by nathaniel whitcomb
In a few short weeks our strong community of lovers, amongst the rest of the world, will live the rest of their lives embracing this consensus: Mutual Benefit is a boss with the heart of a volunteer. On Jordan Lee’s forthcoming The Cowboy’s Prayer, featuring long-time Mute Benny collaborator & bff Andrew Morehart of Share-a-tories, Marc Merza of Lizard Kisses, and Sammy Yager of Birthdays, there exists this tangible reflection to understand one’s personal desires within the universe at large. In the case of this album, Jordan’s reflections take place during a road trip through his birthplace of the American Midwest. Raised in Ohio, with time spent in Austin, and currently residing in the Boston area, “things are different than they appear” rings a true blue meaning when acknowledging the territories of which Jordan has known home. Too often humanity finds solace in the concept of home, and not often enough there is a voice to remind us that the world beyond our immediate vision is a radically new experience… and that we should hope to explore the faces, places, and headspaces within these regions for the bettering of not only ourselves but those involved in our life. We cannot merely accept diversity, because it is the understanding that we are all one that is necessary. What makes The Cowboy’s Prayer such an enriching experience is that Jordan does not mean to preach this philosophy, but share in the discovery.
The Cowboy’s Prayer, originally a poem made famous by Badger Clark in 1906, is an acknowledgement of the spirituality of knowing salvation in the inherent freedom of man; that if life is not as open as the sky, fluid as the elements, or genuinely honest, then he would prefer not to have involvement in the affairs of the living. Brilliantly, this piece of writing continues to hold value in modern context as Clark shares, “I’m no slave of whistle, clock or bell. Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street,” enforcing his personal belief in working directly as a part of nature as opposed to that which aims to destroy and recreate our shared organic value. Fifty years later Roy Rogers adopts the Cowboy’s Prayer [video] as a sentiment within his Riders Club. Rewritten, yet serving the same message, Rogers shares his own belief in collaboration and understanding nature as a community as opposed to individually. For anyone who has ever had a conversation with Jordan Lee, you’ll agree that these gorgeous themes are revealed as part of his plane of thought immediately. He fronts a solo project that we have never known solo in recording or performance, and curates a record label [Kassette Klub] of global gems that he finds akin. Sounds like a dreamboat to me.
mutual benefit ft. birthdays, little spoon // photo cred :: emily reo
Perhaps what I am most fascinated by within The Cowboy’s Prayer is Jordan’s knack for the cyclical. Beginning with “Auburn Epitaphs” [namesake] we’re introduced to an aged Chinese sample turned ostinato which lays repetitious through the verse only to swerve, twist, and eventually dilute into the banjo of “Passenger”. With the loss of our initial aural motivation, as a listener, we are left standing upon a new ground of which to adapt. We have consciously joined Jordan on this trip, and so timely now have the opportunity to “see so clearly what’s it’s like to lose everything“. What I’m obsessing over here is the way in which a lyrical narrative can parallel not only thematic motifs, but actual engagement in songwriting… it’s a tradition common in operatic or classical composition, but not typically what anyone would expect to discover from a new cassette release from your local tape label. The question I beg to ask here, due to my personal fascination with the subconscious, is if Jordan is aware of these shifts in his own organization of sound. For just as “Passenger” closes we are reintroduced to a new series of repetitious broken chords that employ baby steps up and down to convey a minimal progression among “The Cowboy’s Prayer”. This piece is the first among the album that Jordan acknowledges himself in the first person, and even brings in vocals pitch-shifted higher to possibly reflect an evolution in consciousness throughout his youth. Holding onto these two-and-a-half minutes it seems clear that Jordan is our cowboy, and we are undoubtedly observing him from the bottom of his own wishing well. For the fifteen minutes each day that the sun’s light beams directly into our funnel we become illuminated, yet with exposure and tunnels connecting our passion, interest, and motivation to a greater variety of wishing wells we become illuminated for an hour, an entire afternoon, and possibly even into the night. Through “Backwards Fireworks” and “招魂” [Chinese for 'Spiritualism'] Jordan’s arrangements are washed in the clarity of his intent, that is, to create a vehicle with the ability to invite a listener to close this journey embraced. If so far The Cowboy’s Prayer has only proved service for pleasant listening, it is within these final moments that we interact directly with Jordan upon the hazed morning-side of a prayer cycle. It is upon this album that we too toss our cares out the window, litter them across the highways we tell ourselves we’ll only know for the holidays, and come to understand our freedom among personal progression.
The Cowboy’s Prayer will be released on cassette next month via Kassette Klub, as a split with Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s [my own] Your Loving Brother. I also want to shout out Nathaniel Whitcomb, of Think or Smile, for consistently contributing fabulous work to our universe and this time in the form of designing the visual representation for this aural collaboration. Thank you everyone for taking the time for me to share my own interpretation of Jordan’s sounds with you and I cannot wait to hear about the adventures they accompany you on. Pre-order the cassette right here and stream The Cowboy’s Prayer / Your Loving Brother here.
mutual benefit as andrew & jordan // photo cred :: laurent hrybyk
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