I’ve just had an experience. The experience was caused by hitting play on Guy on a Rock, John Baumann‘s new album.
This morning I stepped on to a 4D ride (the fourth dimension is emotion, by the way) with John as the captain, chief storyteller, and tour guide as he shared his refreshing, wide perspective and close eye for detail in a new set of stories from his home, our home: America, planet Earth.
John’s songs are always rooted in places in a satisfying way. He notices the beauty others overlook, picking up details others miss, as his camera’s eye zooms in and zooms out of the scenes in his songs. We see West coast beach sunrays, late nights on South 1st Street lit by iPhone flashlights, and the flicker of TV sets on evenings in the hills of Tennessee.
We co-wrote the title track together, and I love the recording of it. Hats off to Brian Douglas Phillips on producing the recording. But the song is part of a bigger, album-long vision that caught me by surprise in the best way.
I remember writing Guy on a Rock on John’s back patio on a day when the news was not good. Somehow this beautiful thing grew out of that difficult spot. It’s this kind of collaborative, creative, experience that always gives me hope.
When you listen to these songs you feel that though we can’t have everything we want, maybe we can enjoy and make the most of what we have. Though there’s plenty going on to be mightily concerned about, the songs somehow suggest that joyfulness, gratitude, and championing what we love will get us through the challenges. With songs like these, you don’t lose the wonder.
You got to have grit, you got to have grace / I’m listening to Guy on a Rock in Space
You can hear the album here and here’s what John had to say about it.