You Be My Heart is a new compilation featuring Mark Kozelek, Marissa Nadler, Fruit Bats, and Bowerbirds among others, with the proceeds benefiting 826 National, a nonprofit that helps under-resourced students improve and explore their writing skills. While the LP boasts a number of guests, each of its 16 tracks were originally written by 826 National volunteer Devon Reed. Below, take a listen to Bowerbirds’ contribution, a spirited little folk-rock number titled “Seven Wonders”.
Phil Moore spoke of the track (via The 405):
“When I was asked to participate in this project I was taken by the songs that Devon had written. They came intentionally stripped down for the musicians to work on and focus on the lyrics. I was struck by the first line of Seven Wonders immediately. It’s a perfectly clever and touching line and hooked me into this project.
“There is much less emphasis placed on lyrics in music these days than there has been in the past. But most of the music that I grew up with was of that vein, and so I hold dearly those songs that have a poetic grace about them – Bob Dylan’s music, Simon and Garfunkel’s, Nick Drake’s. I have always been fascinated by poetry, but never thought of myself as more than just a fumbling lyricist with bad penmanship and horrid spelling. It took me several years to overcome my own hang-ups with writing. I was in college about to major in biology and just as an experiment I took a few non-fiction creative writing courses. Then I took another. And another. I had great teachers that helped me to start thinking of myself as a writer. It was a very empowering turn of events in my life that I would wish upon anyone.”
Listen in below.
You Be My Heart is officially out on December 9th.
