Little more than three tracks into Pauper’s Field, I fell heads over heels in love with Dylan LeBlanc‘s voice and music. The record that our reviewer Matt Conner compared to ‘a beautiful handmade blanket in the middle of summer’ fitted quite nicely next to the tragi-mellow lulls of Wild Nothing‘s Gemini and the balls-out country of Caitlin Rose‘s Own Side Now, the other two albums that have soundtracked the summer of 2010 for me.
So it was a both a privilege and a pleasure to be able to grab Dylan at this year’s End of the Road Festival at Larmer Tree Gardens on the Dorset/Wiltshire borders and coax him to record a barebones versions of “Changing of the Seasons”, one of the record’s standout tracks.
The song drips with a comforting frailty (appropriately matched to the weekend in which it was recorded, which saw the British summer breathe its last gasp as autumn stepped in to take over the show) and a wistful, tender sentimentality.
LeBlanc, barely in his twenties, sings with the aspect (and voice) of someone generations older; the confidence and ability he demonstrates in performances like this confirms him as another home run for Rough Trade records.
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could have chosen a better still image for the video frame. He looks like he is doing a shit.
Just beautiful.
@ anonymous. thanks for that input. you were totally correct. i’ve just changed the still.
Great – and impressive recording quality for an outside recording. What gear did you use for this? Was he miked up?
Yes; his set was mighty impressive. That is what EOTR does…
the flawless sound of an angel’s light.