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Album Review: “Lungs, Dirt & Dreams” from Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters + the official video for the title track
Review by David Ranew…
Damon Moon is no stranger to recording in odd places. The EP BURLAP (2009) was recorded in a bathroom and now the second LP “Lungs, Dirt & Dreams” with Jacob Smith (Lap Steel), Chris Cooke (Guitar), Adam Laidlaw (Bass) and Jonathan Sanders (Drums) was recorded while isolated in log cabin atop Glassy Mountain near Tiger, Ga. The presently combined force that is Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters has created a chilled out flow folksy Americana album reminiscing of something like the acoustic bits of Pedro the Lion’s “Winners Never Quit”. DMATWD’s newest creation starts out spooky with several short clips of uplifting mystery symphonic warm up noise between calming songs and finishes with a longer story told quality in an almost whisper of harmonic bliss.
For the majority of the album you maintain a constant pace interceded with uplifting choruses. The combined effect is something that is dominantly more in the neighborhood of swaying and relaxing than a pumping fist held high or a zumba marathon. It is great to contemplate the meaning of life to and less something you would just bang your head at, not that we are against that. The glue that ties it all together is Damon Moon’s voice and an ever present Lap Steel in combination with the driving motivation of guitar, bass, and drums.
Watch out for those little mystery noises we talked about. These tracks are almost like a symphony warming up to something awesome: “June 22, AR”, “We Nominate Ourselves As Heroes Of Our Own Stories”, which ends abruptly like it is letting you know a chapter is over and “Robert Pirsig’s Blues”
The title track “Lungs, Dirt & Dreams” is nestled neatly between “June…” and “We Nominate..” The track has a superstitious quality accompanied by a flux of Moons harmonic story telling over a guitar playing thrust forward into an eerie lap harp, pick scraping down a string and then, bam!, a full music machine lifting us up. “Loose Ends” is found towards the end of the LP and is in line with the more folk sound that the entire album embodies. Watch for the entry of the lap harp verses what sounds like xylophones which melts into the chorus. Both songs have videos. In Loose Ends you can watch Moon destroy a kitchen and staple drawings about the house.
Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters
