True Songs by Prairie Clamor

CASSETTE RELEASE ON ROUND BALE RECORDINGS: https://roundbalerecordings.bandcamp.com/

After myriad false starts due to detrimental universal matters, Prairie Clamor’s Will Bjorndal finally was able to create True Songs. For Will’s third album, he ventured first to Canada in fall of 2021, hauling his sixty pound pedal steel guitar on a sled three-quarters of a mile down a footpath in order to practice uninterrupted, hoping to regain his chops after a summer of musical isolation working as a bee researcher in rural western Minnesota. From there, Michigan, where he met up with his brother at a small Scandinavian-inspired, graduate-only visual art and design school where he was given a room in a basement and one month of time to record. Unfortunately, the studio flooded on the very first day of scheduled tracking.

After a week of lost time ripping up carpet pad, assessing instrument conditions (everything was, somehow, okay), spraying the walls with bleach, frantically thanking graduate students who helped him during the flood, and hunting down vintage equipment formerly lost to the depths of the school, Will was able to get back to work and create the album that had been stuck in his head for over a year: True Songs.

The goal of True Songs was to be both universal and specific: music that anyone can hum along to and emotionally connect with, while at the same time, tell specific stories in and about specific geographic areas. These often hyper-local narratives construct analogies that, in turn, relate to more universal, connectable concepts. For example, very few other than Will have gotten lost in an industrial park while riding their bike, but many have felt lost in the face of increasing industrialization, environmental destruction, and the depersonalization that comes along with capitalism’s tendency for empty commercialization.

The same idea was applied to the album’s sound: an album instantly familiar, yet still sonically interesting. Guitar, bass, and drum-driven tones were injected with the more unconventional sounds of autoharp, recorder, modular synth, pedal steel, and others, to help it on the way to its goal. Was it achieved? Sort of. It’s a difficult needle to thread, and of course, it’s impossible to create something universal but the attempt to reach out and connect with someone unfamiliar is one of great importance.

Tracklist

1.	Energy Park	4:01

2.	Song for the Lake Street K-Mart Parking Lot	3:21

3.	Call the Water	4:16

4.	Beautiful Blue Skies and Golden Sunshine	4:19

5.	Etherealreal	4:20

6.	Blood & Diamonds	4:08

7.	Truth Hurts II	3:38

8.	Backyard	4:15

Credits

released May 20, 2022

Recorded in autumn of 2021 at the Friendly Puppy Music Centre for Basic Research - Satellite Office 2.

Will Bjorndal - acoustic guitar, Audubon bird call, cymbals, drums, drum machines, electric bass guitar, electric guitar, fake choir, finger snaps, FM synthesizers, folding plastic table, handclaps, improved melodeon (n/a), LinnStrument, mandolin, maracas, modular synthesizer, organ, pieces of paper, pedal steel guitar, phase distortion synthesizers, piano, recorder, singing, stylophone, tambourine, wavetable synthesizers.

Peter Bjorndal - electric bass guitar, handclaps, “hey,” LinnStrument, modular synthesizer, wavetable synthesizers.

All music and lyrics by Will Bjorndal except "Backyard," with lyrics by Will and Peter Bjorndal.
Engineered, produced, and mixed by Will and Peter Bjorndal.
Mastered by the incomparable Neil Weir.
Album art layout by Peter Bjorndal.

Will wishes to thank:

☆FREAKIN’ HUGE thanks to Das Avant for saving us from The Great Cranbrook Flood of 2021!
☆MASSIVE thanks to KT Severson for furnishing the stylophone and loving and caring for the S10!
☆HUMONGOUS thanks to Lizz Caicedo for a.m. jogging and being cool about me ruining your birthday surprise! Perhaps I should also take this moment to apologize for the “dead bat incident!”
☆IMMENSE thank you to the Cranbrook 2D department for being so freakin’ welcoming!
☆IMMEASURABLE thanks to Sue Grove for access to the improved melodeon!
☆MAMMOTH thanks to Elliott Earls and Laura Bombach for supplying drums, some of which were robotic in their previous lives!
☆GARGANTUAN thanks to Peter Bjorndal for facilitating the first incarnation of the Friendly Puppy Music Centre for Basic Research!
☆ULTRA BIG thanks to Neil Weir for sharing your expansive knowledge with us!
☆FAST & BULBOUS thanks to Dave Perron and Round Bale Recordings for the cassette release and immeasurable help and guidance!
☆SPECIAL thanks to every single bobolink whose ethereal, mellifluous melodies have graced my lowly, unworthy ear holes!
☆ETERNAL gratitude to David Lynch for beautiful blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way!

Also, shouts out to:
☆David & Sally Anne Benson, your joyous spirit, kindness, and boundless curiosity are inspiring and invigorating!
☆Davis & Mikalah Harder, I didn’t believe in fate until we met that day in The Sinkhole!
☆Alice & Don Browne, your neighborliness and songs about cookies, macaroni, and defamed cyclists are truly what this world needs!
☆Christie & Bella, there’s nothing that made me happier than chatting with you on the sidewalk and in the backyard! If only everyone in the world were as honest as you, Christie.
☆MAPP 2021 field crew (Christina, Emma, Ian, Leslie, Lily, Liz, Rachel, Sophie), I miss Mondays; you people really know how to cook. And how to estimate ground cover. And how to geek out about plants. And sing rounds. Catch you somewhere between Lake Shetek and forever!
☆2020 EBWG Naturalists (Annelise, Kyla, Laura, Maia, Marielle, Mark), your botanical knowledge is staggering and your friendship during weird times has been deeply, deeply appreciated!
☆Sarah Pinsker, your ultra-rad novel Song for a New Day was, well, ultra-rad. Thanks for giving an ear to my humble realization of “Blood & Diamonds!”
☆The Hussalonia Founder, it’s rare to find a friend who can provide genuine constructive criticism and musical mentorship. Thanks for both!
☆Caroline Alkire, your description of the swirling, eternal ouroboros of pigeons over the Lake Street K-Mart parking lot was, and continues to be, spot-on.
☆Sydney Reuter, maybe this year we’ll actually sharpen our skates and wax our skis..? Your sticker placement is laser-accurate!
☆Bill Lindeke, can we collaborate on a “notable sinkholes of Minneapolis” pamphlet?
☆Peter, thanks for making this whole thing happen!
☆Mom & Dad, I sure lucked out to be born to you two!
♡Chester. I love you deeply and miss you dearly.

Peter wishes to thank:

☆

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