Jeremy Squires: Hymnal
Photo by Shelley Ann Squires
Inhaling deep into those shadows that sway in the candlelight of a cold, dim room, Jeremy Squires has crafted a lullaby for the bruised soul. Hymnal, now the 13th album of his collection, proves Squires’ prowess as a haunting songwriter, cloaked in eloquent wording and a warmth that is soft, yet unrefined. There’s a beauty found within the pain of his sound, and it’s quite easy to lose one’s self in each phrase that Squires allows to softly slip from his lips. An album grounded in loss and shrouded by the pain that life can conjure, Squires' Hymnal faces the dark head-on, tackling his own personal obstacles of overcoming a failing marriage and the mental shambles the body endures.
“Don’t You Cry” opens the collection and sets the tone for the imagery at hand in the 10-song catalog. Written as a letter to his wife and accepting the vulnerability of his being in the lowest of moments, Squires allows himself to be immersed in the anguish:
“Darling, Save me, From what I can’t see
Oh please, break me open and carry me,
Over the mountains, where the red birds flew
Heaven, Help me. I don’t want to go too far from you.”
A much more drawn back and numbed-down sound fitting for the album, Squires recorded his parts in his home studio in North Carolina before sending his works to violinist and vocalist Autumn Rose Brand for her final touches. It’s this superb combination of Squires’ string and the weep of Brand’s bow that draw each piece together with forlorn beauty.
“Balancing” offers a tinge of warmth and opens like first light - the clashing of Squires’ and Brand’s vocals cascading in a shallow flow of words and tone, melting into the ears and saturating the mind with a force forged in the simplest of lines.
“All my love, all my faith.
All my heart, all my hate.
All my God. What have I done?
Take my pain, but not my son.”
An engineer of creativity and an astounding architect of art, Squires breathed his own aura into a music video for the single “Into the Fog,” shooting, directing and editing the entire work himself, capturing the essence of the title in magical fashion. This should come as no surprise, as Squires has been infatuated with photography for nearly 25 years, which truly lends itself to the imagery that is composed by his words and sounds. Hymnal serves as yet another perfect example of music moving life - good and bad - all told through Squires’ own veil of experience in the grayest of days. These are the moments in which Squires’ brilliance shines.
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