Walking through Forest Park listening to a kid that came up in Marysville named Ethan Anderson and his band Massy Ferguson.
They have a record coming out in April 26th at The Crocodile. The new album is aptly called The Great Divides. Their breakthrough tour of Spain coming up in April.
Can we help make good local artists like Ethan, not necessarily famous as much as able to take more time off work to make Seattle and America look better overseas? He’s one of the good ones.
His albums are well produced but not overly polished, and just plain honest. He has teamed up on the last few releases with a solid British indie label called At The Helm Records. The boutique label has helped the group make some inroads to spreading their brand of so called Americana to the British Isles and beyond the channel.
To me Ethan’s music is a Northerner’s brand of Country Western with a Rock & Roll drive that is integral to our spirit and history here in Snohomish County;
like the vacating Granges and old barns that somehow look more majestic as they age; like the tubes that drive Adam Monda‘s authentic guitar distortion in these Ferguson songs, as Ethan holds down the storytelling and the backbone on his Fender bass.
It’s an inclusive brand of Country made by a man that includes you in his vision of America and music.
For me listening and writing right now, I am trying to focus on real things and real people.
Don’t fake it till you make it. Don’t fake it when you make it.
Don’t be a crab in the bucket. They all get boiled. Help your friends get out of the bucket and turn off the stove.
Some people are out here really trying against tremendous odds in all sorts of mediums.
Art is what happens when humans have time to justify our very existence, by sharing their gifts, and so…you can too.
Do art. Do it today. And when people recognize it and your very existence, it can feel pretty good. Don’t worry about the vultures. Just keep making art. Ethan does.
You get back what you put in. Especially in the long run, beyond the paradox of Hype.
☆ AN EXAMPLE ☆
This song Gallipoli will continue to resonate because it is about something bigger than the songwriter’s own pain, but rather Empathy beyond the sheer numbers of dead. Through this tale there is room for Ethan’s own genuine anguish as a narrator.
This is song about the British boys that died on an Eastern front of WW1, that has a lot more to do with today than one might imagine. History may not repeat, but it sure does rhyme, said someone very very clever.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
