how will you meet your end
American Hearts (2007)
Sometimes I get into this kind of music. Murder folk music. A. A. Bondy does a lot of it, and he's pretty damn good at it. He sings sweet songs, too, but I much prefer the murder ballads and the pseudo-Biblical tunes.
"How Will You Meet Your End" is the first song off American Hearts (great album title), and I dig the sounds he forces out of the strings-- it's like he's sharpening his guitar. It's frightening. The rattling, too, sounds like a storm's a'comin'. But what I really love about this song is how patient it is. Bondy's in no hurry. It's all going to come. And what comes has great economy and evocative phrasing. "And Hell upon the breeze," is a great line.
Bondy writes excellent lyrics, but he's a master of tone. He creates these songs laden with meaning before you even start listening to the words. Besides the aforementioned geetar strop, there's the notes themselves, the hard repeat and then they almost drift off into dust. The percussion sounds mostly like knee slapping, guitar tapping, and hand clapping, but less corny than those rhymes make them sound on (virtual) paper.
Bondy has a new album, When the Devil's Loose, that's more of a full-band affair, which I haven't listened to a whole ton yet.
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