SHAKE IT LOOSE — new from Natural Bridges
As the crow flies...
Centered around the songwriting of Matthew Johnson, Natural Bridges pairs heartfelt songs with the golden glow of a timeless sound. Like lost classics from the depths of a dollar record bin. Johnson writes with warmth and sincerity, painting portraits of everyday life and imbuing them with resonance, each song a perfect snapshot of a single moment in time. His songs are charming, endearing and stick with you.
Shake It Loose is a single drawn from the upcoming compilation Royal Oakie - Summer 2024, and is the first new music from Natural Bridges since 2021. Produced in collaboration with Stevie Cornell and David Glasebrook, the song was recorded at Ryan McCaffrey’s (Go By Ocean) Sun Machine Recording in Novato, CA, on a stretch of road David Crosby once called home. It’s also the same land that Johnson’s family has called home for thousands of years in Northern California, owing to his Coast Miwok heritage.
The new single continues the evolution of the band’s sound and hints at what’s to come. While 2013’s Good Medicine wrapped Johnson’s songs in a haze of lo-fi soul, Residual Daydreams (2019) furthered the plot by adding more country and folk influences to their sound, Shake It Loose finds the band stretching out with a classic country-rock sound that recalls Neil Young, David Crosby, Ron Elliot, and Sir Douglas Quintet, with its soaring pedal steel, crunchy guitars, and Farfisa organ.
The song was inspired by a crow: “Has anyone else noticed more crows than usual hanging around lately? They seem to be showing up for me on a daily basis, floating from a palm tree to a redwood to a power line. On a walk in my neighborhood, I spied a dark object out of the corner of my eye and looked down to see the body of a crow under a rose bush in someone's side yard. I wondered what led to the demise of this bird, kept walking and let the story unfold in my mind. So this song came out of that. I've been working on a batch of new songs lately and this isn't the first time a crow has shown itself to me and offered up its story for a song. I've heard that crows can remember human faces, and also tell if you are friend or foe. In my Miwok culture, we consider everything around us to be our relatives, so I feel like I owe it to the crows to listen to what they have to say.”
The lyrics
I've been out front and I've dragged behind
Walked in the rain and stood in sunshine
A moment of peace is so hard to find
Grass growing through the cracks hanging on to the hands of time
Shake it loose, now
Hear the voices
Singing all around me
Telling me their stories
A crow got its wing clipped by a car
And lays dying in the corner of someone's yard
When you're flying low, you don't fall too far
Never know when they're going to pull your card
Shake it loose, now
Hear the voices
Singing all around me
Telling me their stories
(Words and music by Matthew Johnson © 2024)
The credits
- Produced by: Stevie Cornell, Matthew Johnson, David Glasebrook
- Recorded at Sun Machine Recording - Novato, CA; Slowpoke’s Place - Petaluma, CA; Dusty Sea Studios - Pescadero, CA
- Engineered by: David Glasebrook, Ryan McCaffrey, Jason Cirimele, Matthew Johnson
- Mixed and mastered by David Glasebrook at The Garden Shed - Oakland, CA
- Matthew Johnson: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, Farfisa organ
- Jason Cirimele: drums, percussion, Nashville tuned guitar
- Brian Bethel: bass
- Stevie Cornell: pedal steel
Shake It Loose is due for release June 28th 2024
For further information...
