Singled Out: Jack Barksdale's Song Of The Artist'

Ft. Worth, Texas-based folk singer-songwriter-guitarist Jack Barksdale just released his new album "Voices", and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the track "Song Of The Artist'. Here is the story:

I wrote "Song of the Artist" in September of 2024. I began with the guitar part, the vocal melody, and some filler lyrics, which is not at all how I usually start songs, but I wanted to try to break out of my usual process and try something new. The month before that, I hadn't written much, and what I had written wasn't very good, so I decided I was going to do a kind of mental detox. I gathered up all the books that I had been planning to read but hadn't even started. I laid them all out on the floor and picked out one or two.

After abandoning the first book, I switched to a book written by Leonard Cohen called "Death Of A Lady's Man." Leonard Cohen is one of my favorite artists of all time, and that book is one of my favorite works of his. It was a big influence on "Song of the Artist." I would read it for a little bit and then pace around the room trying to think of lyrics for the music I had come up with. I was slowly making progress and eventually came up with the first verse. I did this for a couple days until the song was mostly finished. The song is about the "Van Gogh figures" who exist in all art forms. The ones who never really receive any outward success or recognition while they're alive to see it or benefit from it. For every artist who is posthumously "discovered," there are many more amazing contemporary artists who are still struggling. It's a sad cycle.

When it came time to record this song, my producer, Mike Meadows, who also played all the percussion on the record, really went all out. He played tabla, udu, elephant bell, and many more percussion instruments just on this one song. We also made a drone sound to play in the background. I layered a twelve-string guitar on top of the original guitar to accentuate the melodic lines. Jared Reynolds, who played bass on the record, did an amazing job on this song as well. There's even some cello at the end of the song, played by Diana Burgess. Overall, it's one of the strangest songs I've written, and I'm really proud of how it turned out.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

Singled Out: Jack Barksdale's Man In The Ground

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