photo by Emily Joy Ashman; photo courtesy of John Gerard

EP Review of John Gerard: Close to the Sun

Close to the Sun is a 2-song EP released by Boston-based John Gerard. John’s electric guitar-driven singer-songwriter sensibility is the sort that could appeal to folk, pop, and rock fans alike, providing a broad swath of potential fans from which to draw.

John’s guitar picking and strumming is relatively barebones on the title track, “Close to the Sun,” and even the supporting sound bed is sparse, highlighting his emotional, somewhat anguished rock-style vocal wails, particularly prominent whenever the song’s energy peaks. It’s a song that’s a source of slight inspiration; it seems to acknowledge the listeners exhaustion while helping encourage “the strength to carry on.”

cover photo by Liz McGee; image courtesy of John Gerard

Second track (B side?) “Fold” builds upon the style, sound, and message of the first track. It’s still a slow-tempoed, introspective number, but the energy peaks more energetically than the title track did, and the song’s lyrical message and vocal delivery are more insistent and determined, as embodied the the song’s lyric “all the strength I’ll ever need has always been inside of me.”

More Recently

The two cool songs on John Gerard’s Close to the Sun EP are a strong introduction to his enjoyable, broad-appeal musical stylings, but they’re no longer John’s most recent releases, and his newer tracks show other sides of his song-delivery skills, so they’re worth digging into if you want a broader picture of this talented singer-songwriter. Last fall, John released a sentimental strummer entitled “New England,” and early this year, he dropped a single entitled “Drag Racing,” which is a nifty Mellencamp-ish nostalgic number.