Peer Validated

Pictured:  John Nielsen.  You can almost smell the hoagies from here. 

John Nielsen is one of a seemingly endless stream of local artists who delve deep into their own psyche to write thoughtful, quiet, and beautiful pieces of art.  Bon Iver, Jon Sunde, and now Nielsen all live in the introspective space of late night recordings and lonely cabin practices. 

Now, there’s nothing here that sounds overtly Bon Iverian or Daredevilish, but the earnestness and simplicity of both local wunderkinds are here in spades.  Nielsen sounds like a lonely Jose Gonzalez covering Nick Drake songs in his apartment kitchen.  Where his lyrics are sure, his melodies creak and groan along… in a good way.  The songwriting has a depth that belies Nielsen’s years.  There is so much honesty to even the demos that Nielsen sent us that it warranted repeated listenings before I even felt qualified to write about it. 

Sure, there are times when Nielsen is heavy handed with his lyrics.  This could be because as this goes to press (internet, whatever) we only have Nielsen’s rough demos to work with.  His guitar work is simple, his melodies sweet. 

In the end, the honesty is what kept me into the album from start to finish.  There isn’t anything surprising here.  It’s Nielsen, a guitar, and well, that’s about it.  But there’s something fresh about coming back to what hopefully got us all into music in the first place, the search for truth.  Maybe Nielsen hits on it, maybe he doesn’t, but in the end it’s the search that counts.  Eau Claire should be glad to have him.  Look for Nielsen to play shows out and about this year of our lord, 2008.