Originating in the Northeast but now finding a home in Asheville, NC, Southern Pine is the recording project of songwriter and guitarist, Zack Kardon. Seeking to combine organic, individual feelings with something more mysterious and ethereal, the Southern Pine sound is a combination of the humble and grand, an earnest exploration of lived experience that is happy to leave room for ambiguity. “Kardon’s songs are deeply personal statements,” explains his bio. “They don’t seek to describe or explain but simply hover—bottling the essence of a feeling before it evaporates into the ether of memory.”
We’re happy to share the second single from the EP, ‘Walking With Giants.’ With a foot in the psych camp and another planted firmly on indie folk ground, the track highlights Southern Pine’s delicate balance between the known and the unknown—utilising immediacy to paint a larger picture that incorporates things outside of our direct experience.
Indeed, the track is inspired by time spent among the redwoods of Humbolt county, and something of the experience is woven into the essence of its style. Wonder, might be one way to describe it, or perhaps awe, though in a quiet, modest sense, as personal feelings are rendered secondary and ephemeral in a landscape so imposing and ancient. The result is a curious kind of freedom; freedom from one’s own concerns and hang-ups, from preconception and expectation. As Kardon puts it, “it was the song I needed to hear to get myself out of my own way.”
Artwork by Coco Nuco, photo by Tracy Hewitt