After seven years of touring and writing with Nashville based outfit The War, Daniel Levi Goans recorded Choice Cannonballs in the heat and humidity of a North Carolina summer in the very basement where he discovered his love for playing music as a child. His early explorations of the piano evolved into an attempt to capture the rich tradition of American folk. The songs are stripped down tributes to the folk storytelling tradition with sparse soundscapes that evoke the feverish density of the summer in which it was recorded.
Goans retreated into a small wooden library overlooking the Chesapeake Bay to record his second solo release. With over 50 songs prepared, he intended to echo the sultry Carolina-Folk accents of his first release, but the rhythms of the tides began to speak into his music. The walls, the shelves, and the spines of the books became a percussive backbone for the songs. The winds whipping in from the bay opened up space for the words to resonate, fortifying the unadulterated honesty of his writing. What was once the beading of moisture and a breeze rolling off the piedmont foothills was now a tempest, a rush of water both beautiful and dangerous.
Heeding to the winds and the waves on the Bay, BrotherStranger looks into the loneliest moments of human experience with a piercing gaze that weaves them into a place of tenderness and safety. These meditations are nestled in a poetic cadence that resists modern cynicism and fragmentation while harkening to a place in our hearts and our heritage that recognizes the sacred nature of narrative. Intrusive in his hope and with penetrating confidence, Goans leaves a peace in the footsteps of his voice, a suggestion that while beauty is often well hidden, it is freely found.
Get a free download from Daniel’s album BrotherStranger! Visit bandcamp for the download or to pick up the album. For more info on Daniel and his Fall tour dates, visit his website.