“Songwriting is a way to approach unanswerable questions, these experiences that don’t have easy conclusions. It’s a way to dwell on history and ask these big questions with other people.”
The above quote comes from Austin Crane, the songwriter (and multi-instrumentalist) behind Valley Maker, a project with ambitious thematic reach. At just 22 he released the indelible ‘Yes I Know I’ve Loved This World’ and, now 27, he is back with the 12-song follow-up ‘When I Was A Child’. Austin grew up in the tight-knit evangelical community of Florence, South Carolina, with his access to popular culture limited to what was deemed acceptable to consume; as a result, his discovery of the outside world during his teenage years was a powerful experience that left a lasting impact on him. The internet guided him through indie and onto the likes of Bill Callahan (Smog), Will Oldham (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy), Chan Marshall (Cat Power), and Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia). The result is an album five years in the making that explores such vast concepts of life, death, faith, time and space, love and much more.
From the ethereal and serene nature of opening track ‘Oh Lightning’, with lyrics that pack a thoughtful punch, it’s clear that Valley Maker is keen to defy convention and subvert traditional categorization. The songs are spacious and have room to breathe, beset with reverb and kept stripped-back for a texture that holds focus on the lyrics. Throughout Austin’s plainspoken vocals guide us, joined often by his longtime collaborator Amy Godwin who adds a fluttery, feminine sweetness, articulated both in atmospheric ad libs and in carefully-loyal harmonies that create one joint voice. There’s a confessional, storytelling, poetic sense to Austin’s writing style too that works well with the sonic reference points of folk, indie rock and Americana. It is haunting, melancholic and incredibly expansive conceptually; a perfect record to listen to on a quiet, rainy day, when there is time and space to consider life and the questions Valley Maker puts forward.
Often he draws from his childhood experiences for inspiration. “We grew up in a southern town, what was up was really down… I think about when I was born, and how she lost her eyes to see, they were praying hard for me and I was born into belief, I was born not to see,” he sings on ‘Only Friend’, powerful words that meditate on faith and how it affects people’s perceptions. “Now I see it upside down,” he muses. ‘Take My People Dancing’, meanwhile, explores feeling cut off from your home community after moving away and coming to terms with your own adulthood, finding out who you are in the process. It’s a coming of age tale with a dark, reflective essence, awash with loneliness and self-doubt.
That sense of inner conflict and attempting to reconcile the past with the present also appears on the sharp, edgy ‘Only Time’, while ‘Partial View’ looks at the past with trepidation, highlighting the tensions involved. ‘The Mission’, in stark contrast, finds him somewhat resolved and musing on his life experiences in a positive manner, even if he misses his family and “the mission”, presumably of Christian faith. There’s also an undercurrent of reaching out for a loving embrace, emphasized in ‘By My Side’ and ‘Pretty Little Life Form’.
The record comes to a close on the poignant title track ‘When I Was A Child’, which muses on his own personal growth and how he has changed, incorporating strands of faith, love and time for a reflection on the mysteries and contradictions of life, effectively summing up his approach to this album. A few special and personal record, it finds the young man considering how things have transpired up until this point and how he is meant to continue, wrapped up in a dark, sometimes foreboding but always fulfilling sound. The album drops on September 25.
Originally posted here.
