Southern Records
2008
The Island Moved In The Storm
About This Album
The cover art of The Island Moved in the Storm shows folksinger Matt Bauer wading in shallow water and struggling to support the body of a young woman dressed in what appears to be a wet white nightgown. He looks weary and beaten, barely able to support himself, much less the woman in his arms. Is she living or dead? Hard to know. It's a provocative photo, open to many interpretations. That wasted, somnolent vibe carries over to the music on the album, a suite of songs dealing with depression, dysfunctional relationships, and violent death. The murder ballad was once a staple of American folklore; cautionary tales about the perils of the modern world were commonly sung around after-dinner fireplaces in days gone by, perhaps the folkloric equivalent of Grand Theft Auto. Bauer's songs are based loosely on a newspaper clipping he recalls from his youth. A dead young woman was found wrapped in a canvas tarp on a road near Eagle Creek. How she came to be there and the circumstances of her death were never discovered. Bauer hangs his tunes on this incident and sings them with minimal guitar and banjo accompaniment, occasionally augmented by quiet organ, woodwinds, pedal steel, or almost subliminal backing vocals.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12 and 13)

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