First song from the Wallace Stevens project

Nomad Exquisite

As the immense dew of Florida
Brings forth
The big-finned palm
And green vine angering for life,

As the immense dew of Florida
Brings forth hymn and hymn
From the beholder,
Beholding all these green sides
And gold sides of green sides,

And blessed mornings,
Meet for the eye of the young alligator,
And lightning colors
So, in me, come flinging
Forms, flames, and the flakes of flames.

Listen to Nomad Exquisite on Spotify or any streaming service here.

I wrote this song a couple years ago on the stoop at my apartment in the Boise Northend. It all came together fast and felt right. This poem by Stevens, “Nomad Exquisite”, had a few lines in it that had captured my attention for a while and it felt good to find melody for them.

I like the twist in the poem from viewing the outside world, the palms and vines, and, while still enamored with it, then expressing what we so often feel inside, the flinging “forms, flames, and the flakes of flames.” It has just enough content and just enough mystery to stick around as a thing worth ruminating on.

Artist - Ryan Hadden

Ryan Hadden’s art for the poem doesn’t need a lot of words from me. It really speaks for itself. The only hint that’s maybe useful is that the face in the middle is based off a photograph of Stevens. So this sets him up as a "beholder” in the scene.

this was my home for a couple of years (the stoop mostly, but also the inside)

This song had a long ride to get here. After playing it acoustic around the Boise open mic scene, my buddy Chris Ross jammed on the drums with me and we figured out the basic form of a bigger arrangement.

I kept waking up with ideas about the way the intro should build and drive the energy to open up the scene into the everglades. And that was long before there were any vocals in the intro.

When I took it to Mixed Metaphor and started working with Nate Agenbroad, we figured out the rest of the instrumentation, but the percussion was still a puzzle. I sent a draft to a friend and he said it went from a “10” to a “3” to a “10” in energy. That was kinda the idea, to go from high to low energy as the scene changes but it just didn’t work with that big of a cliff. I was still developing the production muscle…

Rounds and rounds of new vocal takes, drums ideas, etc. And then the opening vocal part appeared out of nowhere while I was recording harmony part. And THEN, the song made sense.

This is all too much detail, but this is how it unraveled. Some songs are easy, and some escape you until the idea is finally realized.

It felt like I had always imagined: the exuberance of exploring, the rising and falling energy, coming back up to explore and then resting in reflection.

I hope it takes you somewhere, either through the words, through the art, or through the music. Make of it whatever you will. And share it with a friend who maybe likes alligators or people that sing the word “angering.”