Music has to come naturally; the best music does, at least. Try and force it, and it sounds…well, forced. Which is perhaps the reason “Bonfire” sounds so great, well, one of the many reasons. Written in half an hour following an unexpected and emotional breakup, it is a song that may be more about channeling that pain and confusion than about articulating it. Such emotional energy has to go somewhere, and for James White it found its outlet through this song.
And what a great song it is, one built on a stompy, rootsy, almost shamanic beat, it uses this staccato structure as the background groove through which to weave all manner of sounds – picked acoustic guitar, a soaring and swooning fiddle, gang vocals, and brooding bass, voice-like and squalling electric guitars, and a palpable sense of dread. And all are added incrementally and subtly so that before you know it, the song has carried you from bluegrass adjacent acoustic lowlands to a place where an incendiary and anthemic sonic ritual is whipping around you.
As a taste of the band’s forthcoming EP, How To Replace Anxiety With A Broken Heart, this brilliant blend of psych-infused, folk-finessed, roots-rock is going to turn the head of any discerning music fan and make them want to know more, hear more, and, hopefully, check the band out live. And when it comes down to it, what more can you ask of the humble single?
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