Jared Dustin Griffin is a singer songwriter from Portland. His work is described as ”A descent into madness through Americana.” As this suggests, Griffin has had his issues with mental health and addiction.
With a rasping, gravelly voice he confronts his demons in the course of ten songs in just over 30 minutes.
Addressing topics such as homelessness, loneliness, broken hearts, and misery demonstrate that he is not an artist to shy away from difficult issues. His experience has taught him that if you live in denial of personal traumas they will come back to haunt you like a curse.
Take Bottle On The Stove for instance. This is the oldest song on the album and charts Griffin’s battles with addiction and alcohol abuse in the form of a murder ballad. He says I feel that addiction is the slow murdering of oneself with a noose you put around your own neck and nothing, not trying to run from it, not clawing at the threads, will stop the chafing that chokes the life out of you.
|
With relatively sparse accompaniment from acoustic guitar, harmonica and fiddle what you hear is a man bearing his soul in public. The album’s strength is its authenticity, its weakness lies in the lack of lightness.
Jared Dustin Griffin’s website
|
