Hear The Children Sing The Evidence

Description

When Nathan Salsburg's daughter was a baby, he often sang her songs to help her fall asleep in a rocking chair. At one point, he remembered a song he had learned himself as a teenager: "The Evidence" by Lungfish, a post-punk band from Maryland in the 90s and 00s. Salsburg realized he could play the guitar part with one hand while singing with Talya in the other arm. Although the original version of "The Evidence" lasts only five minutes, it is essentially a repetitive mantra, allowing Salsburg to extend it as long as he wanted—10 minutes, 20 minutes, or even an hour. Nathan and Talya eventually abandoned their ritual, but the lullaby remained in his head. He then proposed to his colleagues from Louisville, Bonnie "Prince" Billy (a.k.a. Will Oldham) and Tyler Trotter, to record a version with Salsburg on guitar, Oldham on vocals, and Trotter on drums and synthesizers. They decided to pair it with a rendition of another Lungfish song, "Hear the Children Sing," playing each piece longer than necessary to fill two sides of an album. The result is the enchanting Hear the Children Sing the Evidence, an album that showcases the strengths and visions of the participants while highlighting the richness and power of Lungfish's songs.