NY
Covers silk screened by VGKids
Ypsilanti, MI

   

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