Alas,

sometimes the stars align

At different points throughout life we inevitably develop more capacity to learn; to make space for new things, to open up to new trajectories. For me it’s all about finding joy as I age, because it seemingly gets more and more difficult. Most times I have to seek it out but sometimes I get a little lucky.

My long time Burlington arborist friend Mac and I haven’t seen each other for a minute but we’re in touch online thanks to social media. Back in January he posted a short video of some tree work as we tree guys are wont to do. The accompanying music (gotta have music over the tree vids) instantly floored me. Lily Seabird. Holy shit. That’s literally what I texted him in the moment. It turns out that Mac and Lily are friends; wouldn’t you know it, this world just got a little smaller. Serendipity hand delivered this new music and it hit me like an arrow to the chest from out of nowhere. Lucky this time; it found me. Total bullseye.

The enigmatic Lily Seabird (Lily Seward) is part of Burlington’s current solar flare of prolific and uber-talented artists, and she has a sound like no other. Her songwriting is profoundly emotional and singular; drawn from a seemingly too-deep well of perspective given her time on earth.

Her January ’24 release, Alas, is a sublime effort, at times a haunting, melancholy, folk-dusted siren song, at other times a violent barrage of distortion and guitar-driven sound. Behind the sweet-cowgirl-with-a-battle-axe sonic dichotomy it is a lyrical masterpiece; partly informed by grief and loss, sharing the kind of relatable inner turmoil and despair that this life inevitably dishes out. She sings with a visceral, soul-baring affection that jabs you right in the heart with its sincerity. Alas, is an instant classic; a stroke of genius, and it’s only her second studio album:

She has also published a handful of music videos around the album’s release. A bit of a dark horse track off of the album, Cavity is an eerie dirge-like piece that’s impossible to pin down genre-wise. The video accurately captures the mood, cleverly sneaking in a couple references to her other songs. I love that shit.

Another defining track is Waste, a slow burn of a song that grinds from a hollow, metronomic march accompanied by increasingly urgent vocals to a cathartic detonation of fire and brimstone:

The Burlington supergroup is made up of Lily, Nina Cates, Greg Freeman and Zack James, most of whom you will have already met if you’ve followed along as this yarn of a story has unspooled. Lily and the band are also occasionally joined onstage by Rick Soszynski on guitar & pedal steel, Scott Maynard sitting in on drums and other special appearances including Katie Farineau on keyboard at the ‘Alas,’ album release party (video below). Their live performances are as dynamic as the studio work, and Lily’s magnetic stage presence is totally captivating:

Throwing it a little further back to 2021, her debut release of Beside Myself is considerably different from Alas,, bouncing from a sort of power-pop flex to some more macabre sounds unique to the album. I suspect that her ongoing body of work will evolve similarly, finding and breaking new ground with each step. The following are a couple of my favorite semi-deep cuts:

I’ve never intentionally used an algorithm to lead me to music content, and in this age of too much information and too little real contact, finding a simpatico breadcrumb trail in today’s forest of ambiguity, laid down by actual people I know, has been vastly more gratifying and contextual than having a computer program feed me music recs.

When something resonates with you, it’s only natural to explore the connection more deeply. Whether it’s a place, a person, new music, art, it doesn’t matter. Finding joy in anything is one of life’s most powerful experiences. The next organic step, for me anyway, is to attempt to share the experience with others. That’s what I’m doing here. I guess I’m just reiterating what I’ve already said; that I am by no means an authority on music - this is just my way of sharing what brings me joy. ❤️

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards” ~ Soren Kierkegaard.

This is a pretty apt metaphor for this entire story of mine. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. I’ll show you out of the time machine and we can go back to living life forwards from here.

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Lily is about to begin touring across Canada and the US on bass with the Greg Freeman Band and she’ll join Lutalo on their UK tour later this summer, with a solo show of her own at The Waiting Room in London on 8/14. She’s also scheduled to make solo appearances in Los Angeles on 8/10 at Permanent Records Roadhouse, Sleepwalk (NYC) on 9/3, and with the full band at Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh NC, September 5-7. More details are available on her Linktree. A little birdie also told me that there’s some big news in the offing, so stay tuned! 📻

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