The Black Swans - Who Will Walk in the Darkness with You?
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Music CD Cover
Artist: The Black SwansEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-11-24
Music Label: Delmore Records
Soundtracks:
- Who Will Walk In The Darkness With You?
- Blue Skies
- Honest Eyes
- Song Without You
- The Raft
- Hours Never End
- Black Swan Blues
- Days Are Long
- Rocks In My Shoes
- Bring You Down
Free Music Notes for Who Will Walk in the Darkness with You?
Free Music Review: headlines
Hit: 5 Stars
Copper Press: A beautifully desperate and dark batch of tunes from The Black Swans is just what any dark and desperate night of the soul cries out for, for it is through such spare but deep-hearted music that we begin to heal. Throughout this ten-song release we sit beside vocalist Jerry DeCicca as he does his best American Bryan Ferry, reminding us that we are not alone but sound very much so himself. You need only hear pieces such as "Hours Never End," with its somber opening piano figure or "The Raft," which stirs the soul from desperation to hope and then back, or the self-explanatory "Days Are Long" to know that there is new truth being spoken in this world about the human condition and that this outfit is one of the most qualified (yet softest) speakers. Beautifully, composed, arranged and performed, Who Will Walk in the Darkness with You? makes you understand that the rest is indeed silence and walks that narrow alley between absence and longing and presence and joy. - Jedd Beaudoin
Pitchfork (track review): Just when you thought there weren't enough guys named Jerry making interesting music anymore, out pops this old-fashioned death-folk five-piece helmed by Jerry DeCicca, a man whose speak-singing (whisper-begging?) will surely be the line in the sand between his devotees and his detractors. Imagine a Norwegian doing an impression of Leonard Cohen, only he has confused Leonard Cohen with Ralph Stanley. Imagine a nursing home audience mutiny that forces Alasdair Roberts to channel Chris Isaak. Imagine the stagey, breathy tremble of Jamie Stewart trying to lull you to sleep (and taint your dreams) rather than shock you awake.
This tune's traditional enough for parents, and spooky enough for kids. Without disrupting the song's pastoral coherence, the guitar solo steals J.J. Cale's technique back from Mark Knopfler. Who Will Walk In The Darkness With You? uses familiar (to the point of being thought stagnant) alt-country tools to craft a distinguished anthem for the slow procession of late afternoons spent in a rotting cabin worrying about the overdue rent, as well as spiritual debt. - William Bowers
Allmusic.com: The debut album by Columbus, OH's Black Swans is an exercise in spare, sweet melancholy that owes a debt on the one hand to the Tindersticks and on the other hand, to a lesser degree, to the spooky folk music that has inhabited the Hio River Valley for centuries. Jerry DeCicca is the Black Swans' frontman and songwriter. His acoustic guitar is at the bottom bedrock of the band's sound. Its foremost element, however, is Noel Sayre's violin. Given that Sayre is a classical violinist by trade, he walks a line between the high lonesome style of folk tradition and the more formalized, refined manner of playing required by his profession. Electric guitarist Milan Karcic plays a more atmospheric role here, in the same fashion as Michael Timmins with the Cowboy Junkies. Matt Surgeson's electric and double bassing flutter on bottom, punctuated by Milan's brother Jovan articulating a spare and dirgeful language on drums. Nothing here moves quickly; it's all slow and slower. The band would have you believe the sonics are austere, but they're so melodically rich and tender that they're graceful and nearly elegant. The title track opens the set, and it's apparent from the outset that Stuart Staples from the Tindersticks has had a profound effect on DeCicca's phrasing. And no, that's not a bad thing. Being able to carry dirgelike ballads with purpose and tautness is a skill and DeCicca's abilities are consummate. Lyrically, you already know what music like this is about, but its sources are various, from the child and narrative ballad lineage to the postmodern love song tradition with the elastic impressionism of poets like Robert Creeley and Paul Blackburn as the bridge between them. The entire recording flows from a single fountain and widens into a deep river of sorrowful song. And that's its beauty as well as its curse. The latter is obvious because most people don't like mopey music. But for those who do, Who Will Walk in the Darkness With You? is keen, insightful, and moving in the swirl of guitars, violins, and a voice that comes carries within it all the weight and loss of broken love in this world. - Thom Jurek
Erasing Clouds: Like a haunted-country version of Arab Strap, The Black Swans slowly glide through the shadows with love-and-loneliness dirges on their latest album Who Will Walk in the Darkness With You?. The Black Swans' music is eerie, yet at the same time quite beautiful. The surface-level bleakness is often covering up lovely evocations of solitude. There's an ample amount of George Jones hidden in these bones, along with the more obvious Nick Cave. The Black Swans sound is evocative of both old-time American C&W and British folk music, in instrumentation (the violin and acoustic guitar) and the bare-bones emotional landscape. And the overall tone is as serious as Death himself. To get a sense for the Black Swans universe, listen to the picture lead singer Jerry DeCicca paints at the start of "Song Without You," as he sings, "Tonight is fading/and tomorrow's falling down/promises are breaking/can't you hear the sound?" Hurt, disappointment, and the feeling that everyone is left alone forevermore - the answer to the title question is 'no one', by the way - are everyday feelings in this world. As with much so-called bleak music though, it isn't about sinking or wallowing. This in its own way is revealing, inspiring and quite gorgeous music. - Dave Heaton
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