Johanna Samuels – Excelsior!
Basin Rock/Mama Bird Recording Co. – 14 May 2021
The LA-based Johanna Samuels recorded her album ‘Excelsior!’ in Sam Evian’s cabin in upstate New York. She spent a snowy winter tracking the songs live to tape, calling in the help of other female artists: Courtney Marie Andrews, Hannah Cohen, A.O. Gerber, Olivia Kaplan, Maví Lou, and Lomelda’s Hannah Read. Samuels wrote ‘Excelsior!’ to ruminate on connection, communication, and trust, but the record really comes into its own through the honesty with which she discusses isolation and vulnerability.
With lines like “I hope that you loved me before I was at my best” and “I want to be alone/ More than I want to be alone with you” on the opening track Sonny, Samuels shows a side of love that often remains hidden and unmasks the insecurity others usually pretend not to have. Johanna’s vocals float above the song with a detachment that’s unaware of the gentle waves of the Rhodes chord progression, the gentle backing vocals, and the entrancing saxophone.
Nature’s Way is an upbeat, seemingly happy track that casually nails down some deep-seated frustrations about relationship dynamics. “Most people say it’s nature’s way/ That I give and that you take”, Samuels sings above the crunchy beats and the pulsing bass line. In The Middle, she also talks about power imbalance in a relationship, about wanting to give it all but knowing that the other person would not do the same for you. She wrote Close to the Vest for the same person as The Middle, singing: “I muffled the sound of me knowing best”, adding in her press release that it was: “20/20 hindsight, I suppose”.
A big part of the record focuses on the female experience. High Tide for One was inspired by Dr Blasey Ford who had stepped forward with sexual allegations against the then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. It’s slow and understated so that the lines the songstress delivers sound all the more jarring: “She remembers the same night, only differently”. The bridge of the song touches on an important theme of female solidarity: “High tide for one isn’t solid ground/ So why would I want to keep her down?” Samuels has tried to address the disparity women face in daily life but especially in the music industry, describing that the songs touch on how much “scarcity women face in terms of how they often turn against each other and even on themselves, and of course, how most white men have the ultimate privilege in navigating and defining the female experience of success in the industry.”
Song for Sid was written for Kyle Wilkerson who runs Sid the Cat Presents at The Bootleg in LA. For Samuels, that venue was one of the few places where she felt like a part of a community when she moved to LA after ten years in Brooklyn. It was one of the safe spaces that formed her, although she often questioned the path she had chosen as a musician. The lyrics speak to other struggling musicians when she sings: “And I can’t afford that yellow dress/ That you bought in front of me/ But if I make the Bootleg/ I’m in the door for free”.
The album finishes with Cathy – a sober, heartfelt ode to a friend who lost her life to depression. Cathy was a geologist and used to go hunting for rocks in Santa Fe with Samuels, and the singer-songwriter reminisces on those memories throughout the song: “But now I’m supposed to know/ How to keep my heart wide open while I let you go/ Keep stones between my fingers/ That way you don’t have to linger”. The sparseness of Samuels’ voice and the piano fills the space with quiet, emotional surrender.
The name of the record, ‘Excelsior!’, was taken from the way Samuels’ grandfather used to sign his letters before he passed away last December. It means ‘ever upward’, illustrating the inner growth that Johanna Samuels had to go through to write this album but it also expresses her wish for those who listen to it “to grow from listening with more empathy and from hearing each other out”. ‘Excelsior!’ is a gentle record and while musically, she isn’t trying to break new ground, she might help accomplish something far greater: a kinder world with more compassionate songwriting.
https://johannasamuels.bandcamp.com/album/excelsior
You can also hear Johanna in our latest mix: Lost in Transmission No. 72
Photo Credit: Ellyn Jameson