Frederick Squire

Another good one from the Blue Fog label, up in Canada. The label is run by Rick White, who was in Eric’s Trip. Julie Doiron was also in Eric’s Trip and this is her friend and collaborator Fred Squire, whom some of you might remember from that really exquisite Mount Eerie album Lost Wisdom a few years ago. The record’s called March 12 and it’s been out for a while.

A ghostly aura hangs around Frederick Squire’s “You Sing High and We Will Sing High,” the loveliest and best of this solo debut’s 10 songs. It’s in the piano, its oddly echoing notes sounding as if they come not just from another room, but a barely remembered time. It’s in the smoke-ring harmonies that curl in wreathes around Squires whispery vocals. And it’s in the melody itself, which lofts upward weightlessly, wafting up in octave-size leaps, without a hint of physical strain. The song itself is simple, sparsely arranged for piano, guitar and voice and closely tied to traditions like folk, gospel and blues. Yet, it seems to transcend this simplicity, opening a door into a strange, haunted landscape.

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