Tag: Diamonds in the Rust

A Closer Look — Ann Arbor’s Mike Green Explores Self-Awareness and Acceptance on “Blind Spot” Album

Mike Green. Courtesy photo.

Mike Green intentionally wrote a song about blind spots.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan, singer-songwriter wanted to explore that concept while working on new material for what would become his second album, Blind Spot.

“I hardly ever do that,” Green said. “Usually, I play with ideas, and it starts to coalesce into something. But then, I have to really craft it. Sometimes, the song ends up being very different from how I started, so I try to follow the creative muse.”

That creative muse led Green to the song, “Blind Spot,” which acknowledges accepting and loving someone despite their flaws.

Backed by carefree electric guitar and organ, Green sings, “You have a blind spot when it comes to all my faults, maybe you don’t just care / I’ve made enough mistakes to fill a goddamn vault, you gotta be aware / So if it’s true, you love me, too, well, that just prove the same thing’s wrong with you.”

“I had a version of the song with a whole verse about Trump,” he said. “And then I had a love song version. I brought it into the songwriting group, and they said the other one is funny, but doing it as a love song, it has more legs to it.”

“Blind Spot” soon became the title track for Green’s new folk album, which features 13 tracks about identifying and understanding different gaps in life.

“A lot of writers will say truth doesn’t have to be factual truth; it has to have emotional resonance,” Green said. “There are a lot of love songs, and I write about [experiencing] joy and depression, paying attention, and [recognizing] the resilience coming through all of that.”

Green easily conveys those truths and emotions through anecdotal lyrics, warm vocals, and earnest instrumentation.

“In a lot of ways, [my songs] start out autobiographical, but I don’t want to write in great graphic detail about my own life,” he said. “I have to draw on what I understand.”

I recently spoke with Green about the inspiration behind Blind Spot.

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Gaining Perspective — Jan Krist Gets Candid About the Past and Present on “Since You Asked Me” Album

Jan Krist. Photo taken from Jan Krist’s Facebook page.

Jan Krist doesn’t mind sharing different perspectives.

The folk singer-songwriter gets candid about religion, politics, history, and relationships on Since You Asked Me.

“It does feel cathartic to be able to go ahead and say some of this stuff,” said Krist about her latest album. “It feels a little scary, too, to say what you’re thinking.”

The album’s title track explores having an honest conversation with an acquaintance about being banished from a church.

“I said, ‘Tell me about your experience with the church,’ and he said, ‘Well, since you asked me …,’” said Krist, who had the conversation at a writers’ retreat in Washington.

“And then he launched into this story about when he was young, he had a relationship with a young woman there in the church, and they both made mistakes. But he ended up getting banished, and he lived in Alaska in a little town. It really was hurtful for him to feel this heavy judgment every time he walked into a local place.”

Backed by somber acoustic guitar and cello, Krist sings, “You can’t claim the higher ground / When you’re pushing people down / And barring mercy’s door / And what are we thinking?”

“I have not had that experience, but I’ve had many experiences being in churches,” said Krist, who recently relocated to South Lyon from Fort Wayne, Indiana. “I’ve been Christian since I was 16, and I was a worship director at a church. And I’ve been to all kinds of churches, from high church to evangelical.”

The title track is one of 17 songs on Since You Asked Me, which features emotive instrumentation, narrative lyrics, and serene vocals. Each track immerses listeners in a different time period and provides compelling characters against a rich backdrop of folk music.

To learn more, I spoke with Krist about select tracks from the album and the creative process behind it.

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It’s ‘About Time’ — Dexter Singer-Songwriter Jim Bizer Releases First New Solo Album in 20 Years

jim-bizer
Jim Bizer features evocative lyrics and earnest folk instrumentation on “About Time.” Photo courtesy of Jim Bizer

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulp blog.

After two decades, Jim Bizer realized it was time to release a new solo record.

The Dexter, Michigan singer-songwriter hadn’t focused on his own album since 2004’s Connected and had spent ample time working on several collaborative projects, including a duo with Jan Krist and groups The Yellow Room Gang, Diamonds in the Rust, and Floyd King and The Bushwackers.

“It’s crazy that I’ve taken that long,” said Bizer about his new folk album, About Time. “I’ve done things in between, and the thing I did the most was the duo with Jan, but I wound up in a few different bands and made records with some of them.”

Even as he worked on different projects, Bizer’s songs for About Time started brewing in 2005, and they began accumulating.

He eventually landed on 13 tracks for his third solo album and noticed a theme of time had emerged. On About Time, Bizer brings that theme to life through evocative lyrics and soundtracks it with earnest folk instrumentation.

“Not that every single song deals directly with time, but a fair number of them do. I got a kick out of writing ‘Going Nowhere’ about slowing time down and what that could mean and how that would work,” said Bizer, who produced About Time and played guitar, bass, and guitjo.

“There’s also the fact that it’s been so long since I put out my last record, and time played a piece of that. And I think of these songs as a time capsule of the last 20 years, so time was so much on my mind as I was putting the record together.”

To learn more, I spoke to Bizer about his latest album ahead of a July 7 show at Livonia’s Trinity House Theatre.

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Dynamic Duo — Jan Krist, Jim Bizer Bring Their Midwest Urban Folk for Farmington Civic Theater’s Friday Night Live

Jan Krist and Jim Bizer will perform Friday night at the Farmington Civic Theater.

Jan Krist and Jim Bizer will bring their Midwest urban folk songs to Farmington tomorrow night.

The folk singer-songwriter duo will perform as part of the “Friday Night Live” concert series at the Farmington Civic Theater, 33332 Grand River Ave. in Farmington, at 8 p.m. Friday with special guest Mark Reitenga.

“I think we’ll pull from all of our experiences of working together and songs that we’ve written together, songs that we’ve done solo, songs that are cover tunes, songs that we’ve performed and recorded, and maybe have some new stuff, too,” said Krist, who’s recovering from a broken shoulder. “I have a couple of new songs that I’m hoping we’ll be able to play.”

Together, Krist and Bizer will perform as part of a fun, formidable duo where the sum is greater than the already substantial parts. Their performances mesh and interlock with lyrics and melodies that interweave in surprising and intriguing ways.

Originally hailing from Detroit, the duo has played together for more than 40 years and first crossed musical paths as teens during the burgeoning singer-songwriter movement of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Krist absorbed Joni Mitchell’s folk, rock, jazz and pop-inspired tunes while Bizer studied James Taylor’s catchy folk rock. They also developed an affinity for the Motown sound coming out of Detroit.

“Both of us had independent careers and achieved a bit of notoriety on our own, and then we decided it would be fun to tour together,” said Bizer, who started out playing cover songs in local bars and restaurants. “We’d perform as a duo and take turns performing each other’s songs. We got more and more developed into that kind of show, and we started writing together, and the songs became more crafted for a duo, which is where it really got fun.”

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