One of the greatest usages of music is to reveal truth in and to the listener. The best singer\/songwriters can hit you with a reality you never suspected existed, leaving you breathless.<\/p>\n
Or\u2014and this is the sneaky part\u2014they can slowly insinuate a concept in your subconscious until you suddenly sit up in bed at 3am going \u201cDamn!\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Mayer is one of those. On the surface, he appears simple; a singer armed with a guitar (and remember, Guitars Kill Fascists). But the more you listen, the deeper you dive into just what he is saying and how. It isn\u2019t easy and it isn\u2019t clear, but in time you learn from music like Million Year Mind<\/i>, Mayer\u2019s most well-known album.<\/p>\n
First off, this CD sounds good. The guitar sound is crisp and some random instrumental flourishes (accordion on \u201cThe Dark,\u201d harmonica on \u201cCharlie Porter\u201d) flesh the sound out nicely. Most of the tracks are well put together, with stellar mixing and production. \u201cAfrica\u201d particularly stands out, a thought-provoking m\u00e9lange of djembes and choral voices with just a touch of effects-tweaked guitar.<\/p>\n
But all that aside for a moment, I love this album because one of the songs on it changed my life. As a former Episcopalian and a current Neo-Pagan, my religious views are by necessity rather liberal and unitarian, and Mayer\u2019s \u201cHoly Now\u201d is the single best song I\u2019ve ever found to express my own spirituality. <\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhen holy water was rare at best
It barely wet my fingertips.
Now I have to hold my breath
Like I\u2019m swimmin\u2019 in a sea of it.
It used to be a world half there,
Heaven\u2019s second rate hand-me-down.
Now I walk it with a reverent air,
\u2019Cause ev\u2019rything is holy now\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe first time I heard \u201cHoly Now,\u201d I remember being overwhelmed that someone else got it<\/u>. That meant something to me, in the best way music can.<\/p>\n
Everything else on Million Year Mind<\/i> is at least solid, and several tracks are outstanding. There is some wicked humor on \u201cBrand New Harley,\u201d a sweet love song on \u201cNow Touch The Air Softly,\u201d and the glorious exclamation point of \u201cOne More Circle.\u201d Don\u2019t sleep on \u201cJohn\u2019s Garden,\u201d either; it\u2019s the perfect Hallowe\u2019en song, and therefore highly suitable for this time of year.<\/p>\n
Peter Mayer is brilliant\u2014poetic, talented, and must of all spiritual without being judgmental. Million Year Mind<\/i> is something everyone should check out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10894],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-46756","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-peter-mayer","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46756"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}