Well, I wrote about this track before, but as the accompanying video is now out for public consumption, it seems only fitting to take another look; videos add something to a song even if you have heard it many times before. And after all, it’s Stephen Jacques, and I need next to no encouragement to put pen to paper on his behalf, so here we go.
Slept on a Ridge is Mr. J doing what he does best, doing everything I love about him. Here, he takes his rock and roll twang and wraps it around an accessible, almost pop melody, but in this instance, it is his vocal delivery that I love most. He delivers the words almost like a stream-of-consciousness salvo of thoughts and ideas, each line both part of the whole but somehow slightly detached. It’s the opposite of everything that conventional vocal teaching would tell you to do, and it only makes me love his music more. It also reminds us that there are many things in music that you can’t really teach and it is those things, such as these unique vocal patterns, that constitute an artists musical personality.
The video is simple but effective. We wander through the wilds with him as he waxes lyrical about getting back to the simple pleasures of the great outdoors. The trees, the water, the sky, the perfect frame for such elemental thoughts; after all, what better supporting cast in such a song as the land itself?
So, still an extraordinary artist, still a great song, only now with added pastoral perfection!
