Behold the Broken World, by American Drone

Behold the Broken World

by American Drone

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1.	Golden 04:24	info	buy track
2.	She Brings the Sun 06:02	info	buy track
3.	Praying for a Hurricane 05:33	info	buy track
4.	When Summer Comes 04:12	info	buy track
5.	Porchlight 03:48	info	buy track
6.	Beach Park Road (We Belong to the Sea) 03:43	info	buy track

about

American Drone
Behold the Broken World

(Campfire Songs, Volume 1)

This EP is more of a diversion than a side project. It is a collection of songs played on a pair of Seagull M4s (aka Seagull Merlins), one tuned to D and the other to G.. These are diatonic , dulcimer-ish instruments, often referred to as "stick dulcimers" or "dulcitars."

My goal with project wasn't so much to make a polished record as it was to capture (I hope) inspired moments. When recording a studio album, it's really easy to get lost in making everything just right. Endless takes and overdubs can quickly take away the "without a net" feel of a song played live. The end result then is something clean and polished, but devoid of the vibe and emotion depth of a live performance.

A stick dulcimer is a pretty limited instrument, it doesn't ring out like a guitar, it's buzzy and the intonation isn't always so great, which means you just kind of have to play it with feeling and not worry so much about the rest. Which I mostly think is the way all music should be performed, and it's all I aimed for here. So much so, that if I wasn't getting the song after a couple of takes, I stopped and came back to it the next day, to regain the spark and recover that sense of spontaneity. There are few overdubs on some of the songs, but never more than two people could play live at once.

What's the point of all this? I guess just that I deeply relish the ephemeral quality of live music. I'm not inclined to stream live performances, and so instead I'm playing "live" to myself in my basement studio and then sharing it with all of you.

There are old and new songs in this collection. Four of the songs have never been released. The original version of Porchlight appears on two High Lonesome Plains records (2002's "Songs For Young Lovers" and 2006's "The River and the Sea"). Beach Park Road is from 2018's "The Year of the Horse" live song cycle (and the first full song I ever composed on an M4).

credits

released June 2, 2020

Written by Christopher J. Bousquet © 2020 BMI
(P) 2020 The Cedar Swamp Recording Company

Contact: American_Elm@yahoo.com
americanelm.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/americanelm

CSR2001 THE CEDAR SWAMP RECORDING CO.

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about

American Elm New Haven, Connecticut

American Elm, aka Chris Bousquet, is singer-songwriter from Connecticut. He is the former leader of the internationally acclaimed High Lonesome Plains. He has performed with such luminaries as Roger McGuinn (The Byrds), Mercury Rev, Miracle Legion, John Sebastian, Asleep at the Wheel, Rhett Miller, Mark Mulcahy, The Turtles, Nathaniel Rateliff, Dry the River, J. Geils, and Susan Cowsill. ... more

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