Last summer, we wrote about the work of Portsmouth, New Hampshire songwriter G. Himsel, with single ‘Sweet William’ introducing a folk style inspired by the environment and history of the surrounding land. “A sonic representation of the New England landscape,” as we put it, “where expansiveness meets intricate detail and whispered subtleties, resulting in something patient, delicate, and fully attuned to geographies both physical and emotional.”
Now G. Himsel is back with Songs of Doubt & Despair, an album which draws from the breadth of US music tradition to express a very contemporary feeling of helplessness and loss. Folk fans will recognise the tracklisting, with versions of traditional classics like ‘Hang Me, Oh Hang Me’, ‘Down on Me’ and ‘I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground’ delivered with a stripped back, intimate tone. There are no flourishes or ostentation here, just a direct engagement with the tragedy of the present which traces its lineage back through history. As though the only suitable method of conveying the current anxiety and grief is to amass that of yesteryear in a single place. As Himsel puts it: “In an attempt to gather my feelings concerning our doomed local, national, global and ecological reality at the dawn of 2025, I’ve instead ended up deep in the past.”
Songs of Doubt & Despair is out now and available from the G. Himsel Bandcamp page.