Rising strong out of devastating trials and tribulations comes Americana songwriter Chris Rusin, who at long last has released his debut album, Songs From A Secret Room.
Songs from A Secret Room is an album born out of blood, sweat, and tears.
The Colorado-based artist has worked in over 30 countries, doing jobs from shipwreck diving to creating life saving medical devices. These diverse experiences served as a root for Rusin's creative inspiration. In the midst of all this hard work, he would receive the unfathomable news that he had cancer. During chemotherapy, he temporarily lost his ability to sing.
During this struggle, Rusin remained determined to get a debut album written, and as of this past Halloween, the collection of songs is out in the world. And best of all, he is three years cancer-free.
After fighting through chemotherapy, Rusin wrote "Time to Love": a song that earned him a spot at the famed Song School in Lyons, Colorado with Pat Pattison. The song mourns the hardship of being threatened with death when you feel your life has only just begun. He puts it perfectly when he sings, "I used to dream of the love I'd find in time / Now I dream of finding time to love." It's an articulate and heart-felt meditation on how the fragility of life flips our priorities right on their head.
Continuing the hefty emotional precedent set by "Time To Love," "The Longest Year" presents as epic in scale with its high production value and dialogic vocal melodies. The song even goes the extra mile with lavish string arrangements. The production quality is the work of Andrew Berlin: the producer of many popular folk artists including Gregory Alan Isakov. Being about the end of a relationship, the song is similarly melancholic, yet also compellingly theatrical.
The song "Cinders" is another big single release for the album. The regretful lyrics are about as blazing hot as the song's heavy-laden guitar melodies. The song is all about failing to "feed the flames" and keep a relationship alive, and the emotion behind it all is very large in scale. If the all-encompassing acoustic guitar riffs don't sell the emotion, the song's reverb-soaked vocal passages at the end will do the trick for sure.
Though the album is defined largely by a theatrical approach to confessional singer-songwriter music, the album isn't afraid to rock out a little, too.
That's what can be found on the track "What to Leave," whose steady-crashing guitar riffs seriously up the ante for the listener. The song uniquely pairs this newfound energy with the adult struggle of trying to build upon the values and strategies that were given by your parents. It's a song as catchy as it is honest and considerate.
As grand as it is vulnerable, Songs From A Secret Room feels right at home with a single listener and a giant crowd all at once.
No comments:
Post a Comment