Photo credit: Randall Nyhoff
The [Colorist Orchestra](https://www.instagram.com/thecoloristorchestra/) are masters of storytelling. In their latest single “On My Mind,” the avant-garde collective collaborate with songwriter Howe Gelb to spin an old-timey Western tale evocative of Beat-era poetry and 1970’s folk music.
On the song, Kobe notes, "Thanks to Howe, we rediscovered this fantastic song. The words paint pictures that keep coming like a river. Finding the right pallet to give that river enough drive, and melodically maintain enough space for the content of the lyrics was a fine challenge. The melodic extra information we added gives that space for the images to sink in. We really like the way Howe tells and sings this song. While playing, you embrace his story so intensely that there is nothing left but the here and now.”
Tinged with a bittersweet nostalgia, “On My Mind” is saturated with history, yet still feels new, fresh, and difficult to pin down. The track incorporates a rich soundscape of chamber sounds, acoustic instruments, and otherworldly textures, all riding beneath Gelb’s signature gravely country drawl.
On the arrangement, Aarich states that “working on the arrangement, I had the mood of midnight cowboy in my head. I also listen a lot to Nina Simone’s Suzanne and this you can hear in the parts of the bass and the piano.”
Howe adds that the track “harkens back to the early 70’s, before it all turned decadent in the counterculture. The last remnants of the beat era, the hipster as hobo. Riding the rails, cuppin’ the hot tin cup of crappy coffee. And the hardships all worth it because the world of authority and regiment has nothing to offer besides it’s poisonous taint of conformity. All the while in moments of contagious contemplation, the sweetness of the one woman left behind along a repetitive path that offers up the dangerous comfort of settling down.”
Haunting and whimsical, this fascinating collaboration between The Colorist Orchestra and Howe Gelb paints a picture of an otherworldly dreamscape. Timeless, exquisite, and a bit inexplicable.
