Beneath The Redwoods is a collection of long-lost recordings from the somewhat forgotten Californian duo Morrison Kincannon. They worked hard at their craft throughout the 70s and early 80s, and now they reignite that flame and release their songwriting and musicianship into the world with a refreshing air of inspiration.
Freely makes for a beautiful place to begin the album, locking you in for the journey with delicately skillful guitar work, poetically thoughtful lyrics, and a string of gorgeously immersive vocal harmonies. I’ll Be OK Tomorrow follows and actually lights up a totally new side to their music. This is a definite early highlight, featuring cascading guitar solos and various layers of funk and flavor that give the whole thing a brilliantly organic sense of warmth. The song introduces a superb leading vocal performance that makes it genuinely fit to be a forgotten hit from a simpler time.
Elsewhere on the project, the duo exercise a sheer love for music – their passion runs through everything, making this far more about the writing and the expression and being lost in the moment than anything deeply rooted in genre or specific styles. With instrumentals ranging from guitars to keys to the more experimental, retro electronic snippets, their soundscapes work hard to keep you interested and to appropriately express the underlying sentiments. Always you get this emotionally compelling writing and aura that draws you right in and changes your mood.
This is something like The Eagles with a side of Paul Simon and a few helping hands from some additional, perhaps edgier rock legends. You also get a fair few moments of softness within the collection, instances where a raw acoustic performance pours through and feels suddenly very intimate and genuine – as if you’re right there in the room as it happens. A great example is the song I Believe That There’s Good In This World – an inspiring and positively themed piece that offers a sense of optimism and possibility.
Despite the well-aged nature of these songs, there’s a timeless quality to them that makes this a pleasure to discover even today. The finish is crisp and lets you listen at volume to really feel the strength of the music. Personal highlights include the melancholic and reflective As The River Flows On – the nostalgia is mighty here, but again these lyrics are new to the modern listener, so you get a good balance between the familiar, the classically cool, and the previously unknown. The album’s title track is another favourite, a progressively interesting piece that evolves in a stunning and increasingly entrancing manner. Destination is another, a cool and rhythmic Americana-infused track that awakens a powerful level of energy within you.
Whatever Morrison and Kincannon have each spent their time doing since their musical desires first met back in the eighties, lets hope the release of this project brings them back together to see where their writing and their sound will take them next. Beneath The Redwoods is an instant classic, a playlist that’s consistently enjoyable, interesting and effortlessly calming – just as effective escapism should be. The stories and the musicianship, along with the duo’s passionate performances, make for an easy evening of listening. Fingers crossed there may even be some live shows in the pipeline.
Download the album via Bandcamp.
