Max Garcia Concover - Burrow

This is the second of Max’s CDs that I’ve reviewed. He is a totally original musician. He is not writing what might be defined as ‘hit’ songs. I still feel the same as I did the first time I wrote about him. He comes across like a man who dresses in skins, lays on the ground with his guitar, and channels songs of the forest and trees, sky and land. He has a dancing and sprightly guitar playing style, and his voice calls out like a town crier, announcing stories and images. He’s not a big one for melody, but he sounds as if he’s announcing realizations from the bottom of his heart that he can’t contain. This is not music that you put on in the background and forget about. He sings and plays with an urgency. The poetry and images of his lyrics flow in downpours.

“New Beast” is the closest thing to a folk song on the album, which is a duet with Sophie Nelson.

“I was a new beast quick and teeming
a shadow on the swaying trees
Gave what I had to her heart, she left me a small and staggering.
Sought sound in their hollows and faults in their burrows
you’re all high and heaven toward.
But I was a new beast teeming through and I ran and I ran to the war.
Holler the chimneys lit great desks, kerosenes of moons and of papers full.
And recall the running the boy who lived daydreams, a towering new animal.
If I’ve only been loud, just a word hurling child,
I regret it, that is nothing I’m for.
But I was a new beast teeming through and I ran and I ran to the war.
She said you could talk of nothing and have thoughts without aim or import.
And I think that a beast be a good thing but I don’t know what you’re for.
I was a new beast quick and teeming laughing at the sagging trees.
Gave what I had to her heart, she left me scraping the dirt from my knees.
I sought sounds in their hollows and faults in their burrows
we’re all high and heaven toward.
But I was a new beast teeming through and I ran and I ran to the war.”

A new beast of the Northern wild?

Here’s a line that I love from “The Wedding Line”.

“All us in the wedding line, cry my father’s mother in her cataract eyes,
She said she was a salt water woman and the rain only made her more dry.”

His images pour out like Dylan Thomas or James Joyce, not particularly clear, but more like impressionistic paintings, full of feelings. If you like modern pop music you probably wouldn’t like Max’s music. If you like to shut your eyes and really listen to the soul of a poetic musician, you’ll probably love him.

The cover art by Meghan Howland looks like a depiction of an ancient and mystical person – similar to the paintings of 16th century Dutch artist, Pieter Brueghel.

A portion of the sales of this CD go to Evergreen Health Services, a nonprofit which provides medical services and support for marginalized populations.