[C. Daniel Boling and Tom Paxton, photo credit to Lance Ozier]
In a team up of Folk music greats, C. Daniel Boling and Tom Paxton will be releasing their second album together, titled It Matters, on April 18th, 2025 via Berkalin Records. This builds on their previous 2023 album, New Old Friends. After hearing the mix, Paxton suggested doing another collab, and It Matters is the result.
The 16 songs on It Matters featuring Tom Paxton are taken from three times that number they’ve written together since their 2023 album. The chosen tunes have a wide range of topics: “tender love songs, a U.S Marine hero horse, biting commentary on politics, society, religion and war, gentle, self-deprecating humor, love of nature, family and community.”
Today, we’re delighted to premier their song and live play video for “Goodnight” here on Wildfire Music + News. The track will arrive digitally this Friday, March 28th, 2025.
While there are a wealth of topics these two songwriters could address from their current stage in life, the ideas behind “Goodnight” particularly reflect the broad view that an experienced mind must take of human existence. The fact that they handle it in subtle ways with such earnest lyrics is not surprising, either, given their mastery of their craft. But the poignancy behind their honesty is very moving as they take up the theme of a person going to bed at night and surveying the restless thoughts in their mind about the world, about themselves, and about what the future might hold.
The phenomenon of having tumultuous thoughts while alone at night is something few of us can avoid, and Boling and Paxton’s willingness to admit that they don’t have answers acknowledges the human condition meaningfully. However, the self-reminders to reach a place of acceptance stand out like streetlamps on a dark path, including phrases like “nothing needs doing now, let it go”, “It isn’t up to you”, and “It will be what it will be”. Those feel like glimmers of truth that might give us the strength to face each new day.
Sonically, this lullaby-like song refuses anything ostentatious, almost reinforcing the idea that a person needs to get down off their high horse in order to find some internal peace. Their over-valuation of their heroic role could be just what keeps them awake at night, but not when they recall, as the song mentions, that their own sins linger in the mind more strongly than those of others. The repetition of simple patterns in the song not only calls to mind a child’s lullaby, but also a personal mantra, soothing oneself and taking oneself in hand in order to seek a place of mental calm. As hard as it can be in a media-inundated world, sometimes we have to take charge over our own musings before we rob ourselves of any peace, and thereby lessen our ability to strive towards a better state of mind when a new day comes.
The duo share this quote about the song:
Gotta do what we can to find peace in the midst of it all. That’s not always easy though. Goodnight, folks.
C. Daniel Boling and Tom Paxton recorded their upcoming album at The Kitchen Sink studio in Santa Fe, NM with respected Producer/engineer Jono Manson. Jono Manson and a dozen friends and fellow musicians pitched in on other instruments and a few harmonies, but the overall feel of the album is “stripped-down, acoustic Folk.”
Tom Paxton officially retired from touring at the end of 2024 after 64 years, but swears he’ll keep writing songs, and writing with Daniel, as long as he lives. They tease: “There just might be another album on the way one of these days. Who knows?”
