[Cover image of Marco Giovino]
This Fall, new configuration The Burning North will be releasing their debut, self-titled album. The group is a collaboration collaboration between songwriter Thomas Siering and producer Marco Giovino. They work with a variety of genres, including Rock, Pop, Country, and Blues, and lyrically they explore deeply human themes like love, loss, cruelty, aging, and more.
Siering is half of the group The 81s, while Giovino has worked to as a drummer and Producer with Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, and Sir Tom Jones, amongst many others.
We’re very pleased to premier their new track, “The H Verses” here on Wildfire Music + News today. This song has an interesting trajectory since it starts out with a rolling, mellow sound that sets the scene for reflections on the past, and the audience might suppose that dreamy feeling will continue throughout. But the subject matter, and the nuances of Wendy Drown’s vocals take that mood into far more powerful directions, shaking up any calm contemplation. This is a very emotional track.
We are eased into a situation where the speaker is addressing someone in a very personal way about a personal subject, whether their feelings are romantic or platonic for the other person. That, too, may seem like a gentle thing, and it’s a very relatable conceptual question, but we quickly discover that those unresolved complexities must yield to the speaker’s specific life choices. The rest of the song takes us into even more intense territory for the speaker, even exploring the day in which they met this other person, and realized they had some kind of connection, but were also faced with already existing romantic commitments that they aren’t prepared to destroy.
Punchy lyrics that remain uncluttered, driven by a rolling beat, are accompanied by emotionally-precise guitars, driving home the realities of possibilities that will not be explored. One of the biggest statements of the song, behind the sense of paths not traveled, is the importance of the agency in our personal choices. We have that power, and we make those choices, every day. And those choices are life-building and life-altering. That sense of making a decision and sticking with it actually gives the song a positive accent. It’s something we all might recognize in our lives and probably ought to feel more empowered by. Rather than feeling undercut by what might have been, we could just as easily, like the speaker, accept the power of a choice made and find that important and affirming, too. It’s reassuring that this song doesn’t brush the poignancy of a past encounter under the carpet, but faces up to the ghostly pain of it, even while accepting the sovereign power of decision.
Tom Siering says about “The H Verses”:
This contemplates what most of us contemplate at some time. What if my life had taken a different turn? Would I be happier? The title is a bit of self-mockery of my lamentable default to write in the key of G.
On the new album, we have Wendy Drown on vocals, Chris Rival on electric guitar and slide guitar, Andy Santospago on electric guitar, pedal steel, and acoustic guitar, Neal Pawley on bass, acoustic guitar, and baritone guitar, Marco Giovino on drums and percussion, and Kelly Knapp on background vocals. For “The H Verses”, we also have Bruce Bears on piano, electric piano, and organ, and Thomas Juliano on electric guitar, slide guitar, and acoustic guitar.
The album was recorded at Dagotown Recorders in Jefferson, MA, engineered by Sam Margolis, and mixed at Riverview Sound in Waltham, MA, by Sam Margolis. It was mastered at Waltz Audio by Tom Waltz.
Thomas Siering says about how The Burning North came together:
“I met Marco (Giovino) a dozen years ago through the great Nashville singer Elizabeth Cook. Marco was playing the drums for her, but then again, Marco has played the drums for just about everyone; Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, and Sir Tom Jones to name a few.
We worked together on four records with Rebecca De La Torre, a couple for The 81s with Tim Carroll and the After the News album with my friend Addi McDaniel.
In 2018, we also released an Elmore James tribute collection, Strange Angels ~ In Flight with Elmore James, with tracks by Jamey Johnson, Sir Tom, Warren Haynes, Billy Gibbons, Bettye LaVette, Rodney Crowell, Keb’ Mo’ and others. It garnered significant praise for its artistry, authenticity and assemble of players. Also, Marco’s mono production received particularly glowing notice.
The material for The Burning North was originally conceived as a bit of a concept album. When we brought Wendy (Drown) on board, you could hear her instant emotional attachment to the material. She really owned it. You felt like she had lived it. The record shines because of that.
This album has diverse musical styles and it explores the expanse of human emotion but hopefully it ultimately feels like a coherent story, held together with gripping urgency and Marco’s impeccable production.”
More about Wendy Down:
Wendy Drown is a singer and veteran of the New England music scene. Since the 90’s, Wendy has worked steadily as a jingle and session vocalist. Her voice can be heard on numerous commercials for national and local businesses. Currently, Wendy enjoys performing in Search Party, an established Boston private party band. She also fronts Vital & Drown, a Boston area duo with longtime friend and guitarist Chris Vital.
