Martha Ann

Taken from his forthcoming album Fear of Flying, 'Martha Ann' heralds a fresh chapter in David Karsten Daniels' recorded output. A Seattle, WA based songwriter with a disparate musical background, David is as ever backed by an array of like-minded, mutually supportive musicians from the Chapel Hill based Bu Hanan Collective (which he co-founded) – but the album is undoubtedly rawer and expansive in it's approach than its predecessor, Sharp Teeth. 'Martha Ann' is a fine starting point; a harbinger of the change in tone, and redolent of what David does so well, melding bittersweet yearning to pop hooks, with a keen eye for compositional detail. Recalling the likes of Crazy Horse, The Band or modern day peers such as Vetiver, 'Martha Ann''s country rock stylings are also a new slant (at least in such overt form) - though contextually, this is not the full picture. The B-side, 'Sharks,' underlines the newfound shift, an evil twin of, or at the very least a companion to 'Minnows,' from the aforementioned Sharp Teeth LP.