Gerroa Songs

Despite gutting everything that made the preceding White Sky so stunning — the epic melodies, the majestic string and horn arrangements, even the palpable sense of autumnal longing — Archer Prewitt's third solo effort is nevertheless fairly remarkable in its own right; recorded on an old reel-to-reel in a former nunnery in Australia, Gerroa Songs captures a simplicity and intimacy altogether new to Prewitt's oeuvre, revealing yet another dimension to a body of work hardly one-sided in the first place. The remote desolation of the seaside landscape haunts the record's eight songs like the ghosts that supposedly occupy the house where they were recorded; although strings and other subtle overdubs were later added upon Prewitt's return to Chicago, the clear focus is his poignant vocals and tastefully intricate guitar work. Much as White Sky brilliantly articulated the lost innocence of summers past, in crystallizing the still of the night so too does Gerroa Songs evoke its time and space with uncommon clarity.