Secularia

by Eliza Gilkyson

Overview

Austin-based songwriter Eliza Gilkyson has charted the ever-changing aspects of the world around her -- inner and outer -- for the better part of 40 years with brutal honesty and a poet's gift for detail. The Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee has stubbornly stuck to finding her own path through the minefield of American popular music without paying it too much mind. On Secularia, she delivers a series of "secular hymns" that try in vain to find answers to the unanswerable, without once mentioning a benevolent, comforting deity. Produced by her son Cisco Ryder, these songs, new and old, originals and covers, create and exist in a gorgeous tension that bravely assumes responsibility for being okay with her questions about the spiritual unknown. Perhaps that's because of the weight she places on the beauty and complexity of human nature. Gilkyson set to music two poems written by her grandmother Phoebe Hunter, including the opener, "Solitary Singer," where she posits the notion that "...But us poor folk who wake at night/When we're lonely we sing our best..." to fingerpicked electric guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and an upright bassline. She doesn't worry much about hope but finds gratitude and beauty in the way things are -- even if she'd desperately like to change them. "Lifelines," a gentle country-rock tune graced by pedal steel, slide, and electric guitars moves along a shuffling snare as she offers the hard truth that "...The center cannot hold...Order falls apart...there was nowhere left to run/Now it's time to do or die..." There is an ache in her vocal, but also a steely determination. "Conservation," the title of the other poem by her grandmother, is set to lilting, folk-country gospel and offers a manifesto for the entire set: "I have no god, no king or savior/No world beyond the setting sun/I'll give my thanks for one more day here/And go to ground when my time has come...." "Seculare," co-written with former Spirit bassist Mark Andes, is a sparsely orchestrated hymn of gratitude that resonates far beyond the confines of its four-and-a-half minutes. On "Sanctuary," she duets with pastor Sam Butler on what amounts to a glorious humanist prayer. Her lyrics reference a stalwart inner spirit that remains present no matter whether her protagonist is in love or in loneliness, in grief or desolation, in faith or in doubt. Her reading of "Down by the Riverside," a duet with the late Jimmy LaFave, reveals the victorious social and political truth in its lyrics. She closes with the piano and acoustic guitar ballad "Instrument," a confessional hymn of shortcomings sung to the impermanence of time itself: "I'm your unworthy instrument/Come strike my final tones/And blow your horn magnificent/through the hollows of my bones." On Secularia, Gilkyson manages to articulate what has remained -- to most of us -- inexpressible, hidden by our fear of forever, and has done so by willing vulnerability and accountability to become her gritty resolve. ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	07/13/2018
Label:	RED HOUSE
UPC:	0033651030720

Tracks

1. Solitary Singer
2. Lifelines
3. Conservation
4. In the Name of the Lord
5. Dreamtime
6. Seculare
7. Reunion
8. Sanctuary
9. Through the Looking Glass
10. Emmanuelle
11. Down by the Riverside
12. Instrument

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Eliza Gilkyson   Primary Artist,Piano,Vocals,Keyboards,Guitar (Rhythm),Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Hi String Guitar (Acoustic)
Shawn Colvin   Vocal Harmony
Mike Hardwick   Guitar (Electric),Dobro,E-Bow,Pedal Steel
Michael Hearne   Vocal Harmony,Vocals (Background)
Leigh Mahoney   Violin
Kym Warner   Mandolin
David Hurst   Tenor (Vocal)
Sara Nelson   Cello
Tracy Seeger   Violin
Don Richmond   Viola,Violin,Accordion,Bowed Bass,Penny Whistle,Bowed Dulcimer,Guitar (Acoustic)
Betty Soo   Vocals (Background)
Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon   Vocal Harmony,Vocals (Background)
Andre Moran   Slide Guitar,Guitar (Rhythm),Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Warren Hood   Fiddle
Ames Asbell   Viola
Chris Gage   Vocal Harmony
Jimmy LaFave   Vocals
Sam Butler   Vocal Harmony
Chris Maresh   Bass,Bowed Bass,Bass (Upright)
Cisco Ryder   Drums,Piano,Vocals,Keyboards,Vocal Harmony,Vocals (Background)
Delia Castillo   Vocal Harmony,Vocals (Background)
Daryl Boudreaux   Bass (Vocal)

Technical Credits

Traditional   Composer
Andre Moran   Mixing
Eliza Gilkyson   Arranger,Composer
Eric Peltoniemi   Art Direction
Todd Wolfson   Photography
Phoebe Gilkyson   Composer
Don Richmond   Arranger,Engineer
Bellarosa Castillo   Composer
Stefan Szymankiewicz   Engineer
Cisco Ryder Gilliland   Engineer,Producer
Terry Gilkyson   Composer
Chris Frymire   Engineer
Chris Gage   Engineer
John Inmon   Engineer
Mark Hallman   Engineer,Mastering
Mark Andes   Composer
Chris Maresh   String Arrangements