When I saw this post from Nick Leet on Instagram:

“This is a public service announcement with guitar…and piano.  Today we are releasing our first new song in 2 years. Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum / Scarlet Goodbye) & I wrote this song to share our frustrations.”

… I knew I had to check it out right away…which ended up meaning five days later…but life, ya know.    

This track starts with a simple elegance; a fairly straight-forward rhythm and melody offset by a few discordant moments…that I suspect are on purpose.  It is like anger layered over thoughtfulness.  That background makes the message in the lyrics stand out well and you can definitely hear the mentioned frustrations coming through clearly.   There is also a poignant piece about midway through, full of climbing guitars and bass, that gets you like a scream from a rooftop.  In my opinion this song, in tone, lyrics and arrangement does a great job of delivering the message I believe Leet, Murphy and High On Stress meant for it to convey.  

Musicians on this are: Dan Murphy (vocals, electric guitar, piano, keys and bass), Nick Leet (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar), Chad Wheeling (electric guitar, backing vocals, engineering & mixing), Mark Devaraj (drums) and Kayla Wheeling (backing vocals).

You can check out more of the music and information on the Bandcamp page https://highonstressmpls.bandcamp.com/album/dan-murphy-high-on-stress-tethered.

Your community – us and you and everyone else – is powerful…remember to support and engage.

And please think about purchasing this song after you listen – streaming music does not pay much even times a thousand…( side note – per the release posting all proceeds here will be donated to the ACLU).

Let me know you think!