“It’s a slow-motion bummer…” sure feels like that – call it hypernormalization, call it imperial decline, but I think we can all agree it doesn’t feel great. This condition grinds, like an engine with old oil, a blister in your boot, like sand in an oyster; ever-present. We can’t candy-coat the destructive nature of these processes, but the last one does still create pearls, right? One such pearl is JM Hart’s new record, Turned Around. A gentle letter full of wise words dropped in your mailbox by an old friend, someone who isn’t afraid to be honest about what scares them, even if it hurts to say it, but who is also there to lend a hand when you’re hurting – to light a candle in the darkness.
It's a home-made record you can be at home inside of, straight out of Fredericksburg, VA, with a little help from some friends; session man at-large Ryan Jewell on that Ralph Molina Crazy Horse boom-boom-bap, Mike Horn (AKA Seawind of Battery) lending his vision of Cosmic Americana to the proceedings in the form of drifting tele-melodies, and Mike Gorman (City of Light) doin’ the Dawg on mandolin/back-up vocals. The rest of the production is all JM and if you’ve been following his musical march down the sunken road he's dialed things up, the psychedelic-pop-folk-country atmosphere here is pure Gene Clark No Other style vibey bliss, there is something for everyone in the movements of these eight honest songs, from the maximal indie-pop-flange-folk of the album opener “Give Me Love” to the sepia-toned Acony-isms of “Central Time” and the epic ruin of the eight and a half minute thesis track, “Holding On.”
We might be caught in a loop of losing things we take for granted faster than we can clock that they’re gone. “How are you holdin’ on” could become the default greeting for any American with their head screwed on straight, because how the fuck ARE you holding on? Music helps, and it helps more when you can feel the understanding in it. JM Hart understands, and when you listen to Turned Around, it feels like he’s listening to you.
- J Moss (The Modern Folk)
Credits
Written, performed, recorded, fretted over by J.M. Hart
At Shrunken Road Studio, Fredericksburg, VA
Except for
Drums (tracks 1, 3, 5, 6) by Ryan Jewell
Recorded by Angelo Peters
At Black Bear Recording, Ithaca, NY
Lead Guitar (track 2) by Mike Horn
(Seawind of Battery https://seawindofbattery.bandcamp.com)
Who also recorded his parts.
Mandolin & Backing Vocals (track 4) by Mike Gorman
(The City of Light https://thecityoflight.bandcamp.com)
Who also recorded his parts.
Mixed and Mastered by Ryan Jewell
