Jeremy Squires is a singer-songwriter from New Bern, North Carolina. You may remember him for his superb cover of Jill Andrews’s ‘Rust or Gold’ which featured on one of our cover mixtapes. He recently released his latest album, When Will You Go…, and it really is a thing of beauty.
The first thing to mention is that Squires is a super talented (and self taught!) musician, here playing guitar, banjo, piano and resonator guitar, as well as providing the large majority of the vocals (which are just perfect, by the way). He recorded, mixed and produced the whole thing on his own, which lends well to the personal atmosphere of the record. He also gets some help from a few friends, namely Anna-Lynne Williams (of Lotte Kestner/Trespassers William fame) and Shane Leonard of Kalispell and Field Report. All of this comes together to create an album of sparse, melancholy Americana reminiscent of artists such as J. Tillman and Richard Buckner.
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The second strength of the album is the songwriting, When Will You Go… being an apt title for an album that attempts to deal with death and the fear of losing loved ones. Squires’s voice is candid and confessional, and the listener gets the sense that he is opening up to them, offering a glimpse of the demons that haunt many of us. This is a man who has battled with struggle and hardship and is now honest and open enough to channel that into something really very beautiful.
One of Jeremy Squires’s greatest skills is his ability to prevent the whole thing descending into cheerless gloom. Yes the atmosphere is sad and lonely, but the album seems to have just the opposite effect, proving oddly comforting.
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Having had the album on repeat for the last few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that the opening lines, just eight words, somehow sum the whole thing up better than I ever could.
“I dreamt my life away
I never told”
You can buy the album now via the Jeremy Squires Bandcamp page. I highly recommend that you do. This is one of the finest albums released this year and one worth every minute of your time and attention.