ARTIST: John Bustine
TITLE: Waltzes & Pleas
LABEL: Gypsy Eyes Records
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 191kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 44m total
RELEASE DATE: 2007-09-18
RIP DATE: 2009-08-22
Track List
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1. This Guitar Says I'm Drunk 4:16
2. Jesus, Jesus Not Again 3:48
3. Graceless Birds Of Death 2:36
4. Miss Amputee West Culver County 3:38
5. Can You Hear Me, O Lord? 1:15
6. Come To Me 3:08
7. Pensacola 3:18
8. Tell Me I'm Yours 1:53
9. Where Has Your Husband Gone, 1:55
Donna?
10. Outlaw's Lullaby 2:54
11. Lo! The Great Brown North 3:32
12. The Wreck Of The Good Ship 3:33
Lollipop
13. The Ballad Of Big Snake And 2:33
Mister Frog
14. Untitled 1:57
15. Untitled 3:51
Release Notes:
http://www.myspace.com/bustine
John Bustine, a new-englander born and no preacher's son; a misspent youth
consisting mainly of looking for a way out; and once found: a student upstate,
then one of the District's finest transients, next a welfare king in San
Francisco; a greyhound bus and a crippling case of the highway blues led him to
Salt Lake City, where he became an instant liability to himself and all those
around him. Fleeing to Boston then, where he found employment as a breakfast
cook, a pastry chef's confidant, a bookseller and an engraver of trophies. After
a mild nervous breakdown which occurred while attempting lipogrammatic
translations of what may or may not have been 'long lost and/or suppressed
religious texts, John turned again to the comforts of Washington DC and began
writing songs. Drawing on traditional folk and country forhis musical backdrop,
he pulled from his life experiences, turning them into fairytales written for
malevolent youth. He turned to the power of the scripture not for salvation, but
for both the darkness and the absurdist melodrama it offered. The resulting
songs are often deceptively simple, with an entire life being summed up in two
or three verses and in under ninety seconds. John Bustine: a traveler, a sage, a
poet, possibly a sailor, charts a course to show the beauty within the dark side
of the American Spirit.
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On the lengthy, multi-sectioned opener "This Guitar Says I'm Drunk," John
Bustine illustrates a haunting appeal that covers all manners of alt-country.
This draws you into Bustine's traveling vagabond life where scripture and
musical guests help etch out memories and the importance of life. Some moments
are considerably more enticing, successful, and enjoyable than others in this
regard; not the least of which coming from the male-female vocal combo on
"Jesus, Jesus Not Again," "Outlaw's Lullaby," and the children-feeling "The
Ballad of Big Snake and Mister Frog." Bustine has the foundation for alt-country
dreams to come trueà and maybe such enlightenment will be provide by the God he
keeps talking about. - exoduster.com