Plein Air 06: Symbol

Listen carefully for the crow who counted me off and congratulated me on my performance of today’s song: Symbol by Adrianne Lenker.  Few songwriters write as poetically and abstractly as Adrianne Lenker. Rooted in American folk tradition and proficient on fingerstyle guitar, Lenker is possibly the best songwriter of her generation, weaving words into a web of impressions and images as meaningful as they are aesthetically beautiful.  Symbol is one of the few songs I could listen to every day without fatigue. The bold harmony moves as the voice stays static, singing a single note for the majority of the verses. The lyrics are complex but emotionally accessible, touching on themes of home, time, distance, and difficulty. I hope you enjoy my performance, and that it does justice to this masterpiece.