Joshua Burnside recently treated us to an EP of traditional songs with Far O’er the Sounding Main (reviewed here by Matt McGinn) on which he handled the songs with such a warmth and sincerity it was as if you were hearing them for the first time. The term ‘mastering a song’ is often used to describe the pinnacle of singing, but really it’s so much more when you consider the audience in this emotional equation. Being able to make such a deep connection with a listener, as Burnside did on that EP, is far from common (maybe even harder today in a world of surface music), but there are those that perform this way as if second nature; the likes of Lisa O’Neill and Dick Gaughan spring to mind, gifted singers whose strength of performance can transport an audience and suspend time. But just as great actors become self-consumed by the person they are portraying, singers, in turn, own the song for that performance and in doing so also give up a part of themself…there’s an unspoken deal involving singer and listener, trust and vulnerability…at this level, the act of singing can feel almost primal, a moving experience like no other.
That vulnerability and trust came to the fore on Burnside’s recent confessional Whiskey Whiskey – a song he wrote whilst on a flight to London – “I hate flying and l would often suffer from mild panic attacks during flights. I occasionally self-medicate by drinking whiskey, which isn’t really a long term solution. So writing this song was a way of distracting myself from my environment whilst dealing with these emotions in a more productive way. The song is about coming to terms with our mortality and striving to find meaning.”
On his new single ‘The Only Thing I Fear’, we find him back in the confessional. A song can be like storytelling, where the combination of words and timing can really weave their spell. This is something Burnside is fully aware of as he binds a connection with the listener from the off in revealing childhood fears. When he was left alone at home there were ‘voices in the attic, faces in the TV static, tigers in the garden, ghosts under the stairs…’. But then… ‘Now that I am older, the only thing I fear is myself’…that’s the pin-drop moment. That one line expands the emotional horizon of this song, it’s suddenly so raw and real that it takes it to another level as he reveals the self-destructive battle that’s going on and the striving for inner peace. In one line he exposes the crazy fragility of humanity – you, me and all those around us.
That is what you call a great song.
Burnside says that ‘The idea of this song is a simple one, that as we get older we realise that the really scary things in life are not external to us, but come from within – our darkest thoughts, irrational fears and insecurities, which if go unchecked can often lead to self-destructive behaviours.’
The Only Thing I Fear is out today.
Available on streaming services: https://orcd.co/qwmeba7
or download it on Bandcamp: https://joshuaburnside.bandcamp.com/track/the-only-thing-i-fear