J. Atkinson is an Asheville, NC singer-songwriter whose comfort is on writing heart-felt song. His sonority stands right between the so-called Americana tradition and a delicate sort of Folk. Lyrically filled with distant hope, nostalgia and confessions, he resembles singers like Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan or Tallest Man on Earth. But is also in the simplicity we can find the magic in J. Atkinson. And this is the case with his new single Some Chords.
[su_quote cite=”J. Atkinson”]I wrote it nearly 6 years ago. A childhood friend had just taken his own life and I was thinking of various moments from a road trip we had taken together. The other friend that was with us had since moved to Mexico and I remember feeling particularly far removed from those memories. I was sitting in the living room of the house I was living in at the time and it came to me all at once, line after line, like a gift.[/su_quote]
We can definitely feel the heavy side of the words in the first seconds of the track. Delicately supported by a violin, a piano and a banjo, J. Atkinson voice always feel like a tender instrument which is there to narrate the memory of a dear friend. And it is in the natural way he sing-speaks every word, that we feel effortlessly touched and moved. Some Chords is a song that homages a memory but does it in a way we can find the immediate comfort in it.
[su_quote cite=”J. Atkinson”]I have hardly changed anything about this song lyrically since I first sang the words. I had no agenda for the song, no meaning to extract from the tragedy and pass onto to a hypothetical listener… Songs sometimes fall short, they don’t bring us success, change the world or bring those we’ve lost back. Some Chords is my attempt at coming to terms with and accepting that, growing up. Songs are not a means to an end. They are an end in themselves. A gift. Sometimes a heavy one but there is also a lightness to it. A lightness of letting go.[/su_quote]
If sometimes we feel it’s hard to letting go of a song, this is one of those times. Some Chords is the lead single of J. Atkinson full-lenght record Youth Eternal, to be released in a week (September 22nd). You can follow him on the below links: