A breath of fresh air – organic and heartfelt, intimate and unplugged; the authentic sound of folk music and storytelling with purpose, pain, and possibility all scattered throughout its makeup. New Orleans-based Roy’s Orb present a beautifully nostalgic, stylistically simple yet conceptually complex account of the human experience, with Phosphate.
Following an easy rise and fall rhythm from the folk instruments that offer the groove – guitar, fiddle, banjo – alongside a vocal depth akin to the spoken word-meets-melody of Johnny Cash, Phosphate reflects with fearlessly short lines; poetic and personal odes to a story both true and heartbroken.
From the upcoming album Seven Songs From The Country, Phosphate tells the story of our protagonist and songwriter (Ryan) moving away from his home of eight years in Missoula, Montana, to care for his father, whom had suffered a brain injury. Ryan was then faced with the struggles of COVID, and essentially had to rebuild a new life once again, away from all he knew in Missoula.
The lyrics and mood combine the severe homesickness and helplessness of the situation, with a sense of inspiration and longing that came from seeing his musician father no longer able to play music. Phosphate is derived from the highway exit name in Missoula, and the hook takes comfort from the words of a friend.
The intensity of Phosphate rises beautifully throughout, a simple format slowly gifted passion and weight from both the performance and the musicality. The instrumentation gathers momentum in the groove and in these subtle additional layers from the rest of the band, and these boldly short lines inject a certain piercing poignancy during the latter half.
It’s a post-five-minute song, a deeply introspective look at life and death and relationships, a search for meaning that’s undeniably individual but also profoundly relatable. The lyrics are unignorable, hitting with all the more impact as the song continues to roll along, and in many ways the simplicity of the groove, even its apparent hopeful brightness, works in clever contrast with this quality – letting those words ring out and linger in a powerful fashion.
‘One thing I can always say… I will die in Montana someday.’
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