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Songs We Love: Joshua James, 'Pretty Feather'

Joshua James' new album, <em>My Spirit Sister</em>, comes out April 7.
Jake Buntjer
/
Courtesy of the artist
Joshua James' new album, My Spirit Sister, comes out April 7.

If you're not up on your avian anatomy, it may come as a surprise that in many species of birds, the feathers outweigh the skeleton. How can feathers, a symbol of lightness and beauty, be so heavy? How can a skeleton, a symbol of strength and support, be hollow and fragile? And how can love, which gives a heart its wings, be both freedom and cage?

In the chasm of those dualities you'll find Joshua James, digging up the bones of love lost before they disintegrate into the rich earth of Utah or Nebraska or somewhere in between. In "Pretty Feather," he dusts off his soil-covered hands and declares his opening line: "You've taken my spirit." Then a giant drum hit shakes the earth, and James responds with the admission "But I've been breakin' your back. It's a hard time to be alive." What follows is dark, stark Americana and a knockout voice that oscillates between making pleas and promises.

This is the second single from James' upcoming album My Spirit Sister, his sixth release. It follows the album's first single, "Millie," in which the ex-Mormon grapples with fears about having a second child. In James' words, handwritten in ragged cursive on a note attached to an email, "Pretty Feather" is a meditation on "Stockholm Syndrome. When you are in a relationship where you are so entangled and indebted to the person that no matter what the other does to you, you don't want to see them go." Or, when what once felt light becomes heavy, under the weight of a thousand feathers.


My Spirit Sister comes out April 7 on Willamette Mountain Records.

Copyright 2017 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.