We have an FNJ first this week--Tyler Lyle is the only artist I've featured thus far who does not have a Wikipedia entry devoted to his career (which is kind of odd as I believe even my cranky neighbor across the street has a Wikipedia entry). The best I could come up with was Lyle's official site, and about all it said was that he's from Georgia, has released four albums, and had some shitty family vacations when he was a kid. Alrighty then...
Needless to say, if there's no Wikipedia bio, there's also no Wikipedia entry for his 2011 debut album, The Golden Age and the Silver Girl (though it's an interesting enough title), on which was released this week's tune, "California," so sadly there's no Billboard chart info--though his official web site says his debut was a "top five seller" and that it was listed as one of the ten best albums of 2012 on NPR's prestigious World Cafe.
"California" is a sparse gem--it features (near as I can tell) only an acoustic guitar and a mandolin (though it may be a banjo), with an emaycee fave, handclaps, providing the rhythm section. Ostensibly, it's a break up song, but Lyle's tune mixes its sorrow with a healthy dose of we're both to blame, and an even healthier dose of optimism: while break ups suck, they also leave open a lot of doors with fresh opportunities on their other side. And the greener grass here just happens to be California, where our protagonist is headed to start his new life. Lyle's vocals convey both the resignation of a love lost and the determination to make a fresh start in America's very own land of hope and dreams--let's face it, with the exception of New York (because of its ties to the arts), there is no state that inspires the heart and mind quite like California. And "California" is an enlivened ride on that hope train.
Lyric Sheet: "There ain't no gates around heaven/No gates round hell/Just the sunset in the distance, and the dark on its tail..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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