With a new album, Pioneers and Fragrant Flowers on the horizon, and it seems like there is hardly a time when there isn’t, such is his work rate, Stephen Jacques gives us a taste of what’s to come with “Fragrant Flowers.” With the album themed around the stories of the opening up of the American West in the early 19th century, here he highlights the simple pleasures and beauty of crossing the prairie against the backdrop of such great enterprise and adventure.
His trademark narrative and singer-songwriter style are perfect for the task at hand. This is not a song built of nostalgia or reminiscent of the sounds of the time. Instead, it is the perfect modern soundtrack and tribute to those brave, past pioneers.
As the song rises out of one man, one guitar territory, delicate sonics and distant voices drift towards us, steel guitars float like the clouds scudding across those big, open skies, and the tight rhythm section echoes with the forward momentum of those wagons’ relentless journey into the unknown.
And the video, part performance, part evocative images of those times, is the icing on the cake, a visual representation of the sonic story being played out. Those were difficult times; families headed into the unknown, and danger was everywhere, but sometimes it was as simple as forgetting the darkness that surrounded them and the uncertainty that lay ahead and just finding solace whilst you could in the natural wonders of this new land and the beauty of those fragrant flowers.
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