Anything that not only sounds like Paul Simon but does so effortlessly is a song that is going to have my immediate attention. I’m sure that Oaken Lee didn’t sit down to write a song that sounds like it should have been track three on his much-overlooked Hearts and Bones album, but the fact that “A Mountain (an Echo) exhibits the same blend of subtlety and playfulness, mellifluous infectiousness and deft crafting, just shows us what great taste and intuition he has.
A wonderful whiff of nostalgia runs through the song, evoked not by the music itself so much as that it has a timeless air about it, but from the vibe surrounding it, one of distant memories, late-night conversations, lost friends, and intimate reflections. forget the cliche, nostalgia is exactly what it used to be!
It’s a song with one foot in the folk camp but is dressed up with so many sonic touches garnered from other genres that it wanders the sonic landscape well beyond that realm’s borders. It runs on a vague reggae groove, blends in gospel harmonies, and soaks itself in African pop delicacy but more than anything, it reminds us that, when you look back at that looming mountain that we call the past, life seems to have moved on at lightning speed, and that we should cherish those special moments, they soon become memories, then distant recollections and then fade away all together.
The past matters; it reminds us who we were and, in turn, tells us who we are today.
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[…] If established music genres need to move with the times, then I would argue that they should do so incrementally. Revolution is all very well, and history, even music history, is puts great store in the flashpoint moments. Still, in the broader scheme of things, artists are better off building bridges between the traditions of the past and the potential of the future, to ensure a genre’s longevity, ensuring slower, easier, and more accessible transitions. And that is why the folk world needs artists like Oaken Lee. […]