#bow thayer

Song Review: Bow Thayer - “Is this a Hoax?”

Disillusioned by organized religion and artificial intelligence, Bow Thayer imagines himself a songbird, a great whale and a satellite on the three verses that comprise “Is this a Hoax?”

The standalone single finds Thayer singing at the top of his range over banjo and acoustic, electric and pedal steel guitars blended with a world-music rhythm track. He dreams, questions and concludes on the chorus that a long slog awaits humanity.

Is this a hoax?/are you kidding us/was it all a joke from the beginning?/I think it’s gonna be a while before it’s clear, he sings.

While not Thayer’s greatest track, “Is this a Hoax?” is nevertheless a perfect musical and lyrical summation of the elements that make him such an intriguing and agreeable artist.

Grade card: Bow Thayer - “Is this a Hoax?” - B

Song Review: Bow Thayer and Krishna Guthrie - “Paradise in the Rough” (Live, July 7, 2022)

Whether by coincidence or purposeful “inspiration,” the melody of Bow Thayer’s “Paradise in the Rough” is more than a little bit similar to Widespread Panic’s “Ain’t Life Grand.”

It was true on the studio version and it remained the case when Thayer played a duo-acoustic version with fellow guitarist Krishna Guthrie on July 7, 2022, in Vermont, a performance now out on video.

Thayer’s song mirrors Panic’s in the lyric department as well, as the narrator looks to simple pleasures to escape life’s losses and mundane stressors.

Down here we fit in with the conifers/down where the river runs through our blood/god knows the we’re connoisseurs of canned food/down here it’s paradise in the rough, goes the chorus.

Filling in for the mandolin on the studio version, Guthrie and his guitar buoy Thayer’s rhythm. The collaborator, however, strains on the high harmonies, inadvertently roughening an otherwise-calming mantra.

Grade card: Bow Thayer and Krishna Guthrie - “Paradise in the Rough” (Live - 7/7/22) - B-

Song Review: Bow Thayer - “Cold Cold Mornings”

Bow Thayer imagines love as a living - or dead - creature on “Cold Cold Mornings.”

Where does love go when it dies?/does it know when it’s time?/does it go to some kind of heaven?/it’s eternal, a slathered-in-reverb Thayer sings over a single electric guitar.

Once the band kicks in, the existential dread of the standalone single picks up an optimistic groove that belies the inherent sadness in “Cold Cold Mornings’” lyrics. But then …

We might be blind, but there’s still hope, Thayer sings on the outro, thus reconciling the lyrics with the music on this masterful number.

Grade card: Bow Thayer - “Cold Cold Mornings” - A-

Song Review: Bow Thayer - “The Shaman”

“The Shaman” is a funky little number, a song with a groove built around banjo and congas and shakers and atmospherics that evokes a sonic celebration.

And it is in a way. But this is a celebration is of a life cut short by suicide and is Thayer’s way of processing the loss of his drummer friend.

I believe he was a shaman/it appears his head and heart couldn’t get along/his downbeat cracked like thunder/it shook the room and then was gone, he sings on the chorus.

As for Thayer, “The Shaman” proves him to be a conjurer. And a funky one at that.

Grade card: Bow Thayer - “The Shaman” - B

Song Review: Bow Thayer - “Soil of ’23”

Bow Thayer gets to the dirty side of Americana on “Soil of ’23.”

The stand-alone single begins as a banjo tune that Thayer - who plays and sings every note on the track - backfills with percussion, bass and acoustic guitar as he muses about comin’ on the winter of ’23/anno Domini.

There’s too much time for me to count/too much time ain’t enough, he sings in one of the gritty, bluegrass-with-a-groove track’s many non sequiturs that together give a glimpse inside Thayer’s year-end mindset.

It’s busy in there.

Grade card: Bow Thayer - “Soil of ’23” - B

Album Review: Bow Thayer - The Book of Moss

The Book of Moss is a groove album.

The latest from Bow Thayer is built upon demos recorded in 2017 with bassist Alex Abraham - who subsequently committed suicide, but lives on via the LP - and percussionist Steve Ferraris.

As Thayer processed his grief, he returned to the initial recordings, outfitted them with synths, guitars, banjos, and bojotar - a resonator/guitar/banjo amalgam the musician invented - plus a scattered instances of saw, flute and harmonica. And the Book of Moss was complete.

It’s like Talking Heads for the rural set, acoustic-based dance music rooted in Americana with just a touch of jazz. Grooves that won’t stop; seven songs mostly about Thayer’s home in Vermont and the preciousness of water, plus a version of the traditional “Cuckoo.”

At 10 minutes, closing “Fish Cop” takes up a quarter of the Book of Moss’ runtime, ending the LP on another groove, a smidge of humor, a hint of melancholy and one more melody inexorably implanted in the listener’s brain.

Grade card: Bow Thayer - The Book of Moss - B

Song Review: Bow Thayer - “Ogallala”

Even without the lyrics, it’s obvious Bow Thayer’s latest is about water.

Rolling out of the speaker like a cascading river, “Ogallala” was inspired by protests over the Keystone Pipeline and the aquifer it threatens.

Lifeblood of the plains/ring around the reservoir/evaporate/just a drop of all we lost/is that all we really need/just a drop should be enough/to ride to ripple to the headwater back upstream, Thayer sings as a waves of banjo, Dobro, electric slide guitar and rhythm section wash over the listener.

“I don't need to go into the history or the degradation modern society has imposed here,” Thayer said in a statement. “Nor do I need to explain the importance of water. I can, however, write a song about it.”

Which he did. It’s called “Ogallala.” And it will appear on the Book of Moss, which does not yet have a release date.

Grade card: Bow Thayer - “Ogallala” - B+

Song Review: Bow Thayer - “Spaceman”

One of the most exciting things about new music from Bow Thayer is having zero expectations of what the changeling might have come up with this time.

On “Spaceman,” Thayer incorporates shards of the Bo Diddley beat, bemused vocals inspired by Tom Petty’s mode of delivery and Byrdsian harmonies to create something quintessentially Thayer.

Over three minutes of irresistible music, the narration shifts from a visiting spaceman introducing himself to his commentary of what humans are doing to the planet to what future aliens can expect in the future:

Someday you’ll be spacemen searching for a planet/maybe you’ll be stranded, drifting just like me/living for the laws of liftoff/looking for a place to touch down, Thayer sings.

Out on streaming platforms, “Spaceman“ is paired with “Earthling,” from 2021’s the Zen of Sung and is also on the soundtrack for the independent film “The Ballad of Ethan Alien.” It’s easy to find - “Spaceman” is right here on Sound Bites, too! - and worth much more effort than it takes to give it a spin.

There’s no sense in anticipating what Thayer might do next. And that’s a big part of the fun.

Grade card: Bow Thayer - “Spaceman” - A