There is a poem that rarely fails to upset me, so sad, so lonely are its words; so full of grief and loss. It’s called Dirge Without Music, and it’s by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
I don’t read this poem often, because it affects me so thoroughly, so deeply and truly. Yet, upon listening to Sam Fournier’s quiet, mostly acoustic EP, Shallow Lake, I was reminded of Edna’s words, the power of them, the power of her grief.
Shallow Lake is a beautiful recording, best listened to by oneself, in a quiet house, probably with headphones on, as I did. Sam sings about his mother, Carolyn Basha, and her death; and its gentle looseness, punctuated by emotional outbursts of instrumental pain and frustration and anguish – his unwillingness to be resigned, his disapproval – is as equally affecting as Dirge Without Music.
• • •
To read the rest of this review — and more by Steve Schmolaris — visit his website Bad Gardening Advice.
• • •
Steve Schmolaris is the founder of the Schmolaris Prize, “the most prestigious prize in all of Manitoba,” which he first awarded in 1977. Each year, he awards the prize to the best album of the year. He does not have a profession but, having come from money (his father, “the Millionaire of East Schmelkirk,” left him his fortune when he died in 1977), Steve is a patron of the arts. Inspired by the exquisite detail of a holotype, the collective intelligence of slime mold, the natural world and the suffering inherent within it — and also music (fuck, he loves music!) — Steve has long been writing reviews of Winnipeg artists’ songs and albums at his website Bad Gardening Advice, leading to the publication of a book of the same name.
