If there’s one thing the pandemic cemented in the music industry it’s that technology has enabled production of great records without the players ever being in the same room ala the “recording session” process of yesteryear. A fine example of that is The Burnt Pines, an indie folk group with members based in both the U.S. and Portugal. Their sophomore album, Don’t Look Down, is set for release in a couple of weeks, with touch points in styles ranging from 60’s psychedelic pop to indie angst folk to piano lounge jazz.
Keyboardist Miguel Sa Pessoa pushes that jazz feel the farthest in What Did You Come Back For, with a minimalistic piano part that counterbalances the ambiguity of living without knowing the answers to what you seek. Tenor saxophone makes an appearance in The Ghost Living in My Beer that mixes folk and jazz in a love letter to alcohol, with all its good and bad. In From the Outside channels a Nick Drake anguish over fears of what’s ahead, triggered by a discussion about the U.S. 2016 election. There’s also a bit of that psychedelia in Daytime TV and its comment on the futility of trying to define a good life by what’s shown on television.
Throughout the production of the album, lead vocalist and lyricist Kris Skovmand was going through the collapse of a relationship and subsequent divorce. That struggle for redefinition comes through in several songs. The title track, despite its happy-go-lucky sound, is about continuing to fight the fight and not worry about where you’ve been. Bad Love, about the frustration of a bad relationship, comes the closest to being a rock-and-roller on the record. Guitarist Aaron Flanders wrote Pushing On for one of his sons and admonishes him to “don’t ever stop believing”. The final cut is a masterful rendition of the Jethro Tull opus, Skating Away (On the Thin Ice of the New Day). Whereas I always felt the original was an extended middle finger to being held back by expectations, this version seems to carry more wisdom and a little less attitude. It’s an appropriate closer to the stories contained throughout.
Although The Burnt Pines first got together as a group in a studio in Lisbon, it seems like they really coalesced after several members’ stints at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. That multi-cultural, multi-genre experience added layers of complexity and style to the group’s music and Don’t Look Down shows that off. I’m just disappointed that, as a multi-continental entity, I’m not likely to get to see them live anytime soon.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.