Deep in the depths of Bandcamp.com are millions of artists struggling to find their footing in the music world, clinging to their guitars and synthesizers and clutching their notebooks aiming for the perfect line. In every city across America these eager musicians exist, and Bandcamp has long been a treasure trove of real hidden talent waiting for its chance to shine.
In an attempt to document even the most obscure local music acts, I’ve been digging deep into the web and was instantly blanketed with a layer of curiosity upon discovering M. Brinston Berry, an Ashland, Kentucky singer-songwriter whose weapon of choice is the acoustic guitar. His bio on Spotify, where he has eight monthly listeners, states that he has been creating original music for over a decade and cites Bob Dylan and Iron & Wine as major influences.
Everything That We’ve Become appears to be M. Brinston Berry’s fifth EP, and the first one that I’ve listened to. In a town replete with country imitations, M. Brinston Berry’s confusing crooning and abstract lyricism were both a pleasant surprise and a call to decipher their deeper meanings. I can’t say that these are the true meanings of the songs that he has written, but they’re my closest interpretations, and I’d guess that they’re fairly accurate. Please note that some lyrics may be wrong, but I tried to get them as close as I can.
We start off the EP with “When I Wake Up Pt. 1”, and we are immediately hit in the ears with twangy guitars and a groovy percussive drum beat. M. Brinston Berry delivers lines such as “Wait awake, and I will stumble toward you” and “All of me is lost and longing for you.” It is clear from the start that the Bob Dylan influence is indeed strong, with abstract lyrics and references to making amends. I got a bit of a Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd vibe for a little bit of this track, and it has a very psychedelic feel to it. I really like the various percussive sounds going on in the background, and I felt that they added a nice touch to the track. The meaning of this song was pretty hard to decipher during the first listen, but my assumption is that he is singing to a love interest and is interested in winning her over.
Gloom comes crashing in, however, with “Turned To Me,” with its slowly strummed guitar and lyrics likening a couple or a group of people to an automobile engine. “Crippled by my anxiety, trying too hard to make believe that I could be someone who could breathe all while your lips are turned to me,” is a line with a lot to unpack, and by track two I’ve discovered that traditional song structure is being thrown out the window with this project. After a repeat of a passage of lyrics, a jazzy electric guitar solo comes in and soothes the listener. This song is also close to six minutes long, which is fairly long for a mostly acoustic track. There are some very subtle flaws which add a hint of vulnerability and rawness to the track, notably the hissing when the vocals come in and the absence of hissing when the vocals subside.
We get another guitar solo to end the song and move onto “Everything That We’ve Become,” where M. Brinston Berry’s lyrics paint a picture of a complex emotional landscape marked by disappointment, betrayal, and a yearning for recognition. The singer struggles with the contrast between his idealism of the past and the realities of his present, and some nice strings shine through in the back of the mix to make this a really cinematic piece.
“Moving Pictures” starts with a nice fingerpicked guitar melody, and the lyrics reflect on the way life and the world are constantly changing: “Moving pictures changed the world” and references to radio broadcasts, while lines such as “Loneliness controls its destiny” remind us to be the change we wish to see in the world and cure our loneliness ourselves.
“All We Suffer’ is another slower tempo song with deep, strummed guitar chords paving way for lines such as “How much more can we forget between the mountains and the ridge?” The chorus powerfully sings “All we suffer is seeing through the simple lies, the simple truth,” representing the fact that sometimes the truth can be hard to handle. We hear universal truths like “Wind is cold, the sun is red, hold me close, kiss me on the neck,” and M. Brinston Berry urges the recipient of his songwriting to “Place your burden on me, I’ll provide the rest.” The increasingly abstract lyrics surely represent something to the artist, but my weakness is finding meaning in the abstract lyrics of artists other than myself. This song gets a little bit repetitive after a while, and I think it would have benefited from some sort of guitar solo to break up the monotony a little bit, but it’s a good track if you’re into melancholy acoustic folk.
The closing track to the EP completes the bookend of the “When I Wake Up” series with part two, a reprise of the original song, mentioning begging for forgiveness and experiencing homelessness, presumably from seriously damaging a good relationship. “You’ll find your freedom in a song” is a powerful line about the freeing nature of creating music and writing lyrics. The EP closes with “When I wake up, we’ll have nothing to do but die,” representing a stark reality of the humanity of all of us. After a fadeout, the EP ends.
Overall, it was a decent listening experience, though I did find myself wishing the longer songs were a little bit shorter. I like what I’m hearing from Ashland, Kentucky singer-songwriter M. Brinston Berry and can’t wait to see how his sound develops. I’ll be digging further into the rest of his EPs, eager to see if he fulfills the potential showcased in this release.
In the meantime, listen to “Everything That We’ve Become” and let me know what you think down in the comments below!