Josh Kimbrough – Slither, Soar & Disappear LP Worried Songs (UK)

Josh Kimbrough is a fingerstyle guitarist and composer from Chapel Hill, NC. For the last 15 years he’s been a core member of the NC collective, Trekky Records (Lost in the Trees, Phil Cook, Sylvan Esso). He learned to play by studying Freddie King instrumentals and Fernando Sor classical guitar exercises. Josh has teamed up with producer and bass player Jeff Crawford (The Dead Tongues, Big Star’s Third) for the first full length under his own name. Slither, Soar & Disappear is an intimate and immersive song cycle inspired by the natural world, fatherhood, and the joy of solitude. On it, small ensembles of double bass, flute, strings, mandolin, banjo, and drums adorn his nylon and steel string guitar work.

words about the record . . .

Slither, Soar & Disappear is an instrumental, fingerstyle guitar record. It’s an ode to fatherhood and the restorative power of the natural world.

The music came to me on my back deck, where I would go to find solitude while my son, Simon was sleeping. I found that the rustling of squirrels in the leaves, and the hooting of barred owls, among other sights and sounds, would bring me a sense of peace and belonging. I imagined myself and my guitar as part of the chorus of natural sounds.

Fatherhood, I was finding, forces one to abandon parts of the self–a heavy proposition in a society that emphasizes individualism. Cultural critic, farmer, and novelist, Wendell Berry in his book A Native Hill muses, “In order to know the hill, it is necessary to slow the mind down to the hill’s pace.” This principle applied to me at the time as I was adapting to a new speed of life and striving to be present as a father. On the deck, as my mind slowed down to take in the chirps and wind gusts these songs began to blossom. – Tompkins Square