Good morning Dig Nation. It's good to be back, thank you to Steve for holding down the fort, or blog, or whatever, for me while I was away for work and then down and out with a pretty nasty cold. Today I've got a Seattle based singer songwriter for you named Noah Gundersen. Alongside his sister Abby Gundersen they've put out a steady line of work since 2009 but this summer you will be able to check them out live at the Timber! Outdoor Music Fest – a great event that just keeps on booking amazing artists.
Noah Gundersen's compositional style is sparse by design. It is clearly his intent to let his words and his voice fill out the heart of his songs, while his guitar and his sister's string and vocal accompaniment ornament and enhance his melody and his sentiment. The album is seven tracks of intimate Americana that addresses issues both personal and archetypical. In his own words, "Family comes in many forms… It lives with us, for better and for worse. It shapes us. That's what this album is about."
For me, the stand out track on the album is Honest Songs. This composition has the kind of nostalgic melody that feels immediately familiar to the listener and coupled with his warm lyrical images of shared experiences I was moved to stillness upon first listen. In this sense, Noah Gundersen is another prime example of how truly wonderful the Pacific Northwest is for creating folk singers. Alongside the company of Laura Gibson, Bryan John Appleby, and others, these singers are writing with an authenticity which I whole heartedly welcome back to the music scene.
Furthermore, the shape of Noah's songs are really engaging. With the simplicity of his finger style guitar technique and exposed vocal melodies, he allows his sister Abby to help him create a long range crescendo which can bring the song, the listener, and the emotion to a musical boiling point. The case in point for this in seen in the video for their song David below. The frenetic and active guitar and cello lines accompanied by the steady pulse of their percussive stomping churns and grows larger with each passing verse. Stay in touch with Noah Gundersen with the obligatory social media links at the bottom of the article and support the artist by going out to see them live and buying the album. You dig?