One simple note can fill you with happiness. Another, sadness. This one anger, that one sexiness. But when voice becomes instrument, it’s song that assumes control over the roller coaster which jerks passengers through the spectrum of human experience as interpreted by emotional sentience. Words rain down like bloodied daggers or promising rays of sunshine, all piercing our full existence – past, present, and future.
With one of the more compelling voices in music today, theatrical story-telling poet Sam Perduta holds the reigns of one of the best kept secrets this side of the American Revolution: the Connecticut-based garage-folk band Elison Jackson, and our feature in the second dose.
All the way back in 2009 or ’10, while curating music from the global independent music community for DHR’s internet radio platform, we came into contact with what quickly became understood to us as one of the most convincing bands in the greater United States. Perhaps we weren’t wrong… Some 3 LPs and an EP or so later, Elison Jackson was just named “Songwriter of The Year” at the 2015 New England Music Awards held in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
“Yeah, we won!” says Perduta. “Which we’re pretty in the dark about. I guess regional writers, radio people, and other ‘industry’ types nominate the acts, and the acts are supposed to get fans to vote for them online; but we really, really don’t like doing that, so we’re stoked to have won without peddling our asses online.”
Guess word had a way of getting around on its own. After all, just one from this band’s enthralling frontman is liable to leave you crippled with ear pressed against the grime to find out what hides and squirms beneath the floorboards.
“The siren shrieked to a gospel song, and drug me through the streets as you strung me along. I patiently awaited fast approaching death, and hung on every wayward phrase with bated breath. And recall to the teeth your every word. And you want to fly unchained just like a bird.” (Excerpt taken from Elison Jackson’s yet unofficially released debut LP playing on DHR, complete with incidental chair creak caught in the background.)
Perduta, who absorbs a variety of anecdotal inspiration while engaging with patrons as a public librarian by day, acknowledges that some of his songs are definitely autobiographical, but admits that others can even be quite tongue-in-cheek. In a more mysterious manner, he jokingly refers to the musical whole as “transmissions from the other side.”
Well then, maybe it’s fitting that Elison Jackson comes across as being possessed with an inherent wisdom bound by some ancient knowledge capable of evoking eery comfort from shaking hands with the vague and wistful memories of lives past.
The sound itself is what we’d attempt to regard as a type of melodramatic indie-folk just aching to be used in a film soundtrack. Perduta suggests it’s garage-folk comprised of fairly simple chord progressions/melodies with a little psychedelic rock which the rest of the band fills out.
He adds, “We enjoy making records with an older sound for sure, with a little dust and dirt over the tracks.“
It’s not surprising then that many of their efforts were actually recorded in church lofts and basements. Even basement studios…
Aside from Perduta manning guitar and vox, the rest of Elison Jackson is currently Greg Perault (upright bass), DJ Squid (keyboards), Mark Sev (drums), and Ilya Gitelman (guitar). It’s not uncommon for harmonica, banjo, singing saw, cello, accordion, trumpet, electric guitar, and mellotron to be found on their records as well.
They’re about to record a new EP in June with producer Floyd Kellogg (who’s been nominated for Best Producer Of The Year in the New England Music Awards), but in the meantime you can get your dose daily with their entire catalog available to stream on DHR at http://dirtyhippieradio.com/?myArtist=6 (or select individual full-length albums in the Music Library). Vinyls, CDs, and digital downloads are available on Elison Jackson’s Bandcamp page. DZ
